Włodawa

Infobox Settlement
name = Włodawa
image_shield = POL Włodawa COA.svg
pushpin_

pushpin_label_position = bottom
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = POL
subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship
subdivision_name1 = Lublin
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Włodawa County
subdivision_type3 = Gmina
subdivision_name3 = Włodawa (urban gmina)
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name = Jerzy Wrzesień
area_total_km2 = 17.97
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 13630
population_density_km2 = auto
timezone = CET
utc_offset = +1
timezone_DST = CEST
utc_offset_DST = +2
latd = 51 | latm = 33 | lats = | latNS = N | longd = 23 | longm = 33 | longs = | longEW = E
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code = 22-200
blank_name = Car plates
blank_info = LWL
website = http://www.um.wlodawa.pl

Włodawa [IPA-pl|w|ł|o|'|d|a|w|a] is a town in eastern Poland on the Bug river, close to the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. It has 14,800 inhabitants (2001).

Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999). It is the capitalof Włodawa County.

Wlodawa is first mentioned in historical records in 1242. Founded by Jewish immigrants from Germany, Wlodawa was over 70% Jewish before WWII and the Holocaust. Situated next to the Sobibór Concentration and Death Camp, Wlodawa's Jews were mostly rounded up and killed in Sobibor or one of its arbeitslagers (workcamps) like Adampol. A memorial to the Jews from Wlodawa who were killed there is at Adampol on the road to Wlodawa.

The remaining synagogue was converted to a museum and the Jewish cemetery was demolished by the Germans who used the headstones as road building material. A Wlodawa landsmenschafte (society) was founded in America for survivors and descendants of Wlodawa's Jewish Community and has members scattered throughout the US, Canada, Australia, England, Israel and elsewhere.

There are several monuments and tourist attractions worth seeing in Włodawa:
• Saint Ludwik church and baroque monastery founded by Pauline Monks in XVIII century.
• Czworobok built in XVIII century in the shape of a rectangle. It was used by merchants to sell their goods.
• Jewish synagogue that is currently used to host exhibitions about Włodawa Jews as well as local folklore.
• Russian Orthodox church that was erected in XIX century and it used by local Russian orthodox community.

External links

* http://www.wlodawa.pl/
* http://www.wlodawa.com.pl/