Biecz: „Little Kraków” and the Polish Carcassonne

Po polsku: Biecz

Why is one small town in the Carpathian Foothills called both „Little Kraków” and „the Polish Carcassonne”? Biecz lies in Małopolska (Lesser Poland), the same region as Kraków, in the hilly landscape of the Pogórze Karpackie (Carpathian Foothills), crossed by the river Ropa. It was once a royal town with its own court and its own executioner, and it still keeps its old layout and pieces of its medieval walls.

Why „Little Kraków” and „Polish Carcassonne”?

Biecz is a beautiful historic town in the area known as Ziemia Biecka (the Biecz Land). People call it „Little Kraków” and also „the Polish Carcassonne”. The second nickname comes from the old layout of the town, which has survived to this day, and from the fragments of the medieval walls.

Biecz is also known as the town of the executioner, called the „Master of Holy Justice” (Mistrz Świętej Sprawiedliwości). Many people who later took up this profession trained here. More on that below.

A short history

Around the middle of the 13th century, Biecz received town rights from Bolesław Wstydliwy (Boleslaus the Chaste). The town was surrounded by walls with a barbican (a fortified gate-tower) and towers. It guarded the southern borders of the Polish state, and it was also an important centre of trade, because several trade routes crossed here.

At that time Biecz was one of the biggest towns in Poland, with more than 30 kinds of crafts. Cloth-making and linen-making grew fastest, and the wine trade flourished. The town belonged to the king. During their stays, kings ruled from here, held meetings and political councils, granted the town many privileges and signed documents important for the region and the whole kingdom. Biecz had three castles, where princes and kings of the Piast and Jagiellonian dynasties often stayed.

Culture grew along with trade. There was already a school in Biecz in the second half of the 14th century, and several notable people came from here:

• Marcin Kromer, born in Biecz: historian, geographer, diplomat and Bishop of Warmia.
• Wacław Potocki, the greatest Polish poet of the 17th century. He served in Biecz as podstarości (deputy starost, a royal official) and as castle court judge (sędzia grodzki), and he wrote his poem „Wojna chocimska” (The Khotyn War) here.

The town of the executioner

The golden age of Biecz lasted from the 14th to the 17th century. The town was the seat of the Wyższy Sąd Prawa Niemieckiego (Higher Court of German Law), and it also had town and land courts. In 1616 Biecz received the „prawo miecza” (the sword right). This meant the right to sentence people to death, carry out the sentences, and keep its own executioner’s office.

Apprentice executioners could finish their training in Biecz easily, because bandits who attacked merchants on the trade routes were caught all over the area. Captured men were held in the so-called „turma”, a dungeon where they were tortured. Because death sentences were frequent, the executioners of Biecz gained a lot of practice, and other towns paid to borrow them.

According to legend, the executioner in Biecz was a man called Jurko, whose surname is unknown. He was said to be of aristocratic origin, highly educated, a speaker of several languages and an authority in legal and medical matters. The legend says that he liked mass executions and quoted Homer, Ovid and Horace during torture. It is a legend, so please read it as one.

In the second half of the 17th century the town began to lose its importance, because of plagues, changes in trade routes and the general situation of the Polish state. After the first partition of Poland, Biecz came under Austrian rule. The new authorities abolished the Biecz district (powiat) and the courts. In the 18th century the town became private property and lost its royal status.

What to see in Biecz

Biecz is full of old and beautiful buildings. Here are the most valuable ones.

Ratusz (Town Hall) and the Turma

The Town Hall is the tallest building in Biecz and was originally Gothic. Its tower is decorated with sgraffito, a technique where a pattern is scratched into layers of plaster. Wooden stairs lead up the tower to a viewing platform, with a view over the Ropa valley, the Beskid Niski mountains and the Carpathian Foothills.

In the cellar under the tower is the dungeon called the Turma, where convicts were held. Inscriptions and calendars scratched by the prisoners can still be seen on its walls. Higher up there was a cell, where today you can see copies of medieval instruments of torture.

Kolegiata Bożego Ciała (Corpus Christi Collegiate Church)

This impressive brick building is the leading example of late Gothic architecture in Małopolska. A „kolegiata” is a church with a chapter of priests, a rank just below a cathedral. The interior combines three eras: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. Among the most valuable elements are:

• Renaissance stalle (carved choir stalls) and monuments.
• The painting „Zdjęcie z krzyża” (Deposition from the Cross) in the main altar, painted by artists from the circle of Michelangelo.
• Works by Stanisław Stwosz, son of Wit Stwosz (Veit Stoss).
• The polychromy (painted decoration) of the presbytery, designed and made by Włodzimierz Tetmajer with Apolinary Kotowicz, a Biecz native and pupil of Matejko. It shows a gallery of Polish kings.
• A rare music stand from 1633.

Medieval town walls

Next to the church you can see the średniowieczne mury miejskie (medieval town walls). They are what remains of the defensive walls that once surrounded the settlement on the hill. Over time they fell into ruin, so only a few parts survive. A walking path runs along the walls.

„Stara Apteka” (the Old Pharmacy) and the museum

Nearby stands a lovely townhouse with a Renaissance attic (a decorative parapet) and a sgraffito frieze, known as the „Stara Apteka”. It housed the oldest pharmacy in Podkarpacie (the Subcarpathian region). Today it is a museum with a pharmacy exhibition and displays of old music and crafts.

