Lublin Voivodeship

The Lublin Voivodeship, also known as the Lublin Province ( Polish: ''województwo lubelskie'' ), is a voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in southeastern part of the country. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Lublin, Chełm, Zamość, Biała Podlaska and (partially) Tarnobrzeg and Siedlce Voivodeships, pursuant to Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The region is named after its largest city and regional capital, Lublin, and its territory is made of four historical lands: the western part of the voivodeship, with Lublin itself, belongs to Lesser Poland, the eastern part of Lublin Area belongs to Red Ruthenia, and the northeast belongs to Polesie and Podlasie.
Lublin Voivodeship borders Subcarpathian Voivodeship to the south, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship to the south-west, Masovian Voivodeship to the west and north, Podlaskie Voivodeship along a short boundary to the north, Belarus ( Brest Region) and Ukraine (Lviv Oblast and Volyn Oblasts) to the east. The region's population as of 2019 was 2,112,216. It covers an area of .

History

The Polish historical region that encompasses Lublin, and approximates Lublin Voivodeship as it was before the Partitions of Poland, is known as ''Lubelszczyzna''. Provinces centred on Lublin have existed throughout much of Poland's history; for details see the section below on Previous Lublin Voivodeships.

The region was, before World War II, one of the world's leading centres of Judaism. Before the middle of the 16th century, there were few Jews in the area, concentrated in Lublin, Kazimierz Dolny, and perhaps Chełm; but the founding of new private towns led to a large movement of Jews into the region to develop trade and services. Since these new towns competed with the existing towns for business, there followed a low-intensity, long-lasting feeling of resentment, with failed attempts to limit the Jewish immigration. The Jews tended to settle mostly in the cities and towns, with only individual families setting up businesses in the rural regions; this urban/rural division became another factor feeding resentment of the newly arrived economic competitors. By the middle of the 18th century, Jews were a significant part of the population in Kraśnik, Lubartów and Łęczna.

By the 20th century, Jews represented greater than 70% of the population in eleven towns and close to 100% of the population of Laszczów and Izbica. From this region came both religious figures such as Mordechai Josef Leiner of Izbica, Chaim Israel Morgenstern of Puławy, and Motele Rokeach of Biłgoraj, as well as famous secular authors Israel Joshua Singer. Israel's brother, the Nobel prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, was not born in Biłgoraj but lived part of his life in the city. The "Old Town" of the city of Lublin contained a famous yeshiva, Jewish hospital, synagogue, cemetery, and kahal, as well as the Grodzka Gate (known as the Jewish Gate).

Before the war, there were 300,000 Jews living in the region, which became the site of the Majdanek concentration camp and Bełżec extermination camp as well as several labour camps ( Trawniki, Poniatowa, Budzyn, Puławy, Zamość, Biała Podlaska, and the Lublin work camps Lipowa 7 camp , Flugplatz, and Sportplatz) which produced military supplies for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe). This was once one of the biggest forced labour centres in occupied Europe, with approximately 45,000 Jewish prisoners. As well, the Sobibór extermination camp was located in the Lublin Voivodeship. After the war, the few surviving Jews largely left the area; today there is some restoration of areas of Jewish historical interest, and a surge of tourism by Jews seeking to view their families' historical roots.

Cities and towns

The voivodeship contains 5 cities and 43 towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2019:

Administrative division

Lublin Voivodeship is divided into 24 counties (powiats): 4 city counties and 20 land counties. These are further divided into 213 gminas.

The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population).

Protected areas

Protected areas in Lublin Voivodeship include two National Parks and 17 Landscape Parks. These are listed below.
*Polesie National Park (this and surrounding areas form the West Polesie biosphere reserve designated by UNESCO in 2002)
* Roztocze National Park
*Chełm Landscape Park
*Janów Forests Landscape Park

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