Bielawa (german: Langenbielau; szl, Bielawa) is a town in southwestern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Since 1999, it has been situated in

Dzierżoniów County __NOTOC__ Dzierżoniów County ( pl, powiat dzierżoniowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish ...

, Lower Silesian Voivodeship. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of the

Wałbrzych Voivodeship Walbrzych Voivodeship ( pl, województwo wałbrzyskie) was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Major cities and towns (population in 1995) ...

. As of December 2021, it has a population of 29,232. Bielawa lies in the central part of Lower Silesia, along the Bielawica stream in the

Owl Mountains The Owl Mountains ( pl, Góry Sowie, cs, Soví hory, german: Eulengebirge) are a mountain range of the Central Sudetes in southwestern Poland. It includes a protected area called Owl Mountains Landscape Park. Geography The Owl Mountains cover ...

region. The town covers an area in excess of . Bielawa lies at an altitude range of 280 and 964 m above sea level, in the Owl Mountains. The town is a year-round tourist destination; its outdoor attractions include four major

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

trails of varying difficulty in an park, as well as

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...

trails and

ski lift A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a paid service at ski resorts. The first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/Eisenbach, Hochschwarzwald. Types * Aerial ...

History

The oldest known mention of Bielawa dates back to 1288, when it was part of fragmented

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branche ...

-ruled

. Its name is of Polish origin and is derived from the word ''biela'', ''bila'', current Polish ''biała'' ("white"). In 1720 the first brick house was built in the village and in 1741 it was captured and afterwards annexed by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. In 1805 Christian Dierig founded a weaving company (''Christian Dierig AG''). During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, the village was occupied by

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In 1844 it was the site of the Weavers' Uprising, brutally crushed by the Prussians. From 1871 to 1945 it was part of Germany. In 1891 the

Dzierżoniów Dzierżoniów (; szl, Rychbach; german: Reichenbach im Eulengebirge ) is a town located at the foot of the Owl Mountains in southwestern Poland, within the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (from 1975 to 1998 in the former Wałbrzych Voivodeship). It is ...

–Bielawa railway line opened. In 1924 Bielawa obtained

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the Germans established the ''FAL Langenbielau II''

subcamp Subcamps (german: KZ-Außenlager), also translated as satellite camps, were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazi ...

of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in the town. In 1945 it was captured by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in ...

and eventually reintegrated with Poland.

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

, refugees of the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

, settled in Bielawa in the 1950s.

Demographics

ImageSize = width:630 height:300 PlotArea = left:50 right:20 top:25 bottom:30 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = late Colors = id:linegrey2 value:gray(0.9) id:linegrey value:gray(0.7) id:cobar value:rgb(0.0,0.7,0.8) id:cobar2 value:rgb(0.6,0.9,0.6) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:35000 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5000 start:0 gridcolor:linegrey ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1000 start:0 gridcolor:linegrey2 PlotData = color:cobar width:19 align:left bar:1870 from:0 till:12000 bar:1939 from:0 till:20116 bar:1946 from:0 till:17269 bar:1950 from:0 till:22367 bar:1955 from:0 till:25520 bar:1960 from:0 till:28090 bar:1965 from:0 till:30869 bar:1970 from:0 till:31051 bar:1975 from:0 till:32328 bar:1980 from:0 till:32309 bar:1985 from:0 till:33983 bar:1990 from:0 till:34344 bar:1992 color:cobar2 from:0 till:34851 bar:1997 from:0 till:34008 bar:2002 from:0 till:31787 bar:2007 from:0 till:31106 bar:2012 from:0 till:31480 bar:2017 from:0 till:30207 bar:2021 from:0 till:29232 PlotData= textcolor:black fontsize:S bar:1870 at: 12000 text: 12000 shift:(-14,5) bar:1939 at: 20116 text: 20116 shift:(-14,5) bar:1946 at: 17269 text: 17269 shift:(-14,5) bar:1950 at: 22367 text: 22367 shift:(-14,5) bar:1955 at: 25520 text: 25520 shift:(-14,5) bar:1960 at: 28090 text: 28090 shift:(-14,5) bar:1965 at: 30869 text: 30869 shift:(-14,5) bar:1970 at: 31051 text: 31051 shift:(-14,5) bar:1975 at: 32328 text: 32328 shift:(-14,5) bar:1980 at: 32309 text: 32309 shift:(-14,5) bar:1985 at: 33983 text: 33983 shift:(-14,5) bar:1990 at: 34344 text: 34344 shift:(-14,5) bar:1992 at: 34851 text: 34851 shift:(-14,5) bar:1997 at: 34008 text: 34008 shift:(-14,5) bar:2002 at: 31787 text: 31787 shift:(-14,5) bar:2007 at: 31106 text: 31106 shift:(-14,5) bar:2012 at: 31480 text: 31480 shift:(-14,5) bar:2017 at: 30207 text: 30207 shift:(-14,5) bar:2021 at: 29232 text: 29232 shift:(-14,5)

