Gorlice

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Gorlice
Gorlice coat of arms
Gorlice (Poland)
Gorlice
Gorlice
Basic data
State : Poland
Voivodeship : Lesser Poland
Powiat : Gorlice
Area : 23.56  km²
Geographic location : 49 ° 40 ′  N , 21 ° 10 ′  E Coordinates: 49 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  N , 21 ° 10 ′ 0 ″  E
Height : 340 m npm
Residents : 27,442
(Jun. 30, 2019)
Postal code : 38-300 to 38-320
Telephone code : (+48) 18
License plate : KGR
Economy and Transport
Street : Nowy Sącz - Jasło - Sanok ( DK28 ) - Krościenko ( UA )
Next international airport : Krakow-Balice
Rzeszów-Jasionka
Gmina
Gminatype: Borough
Surface: 23.56 km²
Residents: 27,442
(Jun. 30, 2019)
Population density : 1165 inhabitants / km²
Community number  ( GUS ): 1205011
Administration (as of 2010)
Mayor : Witold Kochan
Address: Rynek 2
38-300 Gorlice
Website : www.gorlice.pl



Gorlice [ gɔrˈlʲiʦɛ ] is a city in Poland in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship . It is located on the Ropa River about 140 km southeast of Kraków and 30 km north of the Slovakian border.

history

Aerial view of the city
Modern monument to the founder of the city Karwacjan

The Gorlicer Ländchen

The place was founded in 1355 by Derslai Karwanczyan de Gorlice ( Derslao Karwaczian ) (1417), a Krakow banker and merchant with French ancestors from Cahors . This merchant family was already active in European long-distance trade along the Via Regia and was thus able to achieve immense wealth. The family property also included mines and estates in the Kraków area. The city's founders had determined a river crossing to establish their own settlement area, which was soon called the “Gorlicer Ländchen”. In addition to the fortified housing of the Karwacjans, the villages of Gruschow, Glynnik, Ropicze, Strozowka and Rychwałd were built in the vicinity . The last and other names in the area indicate the presence of German settlers in the area na Głuchoniemcach (see Forest Germans ), because of the name of the city, Görlitz in Upper Lusatia was later considered to be its origin. The original name was rather * Gardlica, from the appellative gardło meaning mouth / beginning / vortex [of the Ropa river] with the suffix -ica, which developed through changes from Gardlica to Garlica and from Garlica to Gorlica .

By Casimir the Great was city charter granted. The town charter was initially granted under Polish law, but in 1417 King Władysław II. Jagiełło also changed it to Magdeburg law . During this time the place lives mainly from trade and handicraft . The place flourished quickly, because it was on a trade route coming from the capital that met an important north-south connection through the Beskids in Gorlice . In addition to raw materials and goods from the Polish region, imports from the Kingdom of Hungary and the Baltic States were also stored and sold at the trading center in Gorlice. The market settlement gained further importance through craftsmen, local wool was processed and Gorlicer cloths were sold to Hungary. The shoemaker's guild as well as millers and tanners were represented on the city council. In 1504, King Aleksander granted the city the right to hold two annual markets.

Economic prosperity and religious peace

Since the successors of the city's founders were able to maintain their special position vis-à-vis the Polish magnates, Protestant and Calvinist ideas quickly gained importance in the city community. Often it was immigrants and religious refugees from other European countries who had fled to Lesser Poland because they had not yet been persecuted there. In addition, there were direct contacts to Hungary and the Principality of Transylvania , where strong Protestant and Calvinist communities had emerged. The followers of the Catholic Church formed a third group of the population without one of these three groups being able to gain dominance.

On May 22, 1617, leading representatives of the Polish Calvinists and Protestants met within the walls of the city for an exchange of views: Walentyn Smalc von Rakow, a remarkable Polish theologian and preacher, met Peter Lombard in a dispute , who had suggested the city as a meeting place. A Catholic pastor by the name of Jan Novodworsky from Biecz was approved by both parties as a mediator and neutral observer. The discussions and differences of opinion concerned basic religious views and could not be resolved. At the end of the 16th century Gorlice was then a Polish center of the Arian religious community, which was further developed by Faustus Socinus .

