Baligród

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Baligród
(Baligród)

Seal

Country

Poland

–

Subcarpathian Voivodship

District

Leskopowiat

Founded

1615

Area

- Village

68.8 km² (26.6 sq mi)

Elevation

340 m (1,115.5 ft)

Population

- Village

1,468

Tank T-34 at Baligród’s square

Baligród is a village and gmina (municipality) in Lesko powiat (district), Podkarpacie voivodship (since January 1, 1999 until January 1, 2002 in Bieszczady powiat), Poland. Location: 49°21' N 22°17' E

[edit] History

Baligród used to be a small town, today, however, it is a village situated in the valley of Hoczewka river, near Baligrodzkie mountains.

The settlement mentioned for the first time in 1615 as a small town, was supposedly established in the beginning of the 17th century near a castle built in the same time by Bal. In 1634 the town previously called Balówgród received Magdeburg rights and privileges for markets, fairs and wine storage. Baligród remained in the Bal family until 1770. The town was situated beside an often attended trade route to Hungary what guaranteed good opportunities for development. Later the town started to decline, and yet before 1915 it lost its municipal rights.

In wartimes in Karpaty in 1914 - 1915 Baligród was partly destroyed. During World War II the village was once again partly ruined and many of its inhabitants were killed. On August 6, 1944 the village was attacked by a strong unit of Ukrainian Insurgent Army, 42 Poles were killed, and some buildings were burnt. The soldiers of Polish Army that stationed here called the village Diabligród (Devil’s town), because during the occupation Germans stoned the main square with stones taken from Jewish cemetery. Nearby, on March 28, 1947 on a road to Cisna near Jabłonki Poland’s General Karol Świerczewski was killed.

Only over a dozen years after the war the village started to rebuild. Today it serves as a developed service-economical centre for its environs. The village's late municipal character is mirrored by its urban structure with a large, rectangular square. There is a model T-34 tank on the square. The tank is not connected with the struggles in Bieszczady but replaced a tank model T-70 that was placed there earlier, and was being used in fights against Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The T-70 tank of Baligród was the last one of this type model existing in Poland and was transferred to the museum of Szkoła Oficerska Wojsk Pancernych in Poznań.