Pabianice is a city in central

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

with 63,023 inhabitants (2021). Situated in the

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced . Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian Voivodeship ...

, it is the capital of Pabianice County. It lies about southwest of Łódź and belongs to the

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

of that city. It is the third largest city in the Łódź Voivodeship by population. The area of the city covers , being the 10th largest in Łódź Voivodeship. According to data from 2009, agricultural land constitutes 53%, of the area and forests another 9%. The city covers 6.70% of Pabianice County. It is located in the Sieradz Land. Neighbour administrative divisions: gmina Dobroń, gmina Ksawerów, miasto Łódź,

gmina Pabianice __NOTOC__ Gmina Pabianice is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Pabianice County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the town of Pabianice, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina. The gmina covers an a ...

, gmina Rzgów.

Transportation

Pabianice has seen major infrastructural changes over the past few years amidst increased investment and economic growth. The city has a much improved infrastructure with new roads. Pabianice now has a good circular road system. Pabianice bypass (express road S14) opened in May 2012. However, parts of S8 (part of the European route E67) are currently under construction and to be completed within 2012. Near Pabianice there is an international airport: Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport (IATA: LCJ, ICAO: EPLL) located just from the city centre. Public transport in Pabianice includes buses, trams (streetcars), commuter railway Łódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna and regional rail PKP

Przewozy Regionalne Polregio (formerly ''Przewozy Regionalne'') is a train operator in Poland, responsible for local and interregional passenger transportation. Each day it runs approximately 3,000 regional trains. In 2002 it carried 215 million passengers. T ...

. The regional rail and light rail is operated by Polish State Railways (PKP). There are also some suburban bus lines run by private operators. Bus service covers the entire city. Currently, the Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne (City Transport Company) company runs line number 41 which connects Pabianice with Łódź City.

History

Pabianice was established in the 10th or 11th century, and was part of early Piast-ruled

. In 1297, Władysław I Łokietek granted town rights. Pabianice was a private church town, administratively located in the Szadek County in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1555, Polish King Sigismund II Augustus issued a privilege, which established craft guilds in Pabianice. Kosciol NMP

Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Pabianice had a substantial

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

population, comprising about a quarter of all residents of the town. Jews had been living in the town since the 1700s. Following the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was under German occupation. As part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

'', in late 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of local Polish

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

, who were initially imprisoned in a local transit camp and the nearby Radogoszcz concentration camp, and then either deported to other

concentration camps A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...

or mostly murdered in nearby forests. Local Polish teachers and activists were murdered by the Germans during large massacres in the nearby Łagiewniki forest (within today's city limits of Łódź) in November and December 1939. The Germans also expelled around 1,000 Poles from the town in December 1939. Under German occupation nearly the entire Jewish population was murdered. Some were murdered in the town, several thousand were sent to the

Chełmno extermination camp Chełmno, or Kulmhof, was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Germany annexed ...

where they were immediately gassed, and others were expelled to Łódź and to forced labour camps in the area. Only about 150 survived of the 9,000 Jews thought to be living in Pabianice at the start of the war. For more on the wartime experience see Megargee. The German occupation ended in 1945.

Demography

Recently, the population of Pabianice has been steadily decreasing. Between 2002 and 2016 it fell from 72,444 to 66,265 (a decrease of about 400 people every year). ImageSize = width:550 height:250 PlotArea = left:70 right:40 top:20 bottom:40 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:75668 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10000 start:0 gridcolor:gray1 TextData = pos:(190,20) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:Historical population of Pabianice (in thousands) PlotData = bar:1939 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:53000 width:15 text:53,0 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1946 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:37140 width:15 text:37,1 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1950 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:48817 width:15 text:48,8 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1955 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:51671 width:15 text:51,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1960 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:56222 width:15 text:56,2 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1965 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:59355 width:15 text:59,4 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1970 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:62402 width:15 text:62,4 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1975 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:66758 width:15 text:66,8 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1980 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:70487 width:15 text:70,5 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1985 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:72575 width:15 text:72,6 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1990 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:75247 width:15 text:75,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1995 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:75668 width:15 text:75,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2000 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:74270 width:15 text:74,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2005 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:70743 width:15 text:70,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2010 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:69303 width:15 text:69,6 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2015 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:66895 width:15 text:66,9 textcolor:red fontsize:8px