Gang creatures

As a result of the political unrest in the 16th century and the rapid impoverishment of the rural population on the edge of the Beskydy Mountains, the passes leading into the mountains with their dense forests, gorges and caves became the area of ​​operations for road robbers who attacked traders and travelers to the gates of the city robbed. The town chronicle mentions several gangs and their captains Wasyl Czepiec, Sawka, Bajorz or Bajus, Kurta the Bandit and Wasyl Haraszczak. Most ended up on the city's gallows or were executed in Hungarian cities or in Krakow after their trial. Numerous locations in the vicinity of the city are connected with legends and testimonies of these outlaws.

Decline and renewed prosperity in the 17th and 18th centuries

In the middle of the 17th century the city mistress Marianna Rylska was the leader of the Calvinist city population and was supported by the Swedes. Their position in the city administration was increasingly weakened. On May 2, 1657, the Prince of Transylvania , who was allied with the Swedes , Georg II. Rákóczi , reached the place, supposedly to come to the aid of the Calvinists - a considerable part of the city was burned, of 1,200 inhabitants only about 280 remained (see First Northern War ) alive. This ended the special religious position of the city. During the First Partition of Poland , Gorlice came under the rule of Austria in 1772 . Under the Catholic Habsburgs, the population was able to live in peace again and the city regained its former importance as a trading center.

The development of petroleum extraction

Artistically designed monument to the kerosene lamp

As early as 1530, a royal court official Seweryn Boner from Kraków had received the concession for gold mining in the region; when digging the necessary trenches for pumping stations and dams, mountain wax and oil deposits were encountered on Mount Chetm at a shallow depth , without paying much attention to these finds . These substances soon served the population as a car grease and panacea for various skin diseases and complaints. The research results of the natural scientist Stanislaw Staszic in the Öden Feld , which probably owes its name to the soil contamination by the natural oil escaping there, came to the workrooms of the Warsaw Natural Research Society in 1815.

They dig a hole three fathoms deep to contain the spring. The (hole) should soon fill with water mixed with petroleum. This water is often stirred with ... The solid components fall to the bottom of the pit and the (pure) petroleum can come to the surface.

After further improvements, which came after the first drilling rigs and pipelines were built, the city was able to establish the Polish petroleum industry in the second half of the 19th century. From 1853 to 1858 Ignacy Łukasiewicz lived and worked on site, he became the inventor of the kerosene lamp . A replica of the lamp erected as a memorial now serves as a tourist attraction.

Modern times

The devastating city fire of October 4, 1874 destroyed Gorlice almost completely. In 1880 the city had 4,550 inhabitants. During the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów (1915) in World War I , the city was destroyed again. From this time there are 86 war cemeteries in Gorlice and the surrounding area. With the end of the war it came to the newly founded Poland . During the Second World War the city was occupied by the Germans and a labor camp was set up. As part of an administrative reform, the place came from 1975 to 1998 in the Nowy Sącz Voivodeship .

Culture

Museum:

  • Regional Museum ( Muzeum Regionalne PTTK im. Ignacego Łukasiewicza )

Architectural monuments:

Infrastructure

Gmina

The city is the seat of two independent municipalities, which:

  • City municipality with 27,442 inhabitants and the
  • Rural commune Gorlice with 17,270 inhabitants (June 30, 2019).

Gmina Glinik Mariampolski

The rural community was called Glinik Mariampolski until 1954 and had its seat in Glinik, today a part of Gorlice.

Personalities

See also

literature

  • Roman Dziubina: Gorlice nastroje . Ed .: Gorlice City Council. Printhaus and Verlag UNIGRAF, Bydgorsz 2002, ISBN 83-8847419-7 , p. 80 .

Web links

Commons : Gorlice  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b population. Size and Structure by Territorial Division. As of June 30, 2019. Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS) (PDF files; 0.99 MiB), accessed December 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Słownik staropolskich nazw osobowych: A - D. PAN. 1984 p. 52
  3. ↑ "[...] from the Sanok lowland to Gorlice, Szymbark and Pilzno was colonized by the Saxons and the people still call this area" na Głuchoniemcach "[in:] Geographical Place Name Dictionary of the Polish Kingdom. Volume II. 612 Warszawa, 1889 (A picture database on Polish history)
  4. ↑ Kazimierz Rymut , Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch: Nazwy miejscowe Polski: historia, pochodzenie, zmiany . 3 (EI). Polska Akademia Nauk . Instytut Języka Polskiego, Kraków 1999, p. 248 (Polish, online ).