Send Gift Baskets to Zamosc, Poland

In 1580, Jan Zamoyski, the Chancellor and Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, founded Zamo on the trade route connecting western and northern Europe with the Black Sea. The late Renaissance town of Zamo, built by the Paduan architect Bernardo Morando in the late 16th century, is modeled after Italian trading cities. Many buildings combining Venetian and central European architectural traditions remain in the building’s original street layout, fortifications, and courtyard.

It flourished as the city developed at its fastest and most extensive pace in the 16th century. The city attracted not only Poles but also other nationalities. The Zamoyski Academy was founded by Jan Zamoyski in 1594. A Cossack siege led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the leader of the uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1654), and another siege during the Swedish Deluge in 1656 both targeted the city. It was also impossible for the Swedish army to capture the city, as it did for the Cossacks. Only during the Great Northern War was Zamość occupied by Swedish and Saxon forces.

As part of the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the Habsburg monarchy annexed the city, becoming part of the newly formed Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria; the kingdom became a crown land of the Austrian Empire in 1804. The town was incorporated into the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw following the Austro-Polish War of 1809. Zamo became part of Congress Poland, controlled by the Russian Empire, in 1815 when the Congress of Vienna dissolved the duchy. When the November Uprising occurred in 1830–1831, the city played an important role and surrendered as the last point of the Polish resistance. Upon the demolition of the fortress in 1866, the town overgrew beyond its original boundaries. Before Poland regained independence in 1918, local Poles liberated the city from foreign occupation during World War I.