Around the World in Envelopes : Tomasźow Mazowiecki

A beautiful cover from Poland 🇵🇱 with so many fabulous postcards and details of another beautiful Polish city !

World Post Day

Date of issue : 09-October-2008

Postmark : Tomaszow Maxowiecki 17-06-2019

Polish landscapes

Date of issue : 30 - April - 2019

Postmark : Tomaszow Masowiecki 17-06-2019

Tomaszów Mazowiecki is a town in central Poland. It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999). The town is situated on the banks of three rivers, the Pilica, Wolbórka, and Czarna Bielina, and is near the Sulejow Reservoir and the edge of the Puszcza Spalska wilderness area.

Tomaszów Mazowiecki was formed in 1788 in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland by industrialist Tomasz Ostrowski based on local supply of the iron ore. The metal industry was expanded around 1820. Tomaszów received city rights in 1830 during the November Uprising against the Russian Empire in Congress Poland. A year later the first Jewish Qahal was founded. By 1931 the Jewish population of the city grew to about 30% of the general population of Tomaszów.

Coat of arms of the city - also seen on the cachet on the envelope

During the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the city was overrun by Nazi Germany. Next month the Great Synagogue was burned to the ground as first on 16 October 1939; the remaining two synagogues were destroyed on 7–14 November. In December 1942 some 15,000 Jews were deported aboard Holocaust trains to Treblinka extermination camp. Some 200 Jews from Tomaszów are known to have survived World War II.

Postcards from Tomaszow

Palika River Skansen

The open-air museum of Pilica river is the first heritage park in Poland dedicated to a river. It is located near the Pilica river in the town of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. It was created in 2000. It is located next to the Blue Springs nature reserve.

The activities of the open-air museum of Pilica river were recognised by the Polish Tourist Organisation in 2005 when the museum was awarded a prize for "the best Polish tourist product of the year". In 2009 the museum was awarded the award "Friendly Bank".

Blue spring Natural Reserve

Groty Nagórzyckie

The Nagórzyckie Caves - artificial grottos located in the southern part of the city of Tomaszów Mazowiecki,

The caves are a remnant of an underground mine of glass sand, mined for construction and metallurgical needs in the eighteenth century and the beginning of the 19th century. The caves consist of numerous corridors, alcoves, alleys and halls. The largest excavation called the "Royal Hall" is 30 m long, 25 m wide and 3 m high. The widest cave is 120 meters long.

Sand was mined from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century for farm purposes, and later for glassworks. The ban on exploitation was issued by the tsarist authorities after the collapse of one of the chambers in which the inhabitant of Nagórzyce was killed.

A renewed interest has launched an investment to restore the tip with financial support from the European Union. From June 2010, the caves were secured and adapted for exploring, and at the beginning of 2012 the caves opened their doors for tourists.