Unemployment

According to source data from 2009 average income per capita was on the level of 1844,96 PLN. According to source data from October 2011 average unemployment rate in Pabianice is on the level of 15,6% ImageSize = width:550 height:250 PlotArea = left:70 right:40 top:20 bottom:40 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:9 till:22 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:9 gridcolor:gray1 TextData = pos:(190,20) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:Historical unemployment rate in Pabianice( percentage ) PlotData = bar:1999 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:13 width:25 text:12,99% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2000 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:16 width:25 text:15,99% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2001 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:18 width:25 text:18,14% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2002 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:20 width:25 text:20,08% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2003 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:20 width:25 text:20,85% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2004 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:21 width:25 text:21,59% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2005 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:19 width:25 text:19,52% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2006 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:17 width:25 text:17,58% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2007 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:13 width:25 text:13,27% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2008 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:10 width:25 text:10,23% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2009 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:12 width:25 text:12,12% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2010 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:13 width:25 text:13,92% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2011 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:15 width:25 text:15,84% textcolor:red fontsize:8px

Architecture

# Church of St. Matthew the Evangelist #

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

fortified manor house of Cracovian Chapter # Weaver houses (Domy tkaczy) # "Krusche-Ender" cotton factory buildings # Old offices "Krusche-Ender" with "prządki" sculpture # Old palace of Enders' family # Lutheran Church of St. Peter and St. Paul #

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Church of Saint Mary #

Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

# Renaissance Revival

pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

chapel near Ludwik Waryński St. (ruins) # Maria Konopnicka Special Education School Complex # Pabianicki Harvard Heureka Private Schools # Christian cemeteries # Jewish cemetery # Synagogue (destroyed) # Pabianice Castle

Quarters and administrative subdivisions

Centrum, Bugaj, Piaski, Stare Miasto, Karniszewice, Klimkowizna, Jutrzkowice, Wola Zaradzyńska Nowa, J. Salwy, Marii Konopnickiej, Jana Pawła II, Mikołaja Kopernika, Dąbrowa, Rypułtowice, Czyryczyn (formerly Sereczyn), Karolew, Zatorze.

Sport

Notable people

* St.

Maximilian Kolbe Maximilian Maria Kolbe (born Raymund Kolbe; ; 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, Conventual Franciscan friar, missionary, saint, martyr, and a Nazi concentration camp victim, who volunteered to die in place ...

(1894–1941), Polish Catholic priest *

Agnieszka Kotlarska (actress) Agnieszka Kotlarska (1971-March 10, 2015) was a Polish TV, film, and stage actress. She was born in Pabianice, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland. In 2007 she was awarded Silver Medal Gloria Artis. She died of cancer, leaving a son and a daughter. Re ...

* Menachem Mendel Alter (1877–1942), Grand Rabbi of Pabianice, son of Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter and brother of Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, murdered in

Treblinka Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...

August 12, 1942. * Paweł Janas (born 1953), football player and coach * Mieczysław Klimek (1913–1995), Polish professor, engineer, prisoner of Nazi concentration camps during World War II * Marcin Komorowski (born 1984), football player * Kinga Królik * Krystyna Mikołajewska (born 1939), actress * (1877–1946), Polish painter * Józef Pluskowski (1896–1950), poet * Aleksandra Shelton (born 1982), sabre fencer * Stanisław Staszewski (1925–1973), Polish architect and poet, Polish resistance participant during World War II, prisoner of the

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...

* Jadwiga Wajs (1912–1990), discus thrower

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Pabianice is twinned with: *

Rokiškis Rokiškis () is a list of cities in Lithuania, city in northeastern Lithuania, close to the Latvia–Lithuania border, with a population of 11,606 (2023). The city is a capital of the Rokiškis District Municipality with a population of 28,715 (20 ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

''(since 1998)'' *

Plauen Plauen (; ; ) is a town in Saxony, Germany with a population of around 65,000. It is Saxony's 5th most populated city after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest cit ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

''(since 2005)'' * Kerepes in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

''(since 2009)'' Former twin towns: * Gusev in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

''(since 2002 until 2022)'' In March 2022, Pabianice ended its partnership with the Russian city of Gusev as a response to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship Pabianice County