From the Sandomierz web
site.
Sandomierz is a town with 1,000 years of history, which is
picturesquely located on the River Vistula, at a steep
slope of the Swietokrzyskie Mountains, which are suddenly
cut by the flowing river. Similarly like Krakow and Warsaw,
it is situated on the River Vistula, in the place where the
River San flows into it. After the foundation of the Polish
State, Sandomierz, next to Krakow and Wroclaw, played the
role of a sedes regni principales, i.e. main ruler's seat.
Later, it served as the capital of the Sandomierz Duchy,
and of the Sandomierz Province. It was in the Sandomierz
Castle that the town charter for Lvov/Lviv was
signed. In 1570, at the Olesniccy’s tenement house, the
Sandomierz Accord was agreed, under which representatives
of Lutherans, Calvins and Czech Brothers living in Poland
developed their catechism. Jewish community of Sandomierz
was the second largest in Poland.
The royal town, which was rich thanks to its affluent
residents, enjoyed numerous privileges granted by
individual monarchs. Traders' caravans passing through the
town offered their goods for sale and local traders dug
deep in the ground to build adequate cellars and stores for
them, which today can be seen along the Underground Tourist
Route. In the inter-war period, Sandomierz was planned to
become the capital of a Central Industrial District,
however the outbreak of World War II put these plans to a
halt.
Tourists coming to Sandomierz will find out original
medieval street layout and development there. Knight fights
and Renaissance dance shows organized there each weekend of
the tourist season augment the historic appeal of the town.
From the deck of one of excursion ships that sail along the
River Vistula, you can admire the panorama of the Old Town.
The Opatowska Gate, the only preserved town's gate, is a
very popular local spot and flagship of Sandomierz, from
which you can see the view of the bending river and
neighboring areas. Sandomierz features 120 different
historic sights. The most popular ones, apart from the
Opatowska Gate, include the Renaissance Town Hall,
Cathedral and Castle that date back to the times of King
Casmir the Great, and four hundred years old Collegium
Gostomianum, one of the oldest schools in Poland.
Visitors to Sandomierz can attend numerous events held
there. The most popular ones include Strawberry Sunday
staged in June, Szantomierz Festival held in July and Music
in Sandomierz one held in September, as well as two-day St
Vincent's church fair. Tourist season lasts there from
April to October. The town offers ample accommodation to
tourists – different class hotels, motels, inns, camp
sites, boarding houses, hostels, BBs and agritourism farms
will cater for everyone's needs. Apart from having contact
with history, Sandomierz also features natural attributes.
The town is situated on the River Vistula, on seven hills,
where you can hike in picturesque loess gorges. Pieprzowe
Hills nature reserve, which is the ending of Swietokrzyskie
Mountains is situated within the town's limits. Thanks to
local parks and neighboring orchards, the town is covered
in greenery. Sandomierz has a comprehensive educational
offer ranging from nursery schools to universities. Three
schools of higher education operate there and offer studies
in fifteen different majors. Moreover, a number of
associations supporting local communities activity, which
publish three periodicals and promote Sandomierz, operate
in the town.
Not only local residents, but also its fans from abroad who
fell in love at the first sight with the town are members
of the associations.
History
Sandomierz
a town whose
roots reach back over ten centuries, is picturesquely
situated on the edge of Kielecko - Sandomierska Upland,
declining in the form of huge slopes into the Vistula
valley. Formerly Sandomierz
belonged to the biggest towns in Poland. As sedes regni
principalis it used to be a duke’s seat and a royal
residence. Bound up with Christianity for ten ages,
together with a nearby Zawichost it was also a
communication link of international trade route, leading
from Western Europe through Wrocław,
Cracow, Wiślica
and Sandomierz to Rus and further eastwards until Mongolian
Empire. Sandomierz and Zawichost guarded the main ford
across the Vistula. Since the 12th century
Sandomierz and the region were included into the scheme of
christianisation of the East by St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
which was marked by the foundation of a Cistercian abbey in
nearby Koprzywnica in 1185, followed in the early 13th
century by a Dominican monastery in Sandomierz (1226) and a
Clarist one in Zawichost (1245). The convent of Dominican
friars in Sandomierz was the second convent in
Małopolska
(preceded by the Cracow one), and the Clarist Convent was
one of the first in East-Central Europe. Polish princes,
bishops and feudal lords supported these
foundations. The location of
monasteries along the main route bound Sandomierz with
Europe not only politically, but first of all economically
and culturally. These associations were mutual, e.g. the
architectural solutions of churches of Dominican and
Clarist monasteries had a great influence on the monastery
design in Western Europe. The existence of four
churches in Sandomierz in the 12th century, recorded in
written sources, together with their parish schools,
especially the collegiate one, was not only of local
significance. The status of Sandomierz was confirmed by the
position of the Collegiate Church, which was the second in
Poland after the Cracow one. The historic researches prove
high and appreciated abroad teaching level in the
collegiate school. The high level of
Sandomierz school education was preserved nearly until now.
In the 16th century dozens of Sandomierz citizens studied
in the Cracow Academy. The citizens of Sandomierz were:
Sebastian Petrycy from Pilzno - a doctor and a famous
translator and commentator of Aristotle’s works, Jan
Porębny,
a doctor of medicine and philosophy, and the most famous
among doctors - Stanisław
Bartolon Starszy (the Elder). Marcin from
Urzędów
after studies in Padua and Cracow settled in Sandomierz,
where he created the first Polish botanical dictionary.
Unquestionably, the most famous citizen of Sandomierz was
Mikołaj
Gomółka
- a composer, the author of “the Melodies for the Polish
Psalter” (1580) to the words by John Kochanowski.
In the 17th
century the Sandomierz Jesuits founded a secondary school
of a new type (Collegium Gostomianum) and ran it until the
order annulment in 1773. Connected with Sandomierz
Collegium were, among others, Alexander
Rzączyński,
an outstanding physiographer and ornithologist and Joseph
Karsznicki, an architect. In the interwar period the
General Regional University was founded and led by a great
educator and regionalist Alexander Patkowski. It was
situated in the post-Jesuit edifice. Since 1636 there has
been the Seminary College in Sandomierz. Today there are
here as well: the Linguistic College, the Liturgical
Institute of PAT (the Pope’s Academy of Theology) and the
University College of Arts and Natural Science.
The
long-lasting bloom of Sandomierz has endowed the town with
numerous municipal and sacral buildings, founded and
erected by men of a great culture and tolerance. What is
worth mentioning here is a special privilege from 1367 that
guaranteed royal protection to the local Jewish community,
which was, after the Cracow one, the largest in Poland, as
well as the “Sandomierz Agreement” from 1570 between
Calvinists, Lutherans and Hussites (Bohemian
Brothers). From among over 120
monuments of architecture in Sandomierz the following are
recognized as the most valuable: the architectural -
landscape complex of the Old Town, preserving the lay-out
from the second half of the 14th century and the Dominican
monastery complex of St. James’s Church. There are also
preserved remains of Gothic fortified walls with the
Opatowska Gate and the Castle, as well as the Town Hall,
the Cathedral, numerous churches, burghers’ houses and
suburban manor-houses. Despite all its
historical misfortunes, Sandomierz undoubtedly has always
been a European city as it preserved the various marks of
the history of Europe and it belongs to its cultural
heritage.