Happy TravellerWelcome to Zamość, a historical city located in southeastern Poland. Founded in 1580 by Jan Zamoyski, Grand Chancellor of Poland, Zamość was envisioned as an ideal city and remains a perfect example of a Renaissance town of the late 16th century. The historical centre of Zamość was added to the World Heritage List in 1992, recognized for being a unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe. Zamość is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about 90 km (56 mi) from Lublin, 247 km (153 mi) from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021.
Zamość is a city with a rich history, having faced numerous invasions and sieges throughout the centuries. During its most extensive and fastest period of development in the 16th century, the city attracted not only Poles but also other nationalities. In 1594, Jan Zamoyski founded the Zamoyski Academy in Zamość. The city, however, faced numerous invasions, including a Cossack siege led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the leader of the uprising against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1654), and another siege during the Swedish Deluge in 1656. The Swedish army, like the Cossacks, failed to capture the city. Only during the Great Northern War was Zamość occupied, by Swedish and Saxon troops.
During World War II, Zamość suffered greatly. The city was bombed by German Luftwaffe planes, and the local garrison was defeated. The city was handed over to the Red Army for about a week before being returned to German control. The Nazis created an execution site in the Zamość Rotunda, where more than 8,000 people were massacred, including displaced residents of the region. In Zamość, Nazi Germans also created a Transit Camp for arrested and displaced inhabitants of the Zamość region and camps of Soviet prisoners of war captured during Operation Barbarossa. In 1942–1943, tens of thousands of inhabitants of the region were ethnically cleansed by the Nazi occupiers, to make space for German settlers in order to ensure Germanisation of the area. Most former inhabitants were deported to forced labor camps in Germany, Nazi concentration camps or extermination camps such as Auschwitz, Majdanek and Bełżec.
Despite its tumultuous past, Zamość has emerged as a beautiful and vibrant city. The Old Town is a must-see, with its regular Great Market Square (Rynek Wielki) of 100 x 100 metres with the splendid Town Hall (Ratusz) and the so-called Armenian houses, as well as fragments of the original fortress and fortifications. The Town Hall is a prominent building, built at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, following Bernardo Morando’s design. The façades were built in accordance with Mannerist proportions, regular divisions and excessive architectural décor. The 18th century witnessed the construction of a guardroom and a fan-shaped double stairway, built in front of the building. The Town Hall stands on the north side of the Great Market Square, regarded as one of the most beautiful 16th-century squares in Europe.
Zamość was also an important centre of Chasidic Judaism, with a rich Jewish history. The Qahal of Zamość was founded in 1588 when Jan Zamoyski agreed to Jewish settlement in the city. The first Jewish settlers were mainly Sephardi Jews coming from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. The settlement rights given by Jan Zamoyski were re-confirmed in 1684 by Marcin Zamoyski, the fourth Ordynat of the Zamość estate. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Jewish inhabitants were influenced by the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah. The late nineteenth century saw the