Main sights

There are numerous historical buildings in Bielawa. At its center is the 19th-century

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

Church of the Assumption with a 101 m tall tower, the third tallest in Poland. Other buildings include a late-

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

palace originally built as a fortified

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

; the Church of the Corpus Christi, erected in 1743; and numerous 18th-century Baroque houses that were restored in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is also a home to a number of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

penitential crosses.

International relations

Twin towns - sister cities

Bielawa is twinned with: * Chatham-Kent, Canada *

Ciechanów Ciechanów is a city in north-central Poland. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Ciechanów Voivodeship. Since 1999, it has been situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, it has a population of 43,495. History The ...

, Poland * Hronov, Czech Republic * Kostelec nad Orlicí, Czech Republic *

Lingen Lingen (), officially Lingen (Ems), is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 2008, its population was 52,353, and in addition there were about 5,000 people who registered the city as their secondary residence. Lingen, specifically "Lingen (Ems)" is ...

, Germany

Surroundings

Gola Dzierżoniowska Castle The Gola Castle (german: Schloss Guhlau) erected in the second half of the 16th century is situated in the village of Gola Dzierżoniowska, in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It is located 4 km north-west of Niemcza, 18&nbs ...

* Medieval town of

Niemcza Niemcza (german: Nimptsch) is a town in Dzierżoniów County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Niemcza. The town lies on the Ślęza River, approximately e ...

* Cistercian monastery at Henryków

Notable people

JRKRUK 20130304 ELENI TZOKA BUSKO IMG 8451A

* Jeremiah Dencke (1725−1795), composer * Ferdinand Gottlieb Flechtner (1811–1867), German industrialist * Adolph Franz (1842–1916), German politician * Friedrich Dierig (1845–1931), German industrialist * Arthur Philipp Flechtner (1858–1936), Prussian General * Karl Franz (1881–1967), German politician * Georg Muschner (1885–1971), German cinematographer * Walter Möse (1920–1944),

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

Oberfeldwebel * Waltraut Engelberg (born 1929), author and wife of Ernst Engelberg * Johann Alexander Wisniewsky (1929–2012), German industrialist * Horst Weigang (born 1940), German athlete *

Eleni Tzoka Eleni Tzoka (née Milopoulou; 27 April 1956, Bielawa) is a Polish singer of Greek descent. Biography Tzoka was born to a Greek family which emigrated to Poland in the 1950s.Papiernik, Joanna"Eleni - wielkie greckie serce" ludzie.senior.pl; acce ...

(born 1956), Polish singer * Aleksandra Kwasniewska (born 1978), Polish singer * Robert Skibniewski (born 1983), Polish basketball player * Jarosław Kuźniar (born 1979), Polish journalist and TV presenter * Janusz Góra (born 1963), Polish footballer * Art Binkowski (born 1975), Polish-Canadian boxer * Jarosław Jach (born 1994), Polish footballer

Gallery

File:Zbiornik Sudety w Bielawie.jpg, Parkowa Hill and Bielawa Lake in Bielawa File:8126viki Kościół pw. Wniebowzięcia NMP w Bielawie. Foto Barbara Maliszewska.jpg, Church of the Assumption of Mary File:Pensjonat Leśny Dworek d. willa Dieriga Waldhaus w Bielawie.jpg, Pension Leśny Dworek File:Hotel Spa in Bielawa, summer 2014 (1).JPG, Palace File:Market Square in Bielawa (2).jpg, Town hall File:Park Miejski w Bielawie.jpg, City Park in Bielawa File:Bielawa Aquarius.jpg, swimming pool "Aquarius" in Bielawa File:Bielawa - pomnik papieża.JPG, Monument of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in Bielawa File:Bielawa zbiornik Sudety.jpg, Lake in Bielawa

References

External links

Official website

Jewish Community of Bielawa
on

Virtual Shtetl The Virtual Shtetl ( pl, Wirtualny Sztetl) is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland. History The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June ...

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Dzierżoniów County Cities in Silesia