Puławy

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Puławy is a city in eastern Poland, in Lublin Voivodeship (province), on the Vistula and Kurówka Rivers. According to the 2006 GUS (Central Statistical Office) census estimate, the town had a total population of 49,839. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County.

Close by is Kazimierz Dolny, a charming medieval village with a little town square surrounded by ancient houses, shops, churches and a synagogue.

[edit] History

From the 17th century Puławy was the location of a rural residence of the Lubomirski, then the Sieniawski, noble families. In 1784 it became the property of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and his wife Izabela Czartoryska, née Fleming. Under their stewardship, after the loss of Poland's independence in 1795 the palace became a museum of Polish national memorabilia and a major cultural and political center. After the suppression of the November Uprising of 1830-1831, the estate was taken over by the Russian government. The palace collections that had been saved became the nucleus of the present Czartoryski Museum in Kraków.

In 1869 an Agricultural and Forestry Institute was founded in Puławy, one of whose first students (briefly) was the future Polish writer Bolesław Prus (who had spent part of his childhood in Puławy).

The city was incorporated in 1906.

During World War II, three German concentration camps operated here. The city's Jewish population of some 3,600 was first confined to a ghetto, then murdered at the Sobibór camp.

Since 1966 a large nitrate plant (Zakłady Azotowe Puławy) has been producing fertilizers north of the town.

The most valuable landmark in Puławy is the baroque-classicist palace and park complex, dating from 1676-1679, remodeled 1722-1736 and again around 1800. It includes classicist park pavilions dating from the early 19th century. One of these, the colonnaded round Temple of the Sibyl, is the setting of Bolesław Prus' memorable micro-story, "Mold of the Earth."