Stalowa Wola () is the largest city and capital of Stalowa Wola County with a population of 58,545 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2021. It is located in southeastern Poland in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. The city lies in historic

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

, near the confluence of the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

and the San Rivers and covers an area of . Stalowa Wola is one of the youngest cities of Poland. It was built from scratch in the late 1930s in the forests surrounding village of Pławo. The city was designed to be a settlement for workers of

Huta Stalowa Wola Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW SA) is a defense contractor that operates a steel mill in the city of Stalowa Wola, Poland. It is a major producer of military equipment and one of the largest heavy construction machinery producers in East-Central Euro ...

(known in 1938 to 1939 as ''Zakłady Poludniowe'' or ''Southern Works''), a plant built as part of the Central Industrial Region. Stalowa Wola is home to the sports club

Stal Stalowa Wola Stal Stalowa Wola Piłkarska Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Stal Stalowa Wola (), is a Polish professional Association football, football club based in Stalowa Wola, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Founded in 1938, the club competes in th ...

Location and name

Stalowa Wola is located in the lowlands of the Sandomierz Basin, near the San river. Even today sixty percent of the total area within its administrative borders () consists of natural pine forests, remnants of once extensive and primeval

Sandomierz Forest Sandomierz Forest ( pl, Puszcza Sandomierska) is one of the biggest forests in southern Poland; covering large parts of the Sandomierz Basin. Its name comes from the historical city of Sandomierz, and in the Middle Ages its eastern edge created ...

. The name of the town, Stalowa Wola, can be roughly translated into English as “steel will” and comes from a statement made by General Tadeusz Kasprzycki,

Minister of Military Affairs of Poland Ministry of National Defense ( Polish: ''Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej, MON'') is the office of government in Poland under the Minister of National Defense. It is responsible for the organization and management of the Polish Armed Forces. Durin ...

in the late 1930s in which he declared that the new Polish industrial development plan of the Central Industrial Area symbolizes the ''steel will of the Polish nation to modernize itself''.

History

The area of today's Stalowa Wola belongs to historic Polish province of

. In the Kingdom of Poland, it was located in the south-eastern corner of the

Sandomierz Voivodeship Sandomierz Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo Sandomierskie, la, Palatinatus Sandomirensis) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Polan ...

, near the border with Red Ruthenia. The city of Stalowa Wola was built on the site where the village of Pławo once stood, between the ancient towns of Nisko and Rozwadów. The first mentions of Pławo come from the first half of the 15th century. At the nearby village of Przyszów, there was a hunting lodge of King

Władysław Jagiełło Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to: Famous people Mononym * ...

, built before 1358. In the late 15th century, Pławo was a royal village. In 1656, the area of Pławo was the site of a battle between Polish and Swedish armies. Here, in the confluence of the San and

, Swedish troops of King Charles Gustav were surrounded by Stefan Czarniecki (see

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

). Until 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 ...

, Pławo belonged to

. From 1772 to 1918, it was part of the Austrian province of

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 ...

and remained an insignificant, privately owned village. In early 1937, the government of the

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 ...

accepted the project of the Central Industrial Area, which included the construction of a brand new steel mill, together with a settlement for the workers. Before the outbreak of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, some departments of the mill were operational and several blocks of flats were built. Construction of the ''Southern Works'', as the mill was then called, was started in dense pine forests around Pławo in March 1937. Among other things, the plant manufactured artillery cannons. During World War II, Stalowa Wola was one of the centres of the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) es ...

. The settlement was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

in August 1944, and on April 1, 1945, Stalowa Wola received its town charter. In 1948, the mill was renamed as ''Huta Stalowa Wola'' and in 1953, a separate urban county of Stalowa Wola was created. In 1973, the town of Rozwadów was annexed, followed in 1977 by the village of Charzewice. At its peak in the 1970s, the mill employed 35,000 people, with branches scattered across southern Poland, from

Radomsko Radomsko is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the county sea ...

to Strzyżów. Apart from the mill, Stalowa Wola has a large power plant, opened Spring 1939. In 1988, the city was one of the centres of workers' protests (see

1988 Polish strikes The 1988 Polish strikes were a massive wave of workers' strikes which broke out from 21 April, 1988 in the Polish People's Republic. The strikes, as well as street demonstrations, continued throughout spring and summer, ending in early September 1 ...

