Bełchatów Travel Guide

Bełchatów

Bełchatów Travel Guide - Bełchatów is a place in central Poland in the province of Łódzkie with about 62,500 inhabitants as of 2004.

It is an administrative district which is an area of 35 km2, located in the southern part of the Łódzkie voivodeship (province), 50 km south of Łódź and is about 160 km from the capital of Poland, Warsaw.

Accommodation in Bełchatów

You will find the full range of accommodation in this town from the most luxurious five star hotels with up to date and modern amenities to pensions (a type of guest house or boarding house) and rooms or apartments at very reasonable prices. Some of the larger towns and cities will also have hostels.

If you prefer to stay in a more rural location there are a number of “Agro” style of accommodation places on farms and in the countryside plus there may be camp sites nearby.

If you see something you like or wish to know more about please contact the accommodation directly as I do not take commission and I take the attitude that their own website will have more up to date details on what they offer than if I were to include it here.

If you wish to advertise your accommodation on Bełchatów Travel Guide please contact me.

Activities & Attractions in Bełchatów

Poland is a country with a large variety of landscapes, a place where you can experience all four seasons. This provides the visitor with many opportunities for adventure and different activities and visiting attractions, whether you enjoy the mountains, lakes, rivers or the beaches you will find something that suits you.

If you see something you like or wish to know more about the activity or attraction please contact the provider directly as I do not take commission and I take the attitude that their own website will have more up to date details on what they offer than if I were to include it here.

What ever activity or attraction you run, if you wish to advertise on Bełchatów Travel Guide please let me know.

Geography of Bełchatów

Awaiting details.

History of Bełchatów

The first mention of Belchatow dates back to 1391, however its district of Grocholice, which used to be a separate town, holds the oldest historical record. It was established at the beginning of 1136 and received town status in 1420, losing them 450 years later due to the repercussions following the January Uprising.

Belchatow’s Medieval history is related to the Belchacki family, who where descended from the Grzymalit family. In the fifteenth century, the Kowalewski family inherited Belchatow and had a church and Franciscan monastery built turning it into a parish village. Belchatow received town status in 1737. The event was related with the name of Franciszek Rychlowski, the then town owner, who received the privilege from King August III Sas.

Between 1820 and 1887, the Kaczkowski family owned Bełchatów, and turned it into an important centre of the textile industry. In 1870 the town was punished for assisting in the January Uprising and lost its town rights and did not regain them until 1925. In 1867, the Kaczkowskis property was auctioned and the town of Bełchatów was sold to a Ernest Ludenhorf and Reinhold Spiller respectively. In 1887 Henryk Hellwig, a Bavarian from Tuszyn, became the new owner of the town.

During the initial years of Poland’s independence, Bełchatów underwent economic revival with new factories being established, the municipal infrastructure redeveloped and a telephone communications network installed. Utility institutions such as a bank, court, schools and library were set in place.

Approximately 10,500 people lived in the town before World War II, which included over 50% of native born Poles.

1956 saw Bełchatów receive the status of the poviat (district) city, and in 1960 there where large deposits of brown coal discovered which would provide a large boost to the local economy. It was not until thirteen years later that the decision was taken to construct the “Bełchatów” Brown coal mine and Power Station.

Museums in Bełchatów

Polska is full of history and the Polish are great lovers of knowledge of the past so you will find many museums in the country, whether it be a folk, military, science, skansen, transport or any other type.

Poland has a long history and has been an important trading route that has been invaded by many different groups over the past 1,000 years. Museums are a great way to explore the nations history about the inhabitants of the land in the past, their lives and customs.

Accept a free advert about your museum and include it below by writing an article about it here on David's Travel Guides. Follow the link for the article. For the rest, if you see something you like or wish to know more about please contact the museum directly as I take the attitude that their own website will have more up to date details on what they offer than if I were to include it here.

What ever museum you run, you can advertise it on Bełchatów Travel Guide at no cost.

Places to Eat in Bełchatów

There are many restaurants covering the usual pizza to those offering local Polish traditional and regional cuisine.

What Wikipeda says about Polish Cuisine

Polish cuisine (Polish: kuchnia polska) is a style of cooking and food preparation originating from Poland. It has evolved over the centuries due to historical circumstances. Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central European and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian similarities. It is rich in meat, especially pork, chicken and beef (depending on the region) and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish bigos), and spices.

It is also characteristic in its use of various kinds of noodles the most notable of which are kluski as well as cereals such as kasha (from the Polish word kasza). Generally speaking, Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. The traditional dishes are often demanding in preparation. Many Poles allow themselves a generous amount of time to serve and enjoy their festive meals, especially Christmas eve dinner (Wigilia) or Easter breakfast which could take a number of days to prepare in their entirety.

The Polish national dishes are bigos; pierogi; kielbasa; kotlet schabowy (type of breaded cutlet); gołąbki (type of cabbage roll); zrazy (type of roulade); roast (Polish: pieczeń); sour cucumber soup (Polish: zupa ogórkowa); mushroom soup, (Polish: zupa grzybowa) (quite different from the North American cream of mushroom); tomato soup (Polish: zupa pomidorowa); rosół (variety of meat broth); żurek (sour rye soup); flaki (variety of tripe soup); and barszcz among others.

If you see something you like or wish to know more about please contact the place to eat directly as I do not take commission and I take the attitude that their own website will have more up to date details on what they offer than if I were to include it here.

If you wish to advertise your cafe, restaurant or bar on Bełchatów Travel Guide please advise me.

Tourist Information in Bełchatów

David's Travel Guides - This web site will eventually have tourist information on most of the places in Polska. Being a web site you will be able to access the information on most digital platforms, including your laptop, personal computer or a mobile phone.

Tourist organisations are welcome to contact me for details on how to display their information on Bełchatów Travel Guide.

PTTK - Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society is a non-profit organisation that you will find in many places in Poland.

It is one of the oldest tourist societies in Europe and was was created by the merger of two societies: Polish Tatry Society (1873) and Polish Country Lovers Society (1906).

Official Tourist Information Centres in Poland are divided into 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* Certified and Non-Certified. All Certified Tourist Centres provide information in one or more foreign languages and have an expanded range of services as compared to the Non-Certified.

Transport in Bełchatów

The airports of Łódź is about 50 km, Katowice is about 140 km and Warsaw about 150 km. Recently the Lodz international airport was refurbished and reopened. It provides scheduled domestic passenger flights to Bydgoszcz and international flights to Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, UK and Italy. The airport in Łódź also offers chartered flights to Egypt, Israel, Tunisia and Turkey as well as cargo flights.

Belchatow is accessible by national road No. 8 connecting Warsaw with Wrocław and regional roads Nos.: 485 (Pabianice – Bełchatów) and 484 (Buczek - Bełchatów – Kamieńsk).

There is a good bus connection to Łódź, Warsaw and Wrocław and other nearby towns.

The closest railway line offering passenger and cargo transportation is located at Piotrków Trybunalski about 25 km away from Bełchatów. Piotrków Trybunalski has direct connections to railway junctions in Koluszki (39 km) and Częstochowa (85 km).

Bełchatów is also a starting point for a district cycle lane connecting the town with the recreation centres of “Słok” and “Wawrzkowizna”. It is also planed to open a cross country trail connecting the cycle lane with the lower station of the ski lift on Kamieńska Mountain.

Here are some useful websites to help you find your way to this place.

Websites of Bełchatów

If you have a website that is an official one linked to this town, or you administer a local community or an important trade site please contact me here at Bełchatów Travel Guide as I may be interested in including it.