Pabianice is a city in central

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

with 63,023 inhabitants (2021). Situated in the

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish language, Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province-Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź ...

, it is the capital of

Pabianice County __NOTOC__ Pabianice County ( pl, powiat pabianicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government refo ...

. It lies about southwest of Łódź and belongs to the metropolitan area of that city. It is the third largest city in the Łódź Voivodeship by population. The area of the city covers being the 10th largest in Łódź Voivodeship. According to data from 2009 Pabianice covers with following split: agricultural land: 53%, forests: 9%. The city covers 6.70% of Pabianice County. Neighbour administrative divisions:

gmina Dobroń __NOTOC__ Gmina Dobroń is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Pabianice County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the village of Dobroń, which lies approximately west of Pabianice and south-west of the regional capit ...

, gmina Ksawerów, miasto Łódź, gmina Pabianice, gmina Rzgów.

Transportation

Pabianice has seen major infrastructural changes over the past few years amidst increased investment and economic growth. The city has a much improved infrastructure with new roads. Pabianice now has a good circular road system. Pabianice bypass (express road S14) opened in May 2012. However, parts of S8 (part of the

European route E67 European route E 67 is an E-road running from Prague in the Czech Republic to Estonia and by ferry to Finland. It goes via Prague, Wrocław, Warsaw, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki. The route is known as the Via Baltica ...

) are currently under construction and to be completed within 2012. Near Pabianice there is an international airport: Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport (IATA: LCJ, ICAO: EPLL) located just from the city centre. Public transport in Pabianice includes buses, trams (streetcars), commuter railway

Łódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna Łódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna (Łódź Metropolitan Railway) is a commuter rail service operating between the Polish city of Łódź and surrounding towns in the Łódź Voivodeship (province). The company was founded in 2010. It is fully owned by ...

and regional rail PKP

Przewozy Regionalne Polregio (formerly ''Przewozy Regionalne'') is a train operator in Poland, responsible for local and interregional passenger transportation. Each day it runs approximately 3,000 regional trains. In 2002 it carried 215 million passengers. T ...

. The regional rail and light rail is operated by Polish State Railways (PKP). There are also some suburban bus lines run by private operators. Bus service covers the entire city. Currently, the Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne (City Transport Company) company runs line number 41 which connects Pabianice with Łódź City.

History

Pabianice was established in the 10th or 11th century, and was part of early Piast-ruled

. In 1297,

Władysław I Łokietek Władysław I Łokietek, in English known as the "Elbow-high" or Ladislaus the Short (c. 1260/12 March 1333), was King of Poland from 1320 to 1333, and duke of several of the provinces and principalities in the preceding years. He was a member of ...

granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

. Pabianice was a private church town, administratively located in the

Sieradz Voivodeship Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship. A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodeshi ...

in the

Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = Prowincje I RP.svg , image_map_capt ...

. In 1555, Polish King

Sigismund II Augustus Sigismund II Augustus ( pl, Zygmunt II August, lt, Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first rule ...

issued a

privilege Privilege may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Privilege'' (film), a 1967 film directed by Peter Watkins * ''Privilege'' (Ivor Cutler album), 1983 * ''Privilege'' (Television Personalities album), 1990 * ''Privilege (Abridged)'', an alb ...

, which established craft guilds in Pabianice. Kosciol NMP

Before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Pabianice had a substantial

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

population, comprising about a quarter of all residents of the town. Jews had been living in the town since the 1700s. Following the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was under

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 193 ...

. As part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...

'', in late 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of local

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

, who were initially imprisoned in a local transit camp and the nearby Radogoszcz concentration camp, and then either deported to other

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

or mostly murdered in nearby forests. Local Polish teachers and activists were murdered by the Germans during large massacres in the nearby Łagiewniki forest (within today's city limits of Łódź) in November and December 1939. The Germans also expelled around 1,000 Poles from the town in December 1939. Under German occupation nearly the entire Jewish population was murdered. Some were murdered in the town, several thousand were sent to the

Chełmno extermination camp Chełmno or Kulmhof was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Germany annexed the area into the new territory of Re ...

where they were immediately gassed, and others were expelled to Łódź and to forced labour camps in the area. Only about 150 survived of the 9,000 Jews thought to be living in Pabianice at the start of the war. For more on the wartime experience see Megargee. The German occupation ended in 1945.

Demography

Recently, the population of Pabianice has been steadily decreasing. Between 2002 and 2016 it fell from 72,444 to 66,265 (a decrease of about 400 people every year). ImageSize = width:550 height:250 PlotArea = left:70 right:40 top:20 bottom:40 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:75668 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10000 start:0 gridcolor:gray1 TextData = pos:(190,20) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:Historical population of Pabianice (in thousands) PlotData = bar:1939 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:53000 width:15 text:53,0 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1946 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:37140 width:15 text:37,1 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1950 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:48817 width:15 text:48,8 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1955 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:51671 width:15 text:51,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1960 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:56222 width:15 text:56,2 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1965 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:59355 width:15 text:59,4 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1970 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:62402 width:15 text:62,4 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1975 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:66758 width:15 text:66,8 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1980 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:70487 width:15 text:70,5 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1985 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:72575 width:15 text:72,6 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1990 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:75247 width:15 text:75,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:1995 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:75668 width:15 text:75,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2000 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:74270 width:15 text:74,3 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2005 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:70743 width:15 text:70,7 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2010 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:69303 width:15 text:69,6 textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2015 color:gray1 width:1 from:0 till:66895 width:15 text:66,9 textcolor:red fontsize:8px

