Did you know that...
• Przemyśl is a city with a thousand year old tradition - it was mentioned for the first time in Nestor’s Chronicle in 981, where Nestor mentioned that the city had been taken over by kiev prince Włodzimierz.
• For over 200 years, since 1087, the city was and independent russian duchy.
In 1340 Kazimierz the Great had reunited Przemyśl with Poland and built a castle, which to this day looks over the town.
• Since its beginnings Przemyśl served as a central point for settlers, key point in strategic defense system, and administrative-economic centre for trade and culture. In 1389 Przemyśl gained its civic rights and became one of the richest towns in the whole country in XVI and VII century - the biggest civic centre between Cracov and Lviv.
• The oldest amateur theatre group in Europe - the theatrical association “Fredreum”, under the name of Aleksander Fredro, was created in Przemyśl, in 1869.
• Przemyśl is the polish capital of pipes and bells. Pipes from Przemyśl are well known all over the world, and the bells from Przemyśl are ringing on every continent. The only museum of pipes and bells in Poland is situated in the Clock Tower in Przemyśl.
• Przemyśl Fortress payed a huge role during the First World War. Numerous graveyards of fallen soldiers are the remnants of those times. Today the Fortress consists of 45 km long range of 15 main and several dozen smaller forts as well as numerous smaller military key points placed on the city borders.
• Between september 1939 and june 1941 Przemyśl, just like the rest of Poland, was divided between two occupants. Half of the town, situated to the right of the river San (the Old Town) was occupied by the Soviets, while the other half, to the left of San (Zasanie) by Nazi Germany.
• Although the city is situated almost 800 km from the sea, a citizen of Przemyśl, Henryk Jaskuła, as the first Pole managed to circle the world on a boat without arriving to any port. The voyage took him 344 days (from 12 june 1979 to 20 may 1980).
• Jan Długosz noted that Prince Przemysław was the town’s founder and the name of the city comes from his name. According to a legend, the prince went hunting and at the place where he killed a bear, he established a settlement that would have a bear in its coat of arms. On the area of today’s Przemyśl a settlement was built, and many people were wondering what would be the best name for it, but they couldn’t come to an agreement. An old lady came out of the crowd and shouted: “Think or don’t think it will be Przemyśl” (przemyśl - as a verb, in polish means ‘to rethink sth’) - and that’s how it remained until today.
• The heighest point of the city, in terms of absolute height, is the Tatar Barrow (Kopiec Tatarski), which height equals 352 m above sea level. The oldest legend tells a story of a Tatar khan, who was killed during the fights in the first half of XVI century. In the place where he was killed a big monument, in form of a barrow, was raised.
• Przemyśl, just like Rome, is situated on seven hills.
• Przemyśl is the capitol of two archbisophrics: roman-catholic and greek-catholic
• The Fortress’ Chief Medic, a hungarian, Robert Barany received a Noble Award in 1914.
• In Andrzej Wajda’s movie “Kronika wypadków miłosnych” Przemyśl was potraying the city of Vilnius.
• Kornel Makuszyński, the author of „Awantura o Basię” and „Koziołek Matołek”, had problems with his education, and couldn’t finish any middle school. After being expelled from different schools he ended up in school which is nowadays High School No.1 under the name of J.Słowacki in Przemyśl, but was expelled from it as well. Eventually Makuszyński finished his education and the school in Przemyśl placed his name on the list of its distinguished graduates.
• The prototype for Jerzy Michał Wołodyjowski - a hero from H. Sienkiewicz’s „Trilogy” was Jerzy Wołodyjowski (1620-1672), a pantler from Przemyśl.
• Przemyśl along with Medyka and Żurawica create the biggest “dry dock” in Europe.
• The train “Przemyślanin” covers the longest train route in Poland from Przemyśl to Świnoujście.
• Józef Kałuża, a citizen of Przemyśl and “Polonia” sport club ward, was the first coach in Poland who brought his team to World Chamionship in Footbal.
• Przemyśl was the first town that raised a monument for J.Piłsudski. It was placed on the Legions’ Square, but was destroyed during World War II.