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Brzesko
Brzesko is a district seat along the Kraków-Tarnów route.
Worth seeing:
- its old urban layout, with market square
- parish church (1447)
- palace (1898), which currently houses a school
- the urban and architectural complex of the Okocim brewery (1845)
- the Jewish cemetery (kirkut).
According to documents dating back to the thirteenth century, Brzesko was one of the settlements along the route leading from Kraków to Ruś and Hungary. Given its town charter by the Melszyński family with Queen Jadwiga's consent. She granted a town charter based on Magdeburg Law in 1385, which determined the town's urban character. The Brzesko burghers, who were primarily involved in trade and crafts, were released in 1386 from their obligation to pay customs and tolls. The Gothic church of St. Jacob was built in 1447.
Brzesko suffered heavy damage during the seventeenth century, first by the Swedish invasion of 1655, followed by Rakoczy's armies. In the eighteenth century, the city nevertheless managed to recover from its decline. The second half of the nineteenth century was particularly important in terms of Brzesko's development, because in 1845 Jan Goetz, Julian Kodrębski and Józef Neuman founded a brewery in nearby Okocim. During the same period, in 1856, the rail line linking Kraków, Dębica and Lwów was built. In 1867, Brzesko became the district seat as a result of the administrative and judicial reforms were taking place in the Austrian Empire. Fires, such as the one in 1904, and epidemics were persistent problems, and during the twentieth century the two world wars left their mark on the town as well.
Jews began living in Brzesko - which in Yiddish is known as Briegel - in the late seventeenth century, and were under the authority of the Community in Wiśnicz. With time, the Jewish population grew, and soon it became an independent Community, which built its own synagogue. When the Second World War broke out, Jews comprised the overwhelming majority of Brzesko's population, and lived primarily in its eastern part, on the streets known today as ul. Berka Joselewicza, Puszkina and Długa. As in most Galician small towns, the Jews were primarily involved in trade.
The Jews of Brzesko became famous thanks to two families who settled there in the nineteenth century: the Lipszyc Hasidic dynasty and the Brandstaetters, one of the most eminent families of Polish Jewish intellectuals. This reputation was made by Mordechaj Dawid Brandstaetter (1844-1928), a writer who wrote in Hebrew and was a supporter of the Haskala movement, whose works are recognized as masterpieces of Hebrew literature, and by his grandson, Roman Brandstaetter (1906-1987) - one of Poland's leading twentieth century writers.
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The first wooden synagogue burned along with other buildings during a great fire. The second, erected on the site of the old one in the same year as the fire, 1904, is typical of the region's synagogues. After the war, the synagogue was reconstructed, and currently houses a library (ul. Puszkina 2). At ul. Długiej 3 a nineteenth century house of prayer still stands.
The kirkut at ul. Czarnowiejska was laid out in approximately 1824. It occupied an area of approximately 1.45 hectares, and is surrounded by a concrete and brick wall, with an iron gate on its southern side that is locked. Maria Martyna has the key at ul. Czarnowiejska 34. One main path leads from the entrance gate, and on the left are women's and girls' graves, and on the right are men's, among which are the graves of some important figures. Several hundred matsevot have survived, some of which have interesting ornamentation.
Kirkut. Photo: A.Olej&K. Kobus:
The oldest dates back to 1824 and belongs to Mrs. Jetl. The oldest matsevot usually have lettering in relief, and their form is similar to those in Wiśnicz in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Two oholot are noteworthy: the older one contains the graves of three rabbis from the Lipszyc family, Arie Lejbusz (d. 1846)the son of Chaim Halbersztam of Nowy Sącz; his son tsaddik Meszulman Zalman Jonatan (d. 1855); and the third from this dynasty, the grandson Towie Lipszyc (1826-1912), the descendant of tsaddik Reb Cwi Naftalego of Ropczyce. A new ohel erected in the 1990's over the graves of Efraim Templer (director of the beit ha-midrash; 1867�1938) and four members of the Templer family, who were rabbis or synagogue sextons. A memorial enclosed by a fence commemorates those killed by the Germans on April 18, 1942. The last funeral of remains that had been exhumed took place in 1960.
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