Sieniawa (; uk, Сеня́ва, Seniáva), is a town in southeastern

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 ...

. It had a population of 2,127 inhabitants (02.06.2009). Since 1999, Sieniawa has been part of

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship or Subcarpathia Province (in pl, Województwo podkarpackie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshall, it i ...

History

Sieniawa's history dates back to the 17th century, and the town owes its existence to the once powerful

Sieniawski family 200px, Adam Sieniawski 200px, Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski The Sieniawski family (plural: Sieniawscy, feminine form: Sieniawska) was a Polish szlachta family. They were magnates in the First Republic of Poland. Their properties were inherited ...

. It was founded in 1676, on initiative of

Voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. The ...

and

Starosta The starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', german: link=no, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. The ...

Lwow Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

, Mikolaj Hieronim Sieniawski, who owned enormous estates in eastern lands of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. Sieniawa was founded in the area which was covered by the village of Dybkow. The Sieniawski family wanted to make it main administrative center of their estates. In ca. 1650, a brick fortress was built on a hill near contemporary Sieniawa. In the following years, the Sieniawski family built their manor house near the fortress, and began construction of the town, together with the

San river The San ( pl, San; uk, Сян ''Sian''; german: Saan) is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the river Vistula, with a length of (it is the 6th-longest Polish river) and a basin area of 16,877 km2 (14,42 ...

port. A Dominican church and abbey was built, and in the 1660s, walls were built, to protect Sieniawa from

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

raids. Mikolaj Hieronim Sieniawski, the founder of the town, died at the age of 39, but his son Adam Mikolaj Sieniawski continued the work of his father, and invested heavily in Sieniawa. In 1731, Adam's daughter Maria Zofia married Prince

August Aleksander Czartoryski Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski (9 November 1697, Warsaw4 April 1782, Warsaw) was a member of the Polish nobility (), magnate. He is the founder of the Czartoryski family fortune. Life August became major-general of the Polish Army in 1729 ...

, and Sieniawa became property of the

Czartoryski family The House of Czartoryski (feminine form: Czartoryska, plural: Czartoryscy; lt, Čartoriskiai) is a Polish princely family of Lithuanian- Ruthenian origin, also known as the Familia. The family, which derived their kin from the Gediminids dyna ...

. Until 1772, Sieniawa remained an important river port and a defensive establishment. Following the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

, the situation changed, and fortifications were not needed any longer. Since the new Austrian - Russian border was north of Sieniawa, the San lost its function of a waterway, and the town stagnated as part of Austrian

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

. In 1855, Sieniawa belonged to the District of

Przemyśl Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was p ...

. The town remained property of the Czartoryski family, and was famous across Galicia for its bricklayers. In May 1915 Sieniawa was almost completely destroyed, and in November 1918 the town became part of

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

’s

Lwow Voivodeship Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

. In the interwar period, Sieniawa's population declined, and unemployment was high, which resulted in street fights and demonstrations. In August 1937, during the

1937 peasant strike in Poland 1937 peasant strike in Poland, also known in some Polish sources as the Great Peasant Uprising ( pl, Wielki Strajk Chłopski) was a mass strike and demonstration of peasants organized by the People's Party and aimed at the ruling ''sanacja'' gover ...

, clashes with police took place in nearby village Majdan Sieniawski, where 15 peasants were killed. After the 1939

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

, Sieniawa was occupied by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, and between September 1939 - June 1941, was a border town. During the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, the town was the site of a

Jewish ghetto In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter (also known as jewry, ''juiverie'', ''Judengasse'', Jewynstreet, Jewtown, or proto-ghetto) is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were ...

References

;Notes Cities and towns in Podkarpackie Voivodeship Przeworsk County Ruthenian Voivodeship Holocaust locations in Poland {{Przeworsk-geo-stub

History

See also

References