Ulanów is a town in

Nisko County __NOTOC__ Nisko County ( pl, powiat niżański) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local governm ...

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship or Subcarpathia Province (in pl, Województwo podkarpackie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshall, it i ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, with 1,491 inhabitants (02.06.2009). It has

grammar schools A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s along with 2 churches. One of the churches was set on fire in 2004, and was closed for repairs. After about a year the church was reopened. Every year in June summer festival is held to celebrate the culture, customs and the people of the town. Festivities include a ritual during which people sing songs and drop a burning wreath, made of pine cones and flowers, from the bridge on the river. Additional customs follow. Such as setting

rafts A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels ...

on the

San river The San ( pl, San; uk, Сян ''Sian''; german: Saan) is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the river Vistula, with a length of (it is the 6th-longest Polish river) and a basin area of 16,877 km2 (14,42 ...

. These rafts are double bottomed and develop whirlpools randomly and are very difficult to steer and navigate. They are made out of wooden logs and have a small covered area where the food is stored and kept from getting wet. Rafts leave San river from Ulanów and float to Gdańsk. This tradition is kept to commemorate the log trade that was a big part of the culture of the town around 100 years ago. People drop baskets of flowers with a candle in the middle on the river. Torches are lit as the wooden hand made rafts continue and are not allowed to return to shore until the torches are burnt out. The mayor of the town overlooks the ceremonies from the boat. The ceremonies end with the cannon shot in the air and the fireworks. The mayor of Ulanów was Andrzej Bąk, who was elected in 2005. He died in 2008 and his successor is Stanisław Garbacz.

History

The town of Ulanów was founded in 1616 by a nobleman Stanislaw Ulina. Due to the location at the confluence of the

and the

Tanew Tanew is a river in south-east Poland, a tributary of San (river), San. It starts in Roztocze hills. Tanew has a length of about 113 km and its Drainage basin, catchment area is 2339 km². Its tributaries are: Potok Łosiniecki (R), Jel ...

, Ulanów was a river port, with a harbour and

boat building Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood Wo ...

shops. The town prospered until the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1660), when it was ransacked and destroyed. Following the first partition of Poland, Ulanów was in 1772 annexed by the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

, and remained within Austrian Galicia until late 1918. In the 19th century, it was a private town, and belonged to several noble families.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

brought widespread destruction, followed my mass exodus and reduction of the population of Ulanów. As a result, it lost its town charter in 1934, remaining a village until 1958.

Jews of Ulanów

Ulanów was once a multicultural town with

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 of about 40%. Around World War I, the Jewish population was halved. Many died during World War I because of hard work and lack of sufficient food. Their homes and businesses were looted during the war. Anti-Semitism was increasing and in 1905 the Jews were falsely charged with denigrating the cross that stood in the road. The Jewish population was decimated in World War II and none remain today.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulanow Cities and towns in Podkarpackie Voivodeship Nisko County Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Lwów Voivodeship Shtetls