History of Bielsko-Biala

Wisla, Ustron and Zywiec.

The today's center of the town was probably developed as early as in the first half of the 13th century. It was then when a castle was built on a hill still used for this purpose today. Sometime in the 13th or 14th century the town was granted a town charter; the exact date is unknown because the document is now lost.

The town of Bielsko was first mentioned in a letter by a Duke of Cieszyn in 1312. For centuries, Bielsko belonged to the Duchy of Cieszyn. From 1457 the Biała river was the border between Silesia and Little Poland. Silesia belonged to Austria, Little Poland to Poland. In 1723 on the opposite bank of the river the city of Biała came into being.

In 1772 Biała was annexed by Austria and included in the crownland of Galicia. In 1918 both cities became part of reborn Poland, though a significant part of the population was ethnic German. During World War II the city was annexed to the Third Reich and its Jewish population sent to Auschwitz Nazi German concentration camp. After the liberation of the city by the Red Army in 1945, the ethnic German population was expelled. The city of Bielsko-Biała was created on January 1, 1951 when the adjacent cities of Bielsko and Biała were unified.