Bełżyce

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Bełżyce

	(Coat of arms)


Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Lublin
Municipal government	Urząd Miasta Bełżyce
Mayor	Bogdan Czuryszkiewicz
Population - city - urban - density	7105 /km²
Founded	1417?
City rights	15th century
Latitude Longitude	51°10' N 22°17' E
Area code	+48 81
Car plates	LUB
Twin towns	n/a
Municipal Website

Bełżyce is a city in eastern Poland, in the Lublin Voivodeship, in Lublin County, and about 20 km to the west of the city of Lublin.

[edit] History

Granted city rights in 1417, these rights were lost in 1869 in the aftermath of the failed January Uprising against the Russian Tsar. During the Protestant Reformation, through the 16th and 17th centuries, Bełżyce was a center for the Polish brethren, and a destination for reformist conventions and synodal gatherings. During the German occupation in Second World War 3500 residents of the city were killed or otherwise disappeared, a full 60 % of the population. Many, mostly Jewish, victims of the Majdanek Nazi concentration and extermination camp are buried at the Bełżyce cemetery.

Bełżyce was granted city status again in 1958, when the population had sufficiently recovered in numbers. Today, the city is a minor agricultural center, and home to a factory that produces creamery equipment. It is also the intersection of several highways.

[edit] Historic Sites

A castle that was built in 1417, captured by the Cossack forces of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648, and, since Second World War, has been used as a dairy farm.
A late Renaissance church.