Łaszczów (; uk, Лащів) is a town in Tomaszów Lubelski County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It was re-established as a town on 1 January 2010, having previously had town status between 1549 and 1870. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Łaszczów __NOTOC__ Gmina Łaszczów is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Tomaszów Lubelski County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Łaszczów, which lies approximately east of Tomaszów Lubelski and south ...

. It lies approximately east of Tomaszów Lubelski and south-east of the regional capital

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

. The town has a population of 2,341. The history of Łaszczów dates back to 1549, when King Zygmunt August allowed Podkomorzy of Belz and

Castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...

of Horodlo Aleksander Laszcz to change his own village of Domaniz into a town of Prawda (named after Prawdzic coat of arms). The royal bill was signed on December 22, 1549, at Piotrków Trybunalski. The town of Prawda was founded next to the village. By the 1570s, its name was changed into Łaszczów (after the Laszcz family). Łaszczów had Magdeburg rights, and during the Protestant Reformation, became important center of the Polish Brethren. It had a prayer house and a printing shop, which operated until 1603. Łaszczów was a regional trade and business center, but its prosperity ended after

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

(1655–1660). In 1702, the town was burned by Swedes, during the Great Northern War, and in 1745, Jozef Laszcz, owner of Łaszczów, initiated construction of a church and Jesuit collegium. In 1754 Łaszczów burned in a great fire, after which its owners ordered residents to build brick houses. Following the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

, Łaszczów became part of Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

. By 1902, its population grew to 2600, with Jews in the majority. In 1914, heavy Russian – Austrian fighting took place in the area, and in 1915, Austrians built narrow gauge railroad from

Uhnow Uhniv ( uk, У́гнів, pl, Uhnów, yi, הובנוב) is a city in Chervonohrad Raion, Lviv Oblast (region) of western Ukraine. Population: Uhniv (or Uhnow, Uchnów or Hivniv) is the smallest city of Ukraine. It is part of the Chervono ...

to Wlodzimierz Wolynski, via Łaszczów. During the Invasion of Poland by the Germans in World War II, Łaszczów saw Polish – German fighting. On December 25, 1942, the Germans murdered 75 residents of the town. The 1,500–2,500 Jews from the town were transported to the Belzec extermination camp on May 17, 1942. In June 1944, Łaszczów was burned by a band of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

References

;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Laszczow Cities and towns in Lublin Voivodeship Tomaszów Lubelski County Kholm Governorate Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939) Holocaust locations in Poland