Unemployment

According to source data from 2009 average income per capita was on the level of 1844,96 PLN. According to source data from October 2011 average unemployment rate in Pabianice is on the level of 15,6% ImageSize = width:550 height:250 PlotArea = left:70 right:40 top:20 bottom:40 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:9 till:22 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:9 gridcolor:gray1 TextData = pos:(190,20) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:Historical unemployment rate in Pabianice( percentage ) PlotData = bar:1999 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:13 width:25 text:12,99% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2000 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:16 width:25 text:15,99% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2001 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:18 width:25 text:18,14% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2002 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:20 width:25 text:20,08% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2003 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:20 width:25 text:20,85% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2004 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:21 width:25 text:21,59% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2005 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:19 width:25 text:19,52% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2006 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:17 width:25 text:17,58% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2007 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:13 width:25 text:13,27% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2008 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:10 width:25 text:10,23% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2009 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:12 width:25 text:12,12% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2010 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:13 width:25 text:13,92% textcolor:red fontsize:8px bar:2011 color:gray1 width:1 from:9 till:15 width:25 text:15,84% textcolor:red fontsize:8px

Architecture

# Church of St. Matthew the Evangelist #

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

fortified manor house of Cracovian Chapter # Weaver houses (Domy tkaczy) # "Krusche-Ender" cotton factory buildings # Old offices "Krusche-Ender" with "prządki" sculpture # Old palace of Enders' family # Lutheran Church of St. Peter and St. Paul #

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

Church of Saint Mary #

Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

chapel near Ludwik Waryński St. (ruins) # Maria Konopnicka Special Education School Complex # Pabianicki Harvard Heureka Private Schools # Christian cemeteries # Jewish cemetery # Synagogue (destroyed)

Quarters and administrative subdivisions

Centrum, Bugaj, Piaski, Stare Miasto, Karniszewice, Klimkowizna, Jutrzkowice, Wola Zaradzyńska Nowa, J. Salwy, Marii Konopnickiej, Jana Pawła II, Mikołaja Kopernika, Dąbrowa, Rypułtowice, Czyryczyn (formerly Sereczyn), Karolew, Zatorze.

Sport

Notable people

* Menachem Mendel Alter (1877–1942), Grand Rabbi of Pabianice, son of Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter and brother of Rabbi

Avraham Mordechai Alter Avraham Mordechai Alter ( pl, Abraham Mordekhaj Alter, he, אברהם מרדכי אלתר; 25 December 1865 – 3 June 1948), also known as the ''Imrei Emes'' after the works he authored, was the fourth Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a pos ...

, murdered in

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship, vi ...

August 12, 1942. * Paweł Janas (born 1953), football player and coach *

Mieczysław Klimek Mieczysław Klimek (1913 in Pabianice – 1995) was a Polish specialist in electrical and thermal devices in textile applications, a former rector of Lodz University of Technology (TUL). In 1939, he graduated from Warsaw University of Technol ...

(1913–1995), Polish professor, engineer, prisoner of Nazi concentration camps during World War II *

Marcin Komorowski Marcin Komorowski (; born 17 April 1984) is a Polish former footballer. Career In June 2014, Komorowski signed a new two-year contract with FC Terek Grozny. International He made his first appearance in the Poland national team in a friendly ...

(born 1984), football player *

Krystyna Mikołajewska Krystyna Mikołajewska (born 6 September 1939, Pabianice, Poland) is a Polish actress who appeared in several productions by the East German film company DEFA, and other notable movies. Career Mikołajewska trained at the State College of Ludwi ...

(born 1939), actress * (1877–1946), Polish painter *

Józef Pluskowski Józef Pluskowski (22 December 1896 – 28 November 1950) was a Polish poet, teacher, administrator and member of the Polish Resistance under the pseudonym "Mierzwa". He played an active role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising ...

(1896–1950), poet * Aleksandra Shelton (born 1982), sabre fencer *

Stanisław Staszewski Stanisław Staszewski (December 18, 1925 – January 22, 1973) was a Polish architect and poet. He was the father of Kazimierz Staszewski and the author of many songs and ballads, sung both by his son and by Jacek Kaczmarski. Biography Stani ...

(1925–1973), Polish architect and poet, Polish resistance participant during World War II, prisoner of the

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany ...

Jadwiga Wajs Jadwiga Wajs-Marcinkiewicz (30 January 1912 in Pabianice, Russian Empire – 1 February 1990) was a Polish athlete who mainly competed in the discus throw. Career She competed for Poland at the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, United S ...

(1912–1990), discus thrower

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Pabianice is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: * Rokiškis in Lithuania ''(since 1998)'' *

Plauen Plauen (; Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest city in the Sa ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

''(since 2005)'' * Kerepes in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

''(since 2009)'' Former twin towns: *

Gusev Gusev (masculine) or Guseva (feminine) may refer to: *Gusev (surname) (''Guseva''), Russian surname *Gusev (inhabited locality) (or ''Guseva''), several inhabited localities in Russia *Gusev crater (Russia), impact crater in Rostov Oblast, Russia *G ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

''(since 2002 until 2022)'' In March 2022, Pabianice ended its partnership with the Russian city of Gusev as a response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship Pabianice County Piotrków Governorate Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939)