On 10 April 1580, Chancellor and Great Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski issued a foundation charter, declaring the beginning of construction of Zamość, on a trade route link between northwest Europe and the Black Sea.  The process lasted more than 10 years.  The town soon became known as a centre of progress, science, culture, and art in Poland. To ensure safety, Zamość was surrounded with defensive walls with 7 bastions at their bends; mighty cannons on top of the bastions protected the town. From the south and west, access to the town was blocked by marsh; from the east and north, by a deep moat. Despite its heptagonal fortifications, there were invasion try-ons by different groups – Cossacks and Swedes in 17thC, Russians in the 19thC – besieged, stormed but never captured! In 1821, the ‘ruling’ Zamoyski family exchanged their ownership of the town, for land ownership concessions. Zamość, became a government fortress of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. During WW2, Zamość was captured first by the Soviets and then by the German army. 

Zamość is a lovely example of a Renaissance town, modelled on Italian trading cities of the period, complete with its original layouts and fortifications. The market place is the showpiece of the town with the town hall, colourful Armenian houses and the Synagogue, which are reminders of the muti-cultural past of the town. Delicious zurek soup lunch at the 1590 restaurant “Morandowska”. And a nice trek home with autumnal tree change happening on the road and an ‘unthought-through’ planting at a house on the edge of the highway! 🙂