Wołomin

Wołomin’s city arms. – Photo by: anonymous, POL Wołomin COA, CC BY-SA 3.0

Distance

34 km NV,

41 km SE,

39 km S,

23 km SV

Population

37.389 (2014)

Location and history

Wołomin is located in Mazowsze County, northeast of the capital Warsaw. Today, the city can be considered the outermost suburb in the northeast in the metropolitan area. Wołomin is an independent municipality and is also the center of an administrative district.

The place has been known since the 15th century. The city's current name derives from the name of one of the owners in the 16th century, Jan de Volumne. After the construction of a Warsaw railway line in 1862, Wołomin became a holiday resort for the capital's inhabitants. At the beginning of the 20th century. the buildings became increasingly urban in nature. In 1902 a chapel was built, since a church. The development of the city was strengthened by the construction of a glassworks. Wołomin became a market town as late as 1919; the documents were signed by Józef Piłsudski, who at that time had become the head of the Polish Republic. Significant improvements to the city's infrastructure occurred after 1935. In the late 1930s’a concrete commodity factory was built which included produced sidewalk tiles that were used on most streets in Wołomin. On the border between Wołomin and Kobyłka, the well-known Polish geographer Wacław Nałkowski built a house, later described by his daughter, the author Zofia Nałkowska. During World War II, the Germans gathered the city's Jews in a ghetto that lay between Wołomin and Kobyłka. From there they were taken via the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka camp where they were murdered. In July 1944, the largest armor strike ever began on Polish soil – between Soviet and German forces. After the war – in 1952 – Wołomin became a district town. In the city arose among other things. a building carpentry company and an oil exploration company. In addition, Wołomin eventually became one “dormitory town” for Warsaw, with a large proportion of the inhabitants having their work in the capital.

Tourist attractions

Selected attractions:

Zofia and Wacław Nałkowski’s Museum
called “Dom nad Łąkami” (The House at the Meadows). It is the author Zofia Nałkowska’s birth home, built by her father, the geographer Wacław Nałkowski, in 1895. The building is now a biographical museum for both the father and the daughter.

Famous people from Wołomin:
Zofia Nałkowska (1884-1954), author. Her works include: “Dom nad łąkami” (The house by the meadows) (autobiography), “Granica” (The border).