). Currently, Stalowa Wola is the third-largest city of the voivodeship, with a population of 60,000.

Jews in Rozwadów (a district of Stalowa Wola)

The Rozwadów suburb of Stalowa Wola was a thriving Jewish shtetl prior to

and was closely associated with Tarnobrzeg and other nearby shtetls including

Ulanów Ulanów is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, with 1,491 inhabitants (02.06.2009). It has grammar schools and high schools along with 2 churches. One of the churches was set on fire in 2004, and was closed for repairs. ...

Mielec Mielec ( yi, מעליץ-Melitz) is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 wa ...

, Dzików etc. These communities, infused with vitality before 1939, were utterly destroyed 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 Europ ...

after having been affected by World War I only some 20 years earlier. Jews in Rozwadów were a religiously observant community, i.e. traditional or Orthodox in practice. The leading

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

of Rozwadów, similar to other rabbis of the region, followed

Hasidism Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism ( Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of cont ...

practice and was of the Horowitz family. In New York, a Rozwadower Rebbe established a small synagogue on the

upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

, which continued for many decades after the war. There is a link to a

yizkor Hazkarat Neshamot (), commonly known by its opening word Yizkor (), is an Ashkenazi Jewish memorial prayer service for the dead. It is important occasion for many Jews, even those who do not attend synagogue regularly. In most Ashkenazi communitie ...

book about Rozwadów which gives further notes on the Jewish life there. The Rozwadów

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...

was, until

, located on Attorney Street in the lower east side of NYC. During

, Dr. Eugene Lazowski, a military doctor of the Polish underground

Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) e ...

, created a fake epidemic of dangerous

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...

, Epidemic Typhus in the town of Rozwadów (now a district of Stalowa Wola) and the surrounding villages and towns. He saved an estimated 8,000

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...

from certain death in

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s 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; ...

, performing his services in utmost secrecy under the threat of capital punishment. Richard C. Lukas, ''Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust'',

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 1 ...

1989 – 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, ''The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939–1944'', University Press of Kentucky, 1986
Google Print, p.13
Following

, the remaining Jews were motivated to seek a new start in Palestine, thanks to

Berihah Bricha ( he, בריחה, translit. ''Briẖa'', "escape" or "flight"), also called the Bericha Movement, was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post– World War II Europe to the British Mandate ...

's efforts. A community of former Rozwadów citizens had been established in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and continued its affinity long after World War II. Many former Rozwadów citizens of Jewish backgrounds moved to the fledgeling State of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Economy

Stalowa Wola Steel Factory ( HSW S.A.) was one of the most important components of a large industrial development plan initiated by the

Polish government The Government of Poland takes the form of a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. However, its form of government has also been id ...

in 1936 aiming at a creation of new Armaments and Heavy Industry Basin, which by the virtue of its geographical location (considerable distance from German and the Soviet Union frontiers), would be capable of uninterrupted production even in case of war ( Central Industrial Region). Its main enterprises included power plants, steel works, automobile and aircraft factories, electrical and

high tech High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...

nology plants. Today the main employer in the city is still HSW S.A. (manufacturer of heavy machines,

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductili ...

s, and military equipment). Other large enterprises include StahlSchmidt (producer of aluminium rims), ESW (

coal power A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a t ...

plant), Prefabet Stalowa Wola (building materials) and

Mostostal Mostostal is a steel construction group of companies based in Warsaw, Poland, part of one of the largest industrial conglomerate companies in Poland. The company produces a wide range of steel industrial structures. Projects have included chemica ...

S.A. (steel construction-bridges, tanks and so on).

Education

Catholic University of Lublin- Stalowa Wola SubsidiaryStalowa Wola Private College of Economics

Transport

Polish State Railways (''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant Rail transport operations, railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separati ...

(PKP) provides scheduled connections to

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian ...

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 ...

and

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

(in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

). Summer connections are available to the TriCity (

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...

and

Sopot Sopot is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, and has the status of the county, being the smallest ci ...

) and Hel. The city has several railway stations that include: '' Stalowa Wola'', '' Stalowa Wola South'', '' Stalowa Wola Centre'' and '' Stalowa Wola Rozwadów'', and is a main rail junction. All four stations are located on the main

Przeworsk Przeworsk (; uk, Переворськ, translit=Perevors'k; yi, פּרשעוואָרסק, translit=Prshevorsk) is a town in south-eastern Poland with 15,675 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009. Since 1999 it has been in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship ...

