Strzyà ¼Ã³w is a town in Strzyà ¼Ã³w County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, along the Wisà Âok river valley. Strzyà ¼Ã³w is one of the towns within the Strzyà ¼owsko-Dynowskie Foothill, located south-east of Kraków and from Rzeszów. According to from 30 June 2010 from GUS (the Central Statistical Office in Poland), there are 8,782 inhabitants.
The history of Strzyà ¼Ã³w dates back to the 9th century, to the times of the Wià Âlanie tribe (Vistulans) when a legendary pagan Vistulan prince is said to have built a watchtower by Stobnica and Wisà Âok river called "Strzeà ¼no", for the defence of eastern borders of his land. In 1279, in Buda (Hungary), the Pope's legate named Bishop Philip confirmed the abbot's right to take a special tax (a tithe) from Czudec and Strzyà ¼Ã³w.
Strzyà ¼Ã³w obtained town rights between 1373 and 1397. The town was surrounded by a soil defence embankment (Zawale Street still exists and it relates to that embankment). These were the times of town splendour and its development, craft, farming and trade contracts with other towns in what is now Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. In 1373, Strzyà ¼Ã³w came into the hands of a knight, Wojtko, and later Pakosz and his sons Jan and Mikoà Âaj. With time the town changed its owners. On 15 August 1769 the Bar Confederates made an oath in front of the painting of Immaculate Mary in Strzyà ¼Ã³w, in the presence of Casimir Pulaski and Franciszek Trzecielski. After this event, that image appeared on the Confederatesâ Banner. In 1796 the foundation of secular school strengthened town development as well as royal permission for organisation of four fairs a year from 1684. Following the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, the town became part of Austrian Galicia.
Throughout its history Strzyà ¼Ã³w suffered from as many as nine fires, the last one in 1895 caused the populace to build buildings solely from brick. By 1880 Strzyà ¼Ã³w was inhabited mostly by Poles, but there were also significant minorities such as the Jews and the Germans. In 1918, the town returned to Poland (Second Polish Republic), within which it was a county seat in the Lwów Voivodeship. In 1925, town limits were expanded by including Przedmieà Âcie Strzyà ¼owskie (former suburb). Following the German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany until 1944. The 1960s and 1970s gave beginning to industrialisation; many factories, companies, schools and cultural centres were founded in the town's vicinity.
The officially protected traditional food of Strzyà ¼Ã³w (as designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland) is krówka mleczna strzyà ¼owska, a local type of krówka (traditional Polish candy).
Strzyà ¼Ã³w is twinned with: