Zamość

Zamość is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants (2004), situated in the Lublin Voivodship (since 1999). About 20 kilometres from the town is the Roztocze National Park.

The historical city centre was inscribed onto UNESCO World Heritage List (in 1992).

Zamość was founded in the year 1580 by the Chancellor and Hetman (head of the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) Jan Zamoyski, on the trade route linking western and northern Europe with the Black Sea. Modelled on Italian trading cities, and built during the Baroque period by the architect Bernardo Morando, a native of Padua, Zamość remains a perfect example of a Renaissance town of the late 16th century, which retains its original layout and fortifications, and a large number of buildings blending Italian and central European architectural traditions. The Old City quarter of Zamość has been placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

In 1942, Zamość County, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for further German colonisation in the General Government as part of Generalplan Ost. The city itself was renamed "Himmlerstadt" (Himmler City) and the German occupiers had planned the relocation of at least 60,000 ethnic Germans in the area before the end of 1943. Before that, a "test trial" expulsion was performed in November 1941, and the whole operation ended in a pacification operation, combined with expulsions in June/July 1943 which was code named Wehrwolf Action I and II. Around 110,000 people from 297 villages were expelled. Around 30,000 victims were children who, if racially "clean" (ie. germanic looking) were planned for germanisation in German families in the Third Reich. Most of the people expelled were sent as slave labour in Germany or to concentration camps.

Local people resisted the action with great determination; they escaped into forests, organised self-defence, helped people who were expelled, and bribed kidnapped children out of German hands. Until the middle of 1943, the Germans managed to settle 8,000 colonists, the number increased by a couple of thousand more in 1944. This settlement was met with fierce armed resistance by Polish Underground forces. The current President of Germany Horst Köhler was born to a family of German colonists in Skierbieszów.

After World War II, Zamość started a period of development. In the 1970's and 1980's the population grew rapidly (from 39,100 in 1975 to 68,800 in 2003), as the city started to gain significant profits from the old trade routes linking Germany with Ukraine and the ports on the Black Sea.

During years 1975–1998 Zamość was the capital of Zamość Voivodship.