– Skarżysko-Kamienna line. Additionally, ''Stalowa Wola Rozwadów'' provides a northern connection with

and, from ''Stalowa Wola South'', a line runs east to

Zamość Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. ...

, via

Zwierzyniec Zwierzyniec (; uk, Звежинець, Zvezhynetsʹ) is a town on the Wieprz river in the Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. It has 3,324 inhabitants (2004). Zwierzyniec is the northernmost town of the Roztocze National Park. The par ...

. The ZMKS is the city's main

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

agency, operating a fleet of buses in Stalowa Wola and the surrounding districts.

Sports

The city is a home for the professional football club

. They play their home matches at the

Podkarpackie Centrum Piłki Nożnej Podkarpackie Centrum Piłki Nożnej ''( eng, Subcarpathian Football Center)'', shortly PCPN, also known as Stadion Miejski w Stalowej Woli ''( eng, Municipal Stadium in Stalowa Wola)'' and Stadion Stali Stalowa Wola ''( eng, Stal Stalowa Wola Stadi ...

, opened in 2020. Moreover, the city is known from the amateur football club Parafialny Klub Sportowy San Rozwadów, that compete in Klasa A.

Notable people

* Marcin Nowak (born 1977),

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

and sprint athlete who competes internationally for

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 ...

Artur Partyka Artur Jerzy Partyka (born 25 July 1969 in Stalowa Wola, Poland) is a former Polish high jumper and two-time Olympic medalist. He won twelve national titles in a row, starting in 1989. He represented ŁKS Łódź. His father is Algerian, his ...

(born 1969), former

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er and two-time

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

medallist *

Piotr Piechniak Piotr Piechniak (born 9 March 1977 in Stalowa Wola) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a winger. Career National team From 2003 to 2007, Piechniak played for the Poland national football team. Club In June 2010, he join ...

(born 1977), former

Poland national football team The Poland national football team ( pl, Reprezentacja Polski w piłce nożnej) has represented Poland in men's international tournaments football competitions since their first match in 1921. The team is controlled by the Polish Football Assoc ...

international *

Grzegorz Rosiński Grzegorz Rosiński (born 3 August 1941) is a Polish comic book artist. He is best known for providing the artwork for the series ''Thorgal''. Early life Grzegorz Rosiński was born in Stalowa Wola in 1941.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Rosinski". In B ...

(born 1941),

comic book artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Omar Sangare Omar Sangare (born 14 November 1970, Stalowa Wola) is a Polish American actor, academic, poet, and theatre director. He graduated from The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, where he studied with the Oscar-winni ...

(born 1970),

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

, director and writer *

Krzysztof Soszynski Krzysztof Soszyński (; born August 2, 1977) is a Polish–Canadian actor and retired mixed martial artist. An 11-year competitor from 2003 until 2014, Soszynski fought in the UFC, Strikeforce, the Los Angeles Anacondas of the IFL, and was a co ...

(born 1977),

Polish-Canadian Polish Canadians ( pl, Polonia w Kanadzie, french: Canadiens Polonais) are citizens of Canada with Polish ancestry, and Poles who immigrated to Canada from abroad. At the 2016 Census, there were 1,106,585 Canadians who claimed full or partial ...

professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter * Ewa Strusińska (born 1976), international conductor * Krzysztof Śmiszek (born 1979), politician, human rights activist *

Lucjan Trela Lucjan Trela (25 June 1942 – 12 February 2019) was a Polish boxer associated with the Stal Stalowa Wola's boxing section. He competed in the men's heavyweight event at the 1968 Summer Olympics. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, he lost to Geor ...

(1942–2019),

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the W ...

boxer and Olympian *

Maciej Zakościelny Maciej Gracjan Zakościelny (born 7 May 1980, Stalowa Wola) is a Polish film, television and theatre actor. Life and career He was born on 7 May 1980 in Stalowa Wola. In 2004, he began his studies at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in War ...

(born 1980), actor

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Stalowa Wola is twinned with:

References

Notes

External links

City WebsiteStal Stalowa WolaMiasto W Fotografii
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Podkarpackie Voivodeship Stalowa Wola County Lesser Poland Sandomierz Voivodeship Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Lwów Voivodeship Holocaust locations in Poland