About us - City

Tarnobrzeg

is a town in south-eastern Poland, on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,753 inhabitants, as of 30.06.2008. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo Podkarpackie) since 1999, it had previously been the capital of Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship (1975–1998).

Sulphur mining
The city was a major center for the mining and processing of sulphur and sulphuric acid. However, its mines have since closed having been deemed uneconomic. The mine in Piaseczno was closed first, followed by the Machów mine (after 40 years of working — it had been the biggest open-cast sulphur mine in Europe), and finally the Jeziórko mine in the 1990s. The Jeziórko mine stayed open as long as it did because of the introduction of the modern Frasch process of sulphur extraction.
Since the 1980s, the land in the mining areas has gradually been reclaimed. The Machów mine has been filled with water to form a reservoir used for recreation, and the same is happening with the Jeziórko mine — it is being slowly filled from the nearby Vistula river.

History
Tarnobrzeg was founded in 1593, during the golden age of Poland, to become the residence of the regional Tarnowski "szlachta" (noble family) whose head is known as Count Tarnów. In 1772, it became part of the Austrian Empire and remained part of this country until 1918. World War I brought disaster to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Galician Poland. Tarnobrzeg, located very close to the Russian-Austrian border, sustained heavy damage during World War I by invading armies. In the aftermath of World War I, the short-lived Republic of Tarnobrzeg was declared here, and in 1919, it became part of Lwow Voivodeship of the newly independent Second Polish Republic. The city suffered significant emigration within the former Austrian empire and elsewhere during the interbellum years (1919-1939). A public school system was founded here during the time it was part of the Austrian Empire. To a great extent, this system established the literacy and culture of pre-World War I Tarnobrzeg and other similar Austrian-ruled Polish municipalities. The nearest larger city of importance is Rzeszów, 75 km to the south. This is the capital city for the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Travel to and from the one-time Imperial capital of Vienna was through Kraków. Railway service was established in later years of the Empire; Tarnobrzeg is located on the secondary-importance line between Dębica and Sandomierz. In the 1950s, after geological research into fuel deposits, significant sulfur resources were discovered. From early 1960s the city grew rapidly: the population rose from 5,000 to almost 50,000.