(
Garbarnia Ulanowskich) in Kazimierz Dolny The history of Kazimierz Dolny dates back to the 11th century, when on one of the local hills there was a Benedictine settlement called Wietrzna Gora. In 1181, Prince
Casimir II the Just handed the settlement to Norbertine nuns from
Kraków’s district of Zwierzyniec. The nuns changed its name to Kazimierz, in honor of the prince. For the first time, the name Kazimierz appears in chronicles in 1249. Later on, the adjective Dolny (Lower) was added, to distinguish the town from the Jewish town
Kazimierz - now a district of Kraków. In the early 14th century, the village became a royal possession, and King
Władysław I the Elbow-high founded there a parish church in 1325. The foundation of the town is attributed to Władysław's son, King
Casimir III the Great, who granted the town rights in the first half of the 14th century. Later, King
Władysław II Jagiełło modernized Kazimierz Dolny, creating a modern town, with a market square and streets. At that time, the decision was taken not to build any houses on the northern side of the market square, so as not to obstruct the view of the church and the
castle. In 1501, Kazimierz Dolny became the home of a
starosta, and the town was passed over to the noble Firlej family, remaining in its hands until 1644. The Firlejs twice rebuilt the town and the
castle, after the fires of 1561 and 1585. They cared about privileged status of Kazimierz Dolny, as a merchant town, located along the busy waterway of the Vistula. In 1628, Franciscan friars settled in Kazimierz, building a monastery and expanding the church. The town's golden age ended in February 1656 (see
Deluge), when Swedish troops under King
Charles X Gustav burned and ransacked it. The number of inhabitants declined, and King
John III Sobieski tried to improve the situation, by allowing in 1677 Armenian, Greek and Jewish merchants to settle there. Meanwhile, the profitable Vistula river trade came to an end, as there was no demand for Polish grains in Western Europe. In the late 18th century, as a result of the
Partitions of Poland, Kazimierz Dolny was cut from the port of
Gdańsk and turned into a town of minor importance. From the late 19th century, more affluent residents of Lublin and Warsaw started to build properties in the area. Spas and villas were constructed, and in 1927, already in the
Second Polish Republic, Kazimierz Dolny once again became a town. Partly destroyed in
World War II, it was rebuilt, and on September 8, 1994, its center was officially recognized as a historical monument. In 2024, Kazimierz Dolny was placed by
Travel + Leisure magazine on the list of Europe's 22 most beautiful small towns and villages. Kazimierz - ogolny widok 1933-1937 (69696757) (cropped).jpg|Kazimierz Dolny, 1933–1937 Kazimierz Dolny, rynek (kosciol farny). 1914 (69699023) (cropped).jpg|Market square, 1914 Kazimierz Dolny - ruiny zamku. post 1906 (73389292) (cropped).jpg|Castle, post 1906 Kazimierz Dolny - Fara. 1939 (69702499) (cropped).jpg|Parish church, 1939 Kazimierz Dolny - Kosciol sw. Anny. 1939 (69706637) (cropped).jpg|Church of St. Anne, 1939 Kazimierz. 1901 (31456503) (cropped).jpg|Synagogue - interior, ca 1901 Kazimierz Dolny - Kamienice Przybylow. 1914 (69690050) (cropped).jpg|Przybyła brothers tenement houses, 1914 Spichrze w Kazimierzu Dolnym post 1880 (86760619) (cropped).jpg|granaries, post 1880 Kazimierz nad Wisla - zaulek ante 1939 (69691890) (cropped).jpg|Old house, before 1939
Jewish history A small
Jewish community was present in the city from the time of
Casimir III the Great in the 14th century. The king granted the Jews a writ of rights which caused the town to become a focal point for Jewish immigration. When
John III Sobieski became King in 1674, he granted the Jews of Poland a respite from taxes. Sobieski also reconfirmed for the Jews all the rights they had been granted by previous kings. During his reign, the housing restrictions were abolished and the Jewish community began to flourish again. In the 19th century,
Yehezkel Taub, a disciple of the
"Seer of Lublin", founded the
Hasidic dynasty of
Kuzmir in the town. Between the First and Second World Wars, the Jewish population was about 1,400, half the total population of the town. The town's picturesque surroundings were chosen to film scenes for the
shtetl-based 1937
Yiddish film The Dybbuk. It was also a location for the similar 1936 film
Yiddle With His Fiddle. The Germans invaded Kazimierz Dolny in September 1939. The population at that time included about 1800 Jews, slightly less than 40 percent of the population. During the occupation, a
Judenrat (Jewish Council) was established in the town which was forced to oversee the German requirements of forced labor of the town's Jews. This included road reconstruction, rock quarrying, and menial tasks serving the
Nazis. They were forced to pave roads using tombstones from the local Jewish cemetery. In 1940, the Germans established a
ghetto, bringing all the Jews from the surrounding
Puławy County to live in the ghetto. In 1942, those Jews who had survived hunger, disease and slave labor were taken to
Belzec where they were gassed on arrival. At the end of 1942, the town was officially declared "free of Jews". Fewer than twenty of Kazimierz Dolny's Jewish inhabitants are thought to have survived the war. After the Holocaust, a memorial wall was erected using tombstones from the Jewish cemetery that survived. One of the most famous Jewish residents of the town was the painter and sculptor
Chaim Goldberg. Another Jewish scion of the city was Polish-American journalist
Samuel Leib Shneiderman. In 2013, the Pardes Festival, which celebrates Jewish culture, was inaugurated in Kazimierz Dolny. == Points of interest ==