Bielsko

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See also, Bielsko County.

Sułkowski family castle in Bielsko

Bielsko (German: Bielitz, Czech: Bílsko) was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that town.

Bielsko was founded by the Cieszyn Piast dukes in the 13th-14th century, on the Biała River. It was first mentioned in a written document in 1312. From the beginning settled by the German settlers it became the largest German-language center (Deutsche Sprachinsel Bielitz) in the whole Duchy of Teschen. It remained so until the end of World War II. Since the 18th century a rapid drapery development occurred. After the 1920 division of Cieszyn Silesia between Poland and Czechoslovakia it became, despite protest of local Germans, a part of Poland.

According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 18,568 inhabitants. Census asked people for their native language, 15,144 (84.3%) were German-speaking, 2,568 (14.3%) were Polish-speaking and 136 (0.7%) were Czech-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish, most of them thus declared the German language as their native. Most populous religious groups were Roman Catholics with 10,378 (55.9%), followed by Protestants with 4,955 (26.7%) and the Jews with 3,024 (16.3%).^[1] Vast majority of the Jews was exterminated by Nazis during World War II. German population was expelled after the war.