The museum has several branches:

• Kromerówka: a Renaissance townhouse with exhibitions about Marcin Kromer and Wacław Potocki.
• Baszta kowalska (Blacksmith’s Tower): with a painting gallery.
• Turma: the medieval dungeons under the Town Hall tower.

Kościół Franciszkanów (Franciscan church)

This 17th-century church is one of the first Reformed Franciscan monasteries built in Poland. It forms one closed whole: the church of St Anne, the monastery and the monastery courtyard. The church is Baroque, with a simple and uniform interior.

On both sides of the main altar there are stained-glass windows designed by Stanisław Matejko, nephew of Jan Matejko. To the left of the main altar hangs a painting by artists from the circle of El Greco. The poet Wacław Potocki is buried in the crypt.

The monastery has a library with a valuable collection, going back to 1624. Its incunabula (books from the 15th century) deserve special attention.

Szpital św. Ducha (Hospital of the Holy Spirit) and the old seat of the wójt

On the eastern tip of the town stands a building from 1395, founded by Queen Jadwiga, who stayed in Biecz many times. The Hospital of the Holy Spirit used to be here. It was generously endowed with land, and later kings confirmed the foundation. Until the 19th century the hospital kept receiving donations, so it was one of the best-endowed hospitals in Poland.

Next to it is a building that was first the seat of the wójt (the town’s head official). It was built at the beginning of the 16th century and in the 17th century turned into a castle, the seat of the starosta (royal governor) and of the castle court (sąd grodzki). Wacław Potocki worked here. Today it houses Zespół Szkół nr 1 (School Complex No. 1).

Kamienica Chodorów (the Chodor townhouse)

On the western side of the market square stands the Kamienica Chodorów, one of the more interesting burgher townhouses. It has a historic sień zajezdna, an entrance hall big enough for carriages to drive in. According to local tradition, this house belonged to Zbój Becz (Becz the Robber), the legendary founder of the town.

The former synagogue

Near the market square stands the building that was once a synagogue, built in the middle of the 19th century. Today it holds the offices of the Town Council and the Town Office, and the municipal and commune public library. On the walls of the main prayer hall, fragments of painted decoration have survived. One of them shows the Temple in Jerusalem, with a Hebrew inscription.

From April to August 1942, during the Second World War, a ghetto for the Jewish people of Biecz and the surrounding area was located around the synagogue. On the front wall of the building there is a memorial plaque from 1998, funded by the Society of Jews from Biecz in New York, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.

Attractions around Biecz

Wooden architecture trail

The Szlak Architektury Drewnianej (Wooden Architecture Trail) of Małopolska runs through the municipality. It is made up of churches, Orthodox churches (cerkwie), bell towers, old Polish manor houses, wooden villas and open-air museums. On the trail are the churches in Libusza and Rożnowice, and the church in Binarowa, a real gem among the wooden churches of Małopolska.

The Church of St Michael the Archangel in Binarowa is one of the oldest and most valuable examples of wooden sacred architecture in Poland.

Carpathian-Galician oil trail

The Karpacko-galicyjski szlak naftowy (Carpathian-Galician Oil Trail) has interesting stops showing the equipment that once filled the oil fields around Gorlice. The Biecz area has its own oil tradition too. In the second half of the 19th century Count Tadeusz Skrzyński founded an oil mine, and his son Count Adam Skrzyński built a kerosene refinery in Libusza. In 1918 the Nobel family bought the Libusza refinery from Adam Skrzyński, and the company joined the international Standard Oil Company of Rockefeller.

One of the attractions of Libusza is the private Muzeum Przemysłu Naftowego i Etnografii (Museum of the Oil Industry and Ethnography), started by Anna and Tadeusz Pabis. It is an open-air exhibition with an educational path. The path leads from an old hand-dug well past historic mining objects (a distillery, a forge, a tool ramp) to a modern oil well.

There were also oil mines in Biecz itself, at the place called „Harta” next to Góra Zamkowa (Castle Hill), and in Załawie, Korczyna and Belna. They were called „Piłsudski”, „Merkury”, „Romania” and „Długosz – Załawie”.

Carpathian cycling route

The Karpacki szlak rowerowy (Carpathian Cycling Route) links the most beautiful corners of the region: nature and culture, monuments, folk artists’ workshops, galleries and local initiatives. Two connecting routes run through the Biecz municipality:

• Winny Szlak Rowerowy (Wine Cycling Route): 12 km, through places connected with the wine trade in the Middle Ages.
• Królewski Szlak Rowerowy (Royal Cycling Route): 5 km, referring to historic places where kings stayed or passed through.

First World War cemeteries

The First World War did not do great damage to the town itself. Still, many cemeteries in the Biecz municipality are a trace of those events. They are the resting places of soldiers who died in the Battle of Gorlice. There are five First World War cemeteries in Biecz:

• No. 105, on the hill, by a chapel from 1812.
• No. 106, next to the Corpus Christi Collegiate Church.
• No. 107, the war plot for Jewish soldiers, on ul. Tysiąclecia.
• No. 108, on ul. Kazimierza Wielkiego.
• No. 109, by the Jasło-Biecz road, near the railway station.

Soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian, Russian and German armies are buried there.

Source: promotional materials of the Tourist Information Point in Biecz.

More guides: Kraków & Małopolska in English.

Łukasz, Niezwykła Małopolska