The Zwierzyniec settlement was established in the 16th century by the
Zamoyski family. One of the features here is an artificial lake with a number of small islands - one of them contains monuments of the hounds belonging to the Polish Queen
Marysieńka Sobieska (
primo voto Zamoyska). On another island, the Zamoyskis built a baroque chapel, which became later the main church of the local Catholic parish. It is now known as the
St John Nepomucene's parish church - renovated and expanded in the early 1960s by father Dutkowski. The access to the chapel island is now via a bridge.
World War II During the
occupation of Poland in World War Two, Nazi Germans set up
a transit camp in Zwierzyniec for the province-wide
Action Zamość. The camp processed 20,000-24,000 Poles, with many victims sent to death camps at
Auschwitz and
Majdanek. Race selections based on forcible abduction of children were conducted at Zwierzyniec. The term "
Children of Zamojszczyzna" originates from this programme. On 2 February 1944, the Germans carried out a public execution of 20 Poles in Zwierzyniec, in retaliation for the death of a 19-year-old
Volksdeutsch who denounced several local young people to the occupiers. The youngest victim of the massacre was 15 years old. ==Gallery==