The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin is a local government cultural institution. It works towards the preservation of cultural heritage and education. Its function is tied to the symbolic and historical meaning of the Centre’s location in the Grodzka Gate, which used to divide Lublin into its respective Christian and Jewish quarters, as well as to Lublin as a meeting place of cultures, traditions and religions.

Part of the Centre are the House of Words and the Lublin Underground Trail.

The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin is a local government cultural institution. It works towards the preservation of cultural heritage and education. Its function is tied to the symbolic and historical meaning of the Centre’s location in the Grodzka Gate, which used to divide Lublin into its respective Christian and Jewish quarters, as well as to Lublin as a meeting place of cultures, traditions and religions.

Part of the Centre are the House of Words and the Lublin Underground Trail.

Turobin – the shtetl

Turobin – the shtetl

Turobin is one of the oldest towns in the Chełm district, developing at least since the 12th century as a market and defensive settlement along the so-called Ruthenian route leading from Cracow to Kiev via Zawichost. The town was first mentioned in 1389, in a deed whereby king Ladislaus Jagiello granted the royal village of Turobin to Dmitriy of Goraj. In 1399 the village was incorporated pursuant to the Magdeburg Law, under a charter issued by the new owner of Turobin.

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Tyszowce – the shtetl

Tyszowce – the shtetl

The shtetl in Tyszowce occupied the entire Ostrów district, the oldest part of the town, located between two wide arms of the River Huczwa.

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Goraj – the shtetl

Goraj – the shtetl

It is unknown when the first Jews arrived in Goraj. According to statistical data, 517 Jews lived in Goraj in 1865, accounting for 26.8 percent of the total population of the town.

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Frampol – the shtetl

Frampol – the shtetl

The history of the Jewish community in Frampol begins between the first quarter and the middle of the 18th century. An independent kahal with its own cemetery existed here from 1735 or 1736.

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Biłgoraj – the shtetl

Biłgoraj – the shtetl

The beginnings of Jewish settlement in the Biłgoraj region date back to the 16th century. The Ashkenazi Jews who settled here at that time were primarily engaged in trade and crafts.

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Bełżyce – the shtetl

Bełżyce – the shtetl

The earliest mention of the settlement of Bełżyce is found in a document from 1349, in which King Casimir III the Great, at the request of the then owner Rafał of Tarnów of the Leliwa coat of arms, subjected the village to the Magdeburg law (previously it had been governed according to the local Polish law). The town of Bełżyce was incorporated pursuant to the Magdeburg Law in 1417 by Jan Tarnowski. Initially, the town’s government and judiciary were to be modelled on those in Lublin.

Almost from the very beginning, the town was multi-ethnic and multi-denominational. Perhaps as early as in the 1420s, and certainly since the first half of the 16th century, Jews began to settle in Bełżyce alongside the Catholic and Christian Orthodox population.

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Towns of the Lublin Region – transformations of landscape

Towns of the Lublin Region – transformations of landscape

Small towns of the Lublin Region are a repository of our national cultural heritage. These towns are not only a collection of buildings and places, but also living forms that constantly change over time. Today, each historic town is regarded as a town of cultural heritage.

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Towns of the Lublin Region – a cultural phenomenon

Towns of the Lublin Region – a cultural phenomenon

Towns and cities are a fundamental part of the nation’s urban and economic structure. Small towns are not only a collection of buildings and places, but also living forms that constantly change over time, a repository of the country’s cultural heritage. Today each historic town is regarded as a town of cultural heritage, hence it is imbued with a symbolic meaning and certain values passed on from generation to generation. Despite many common features, each town is different, which results from a range of determinants related to history and urban development. This is what the cultural phenomenon of small towns is about.

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Towns of the Lublin Region – shtetl

Towns of the Lublin Region – shtetl

A shtetl (Yiddish: small town) was a small, provincial Jewish community in prewar Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Lithuania, the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), a community with a peculiar social structure and mores.

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Towns of the Lublin Region

Towns of the Lublin Region

Small towns were a characteristic feature of the cultural landscape of the Lublin Region prior to the Second World War. The region’s settlement network consisted of 21 towns and 51 small towns. It was typical for small towns in the Lublin Region to have Orthodox Christians and Uniates living alongside Catholics and Jews, which gave rise to a cultural landscape that was unique on European scale.

The social and spatial phenomenon of small towns with their unique cultural climate ceased to exist as a result of the Second World War. They have only survived in memories, on old drawings and photographs, and in literature. The political and economic transformation in Poland after 1989 has also brought about a faster degradation of small towns. Now may be the last moment to preserve the surviving elements of cultural landscape related to the spatial layout of the particular towns or to specific buildings.

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Lublin Renaissance Route – Lublin Region

This distinct consistent architectural style of sacral buildings erected in the Lublin Region in the first half of the 17th century was first recognised in scientific literature by Władysław Tatarkiewicz. The term “Lublin Renaissance” was disseminated in art history in the mid-20th century.

 

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