The City Plans of Łęczna from 19th Century. The Origins and Iconography

Abstract

This article discusses issues of cartographic sources documenting the history of Łęczna, i.e. the city plans and its fragments. Historians working on this topic have not expressed any increased interest in the matter. Their attention was focused on a plan from 1846, made after the fire in the city which took place on 10 November. The plan was published as one piece or in fragments, but mainly in order to draw the attention to the very fact of its existence, as an overall characterization of presenting Łęczna, or it was referred to while discussing various aspects of the town’s history. However, both in this case and in the case of other city plans, no source studies have even been made. The sources that are used come from the collection of the National Archives in Lublin, National Library, and the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw.

While presenting individual plans, their origins and iconography was discussed. It should be stated that in this context, the cartography of Łęczna is rather poor. We have only six city plans. This results from the fact that the city was of little importance as an administrative, economic, and political centre, additionally being a private property. The plans that had been made consist primarily of the image of the city fragments, while the full plans, apart from the one from 1846, are rather schematic and simplified. This makes it impossible to capture the dynamics of spatial changes in the development of Łęczna in the 19th c.

The query was not of intentional nature. It was rather piecemeal. Therefore, one should not expect to find the plans of Łęczna as separate archival units in the known studies and reviews of archive collections. It is more likely that they could be found as attachments to various cases.