Stalowa Wola

Infobox Settlement
name = Stalowa Wola

---

image_caption = Streets of Stalowa Wola
image_shield = POL Stalowa Wola COA.svg
pushpin_

pushpin_label_position = bottom
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = POL
subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship
subdivision_name1 = Subcarpathian
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Stalowa Wola County
subdivision_type3 = Gmina
subdivision_name3 = Stalowa Wola (urban gmina)
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name =
established_title = Established
established_date = 1938
established_title2 = Town rights
established_date2 = 1945
area_total_km2 = 83
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 65818
population_density_km2 = auto
population_metro = 110000
timezone = CET
utc_offset = +1
timezone_DST = CEST
utc_offset_DST = +2
latd = 50 | latm = 35 | lats = | latNS = N | longd = 22 | longm = 3 | longs = | longEW = E
postal_code_type = Postal Code
postal_code = 37-450 to 37-464
area_code = (+48) 15
blank_name = Car plates
blank_info = RST
website = http://www.stalowawola.pl

Stalowa Wola [IPA-pl|s|t|a|'|l|o|w|a|-|'|w|o|l|a] is the largest city and capital of Stalowa Wola County with a population of 68,472 (2005). It is located in south-eastern Poland in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously located in the Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship between 1975–1998.

The city is found near the confluence of the Vistula and San rivers.

History

The entire area was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I; this part of Poland is known as Eastern Galicia. As a result, the area benefitted from the modernizing practices of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Franz Joseph I of Austria, who reigned during the 19th century, through WW I. For example, universal compulsory education was established in this territory to the benefit of all.

The modern city is relatively young. It was established around a steel mill which was set up in order to manufacture high alloy steels and weapons - artillery, heavy machine guns in 1937. The name of the city means "Steel Will". However, it was built on the site of Pławo, a village which had existed since the first half of the 15th century.

The steel mill (HSW S.A.) was a major part of a series of investments made by the Polish government in the years 1936–1939 to create the Central Industrial Region. This was to be a group of factories built in an area in the middle of the country, away from the borders with Germany and the USSR. It was designed to provide a reasonably secure location for the production of armaments and high technology goods.

The Rozwadów suburb of Stalowa Wola was a thriving Jewish shtetl prior to World War II and was closely associated with Tarnobrzeg and other nearby shtetls including Ulanów, Mielec, Dzików, etc.

These communities, infused with vitality before 1939, were utterly destroyed during the Holocaust after having been affected by World War I only some 20 years earlier.

Following the Holocaust, those Jewish individuals who returned found an inhospitable environment. Their homes and communities had, respectively, been destroyed and its members either murdered or forced to flee. These individuals were motivated to seek a new start on life elsewhere.

A community of former Rozwadów citizens had been established in New York and continued its affinity long after World War II.

Jews in Rozwadów were a religiously observant community, i.e., traditional or orthodox in practice. The leading rabbi of Rozwadów, similar to other rabbis of the region, followed Hasidism practice and was of the Horowitz family. In New York a Rozwadower Rebbe established a small synagogue on the upper West Side which continued for many decades after the War.

Many other former Rozwadów citizens of Jewish backgrounds moved to the fledgling State of Israel.

It is not known whether any self-identifying Jewish people remain in Rozwadów today.

Economy

The main employer is sill HSW S.A. (manufacturer of heavy machines and hi-quality alloys), then StahlSchmidt (producer of aluminium rims),then ESW-(coal power plant), Prefabet Stalowa Wola (building materials), Mostostal S.A. (steel construction-bridges, tanks and so on).

Education

* [http://www.kul.stalwol.pl Catholic University of Lublin- Stalowa Wola Subsidiary]
* [http://www.wse.stalowawola.pl Stalowa Wola Private College of Economics]

Transport

Polish State Railways (PKP) provides scheduled connections to Lublin, Warsaw, Kraków, Katowice, Wrocław, Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Odessa (in Ukraine). Summer connections are available to Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) and Hel. The city has several train stations that include: Stalowa Wola, Stalowa Wola South, Stalowa Wola Center and Stalowa Wola Rozwadów.

ZMKS is the city's main public transit agency, operating a fleet of buses in Stalowa Wola and surrounding districts.

References

External links

* [http://www.stalowawola.pl/en/pl/7/2/our_city.html City Website]
* [http://www.stalowka.pl Stal Stalowa Wola]