Zator, Lesser Poland Voivodeship

The city, located on the Skawa river, is well known for pisciculture, especially carp, and periodic event called Zatorskie Dni Karpia. Zator is the main city of the Carp Valley.[1]

Originally a part of Lesser Poland, the area was acquired by the Silesian Piast Duke Władysław of Opole by a 1274 agreement with the Polish Princeps Bolesław V the Chaste. Zator then belonged to the Upper Silesian Duchy of Opole and after Władysław's death in 1281 fell to the Duchy of Cieszyn. It received town privileges in 1292.

From 1315 on Zator belonged to the Duchy of Oświęcim split off Cieszyn and in 1445 even became the capital of a Piast duchy in its own right, the Duchy of Zator under Duke Wenceslaus I, a Bohemian vassal. It finally fell back to the Kingdom of Poland, when in 1494 Wenceslaus' son Jan V sold his lands to King John I Albert.

From 1564 Zator had been incorporated into the Kraków Voivodeship of Lesser Poland; in the course of the 1772 First Partition of Poland it was annexed by the Habsburg monarchy under Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and incorporated into the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain Zator again fell to Poland.

During World War II, Zator was incorporated to Nazi Germany as a part of the Province of Upper Silesia, and was liberated on January 26, 1945. Several hundred Jews lived in Zator. Most of them were murdered in the Holocaust.[2]

A monument in memory of the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust in the Zatur community and the surrounding area. In the Kiryat Shaul cemetery

• The Zator castle, actually a palace, originally of defensive purposes. The castle is from 1445 year. It is classified as The First Class Monument. In 1836, it was completely renovated by The Potocki family according to the project of F. M. Lanci.[3]
• The Jewish cemetery, founded in the middle of the 19th century. There are about 50 preserved headstones, most of which with an inscription in Hebrew language.
• The Energylandia amusement park is located in Zator.[4]

• Roman Rybarski (1887–1942), economist and politician
• Rose Meth (1925-2013), surviving participant of the October 7, 1944 Sonderkommando uprising at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

• (in Polish) Serwis Internetowy Miasta i Gminy Zator
• (in Polish) Stowarzyszenie Dolina Karpia
• (in Polish) The illustrated article about the castle in Zator
• Jewish Community in Zator on Virtual Shtetl

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