what did I discover?
An amazing, wildly engaging city afflicted with a kind of bipolar disease. A space of two different architectures, two completely different historical urban layouts, complemented by two more urban planning ideas in closer times. Poland's only large city located directly in the mountains. This alone could determine its attractiveness. But that's just the beginning...
Bielsko-Biala offers more than just mountains. It also has a masterpiece history to tell, which translates into the present day in a surprising way. Here are its milestones.
Bielsko-Biala from a bird's eye view of the City Hall
Photo: Naddachami.pl | Bielsko-Biala City Hall
Already in the first half of the 16th century Bielitz becomes one of the pioneers of Protestantism.
Martin Luther's theses fall on exceptionally fertile soil here. All evangelicals MUST be able to read and write. A new quality civilization is created in the city - illiteracy disappears from the city, which in those days is a downright revolutionary change. Let's remember that all around us the standard is a society composed of 90 percent illiterate people, and therefore also incapable of the next stages of education. The educated residents of Bielitz - not only ethnic Germans, but also liberalized, German-speaking Jews - receive literacy as a gift from their religions. After all, Protestantism implies the necessity of reading the text of the Bible on one's own; in Judaism, learning to read and write is also common and available to both boys and girls. The rest of Europe at the time, those professing Roman Catholicism, do not need to read and write, and for the most part do not have this skill. Meanwhile, a literate society also quickly acquires a second skill - calculating. Only such a society is capable of business, commerce, accounting, developing engineering, technical, design sciences and practices. Yes, this is why such, and not other, role in trade and finance was played by Jews in history. The advantage that literacy and numeracy provided them is certainly one of the root causes of anti-Semitism.
But back to Bielitz. In a city where almost everyone can read and write in the 17th century, a weaving industry specializing in cloth made from sheep's wool is developing rapidly. Numerous workshops and manufactories are just waiting for the Napoleonic wars: huge orders for uniforms rock Bielitz business. Then comes the industrial revolution - modern textile industry flourishes in Bielitz on a large scale. Well-educated locals provide it with efficient management, financial management and the engineering expertise needed to build machinery. Bielitz realizes that it is better to make (textile) machinery itself, and so the Bielitz machinery industry is born.
Cavatina Hall - concert hall, office and service spaces, proj.: avatina&Partners Architects
© Cavatina Hall
The first steam engine appears here earlier than in the city of Lodz, better known today for its industrial past. Bielitz - along with Poland's much smaller Biała Krakowska - develops dynamically. The factories are owned by Germans and Jews, with Poles working in them. In the end, everyone benefits: both cities, along with the entire region, are getting rich quickly. Bielsko cloth is a branded product of the highest quality, much more expensive than cloth produced in other parts of the world. Cloths from Bielsko form the basis of the clothing of Central Europeans of the time, who source linen from Zyrardow (linen), shirts and light clothing from Lodz (cotton) and hats, coats and warm outerwear from Bielitz (woolen cloth).
The future Bielsko-Biala is one of the most modern cities in the world before World War I. In 1918, it becomes part of the regaining freedom of Poland. Throughout the interwar period, Bielsko and Biala cooperate more and more closely, and the establishment of rules for the coexistence of the multicultural community is underway, which creates tensions the closer we get to the outbreak of another war.
The city's cable car to Szyndzielnia
photo by Dorota Koperska | Bielsko-Biała City Hall
When Bielsko and Biala returned to Poland after the end of World War II, the cities in terms of buildings are fortunately whole, the authorities were keen to keep the damage to a minimum. Despite significant looting by the Red Army, they quickly become one of the most important pillars of the resurgent Polish industry. There are no longer any Germans or Jews in the city, what remains are the few survivors - and the memories and legacy not only of one hundred and fifty factories, but also of magnificent architecture and infrastructure. Communist Poland does not want the memory of Jews and Germans. Merged into one city, Bielsko and Biała are to forget their past and become a workers' city, facilitated by the development of large-panel housing estates and the practical cutting off of old, post-German Bielsko from the rest with a multi-lane street (today's 3 Maja and Zamkowa Streets).
