History
Frampol was founded in 1705 by the owner of the estate - Franciszek Butler. Its layout was developed on the basis of the Renaissance patterns of an ideal city. The town has a unique street layout in the world. The creator of the Frampol architectural plan is unknown.
The foundation was a square with 500 m long sides, oriented by cardinal directions. This square was divided into two concentric rectangles around a large central square market with a frontage length of 225 m, so it was even larger than the Krakow market square (200 m x 200 m). The layout concept resembled a rope-rod net. The square was surrounded by four barn streets, which also provided access to the fields. The length of each barn street was approx. 500 m. The axes and diagonals of the concept formed four additional rectangular squares with sides of 68 meters. Its axes and diagonals formed 8 streets. The axial streets had a transit character and constituted the inlets of the roads to Janów, Biłgoraj and Szczebrzeszyn. The main north-south axis led to the church located outside the town layout. In the middle of the square, on the main axis, a town hall and an inn were erected.
Just like today, all the houses in the Market Square shared this address with their consecutive numbers. The house number one was owned by the heirs of Butler and was located in the middle of the Market Square. It was probably an inn and commercial house being called a town hall.
The square formed by present Szkolna, Radzięcka, Nowa and Stolarska Streets, which constituted the Market Square. Butlerowska Street became Północna, Targowa - Wschodnia, Przemysłowa - Południowa, Wesoła - Zachodnia, Janowska Street has not changed its name, 3 Maja was Kościelna, Zamojska became Szczebrzeska, and Biłgorajska Street was called Tarnogrodzka.
The diagonal streets had no names - even the present-day Gorajska Street. The currently longest streets of Frampol include Kościelna, Orzechowa, Polna and Ogrodowa streets. They did not have their names in the past, because in the first half of the 19th century there were no houses there. They were called Back streets (Tylne) with the possible clarification of the West, South Backstreet, etc.
The names "Ulica Tylna" are still used in everyday speech, especially by older residents of Frampol.
Currently, the city has over 20 streets. The town hall and the inn have also disappeared. There is quite a large park and flower beds.
The buildings in the town were wooden. On the northern axis, there was also a wooden church founded by M. Butler in 1739. The plots near the market square were used by craftsmen and merchants, and the outer plots were adapted to the requirements of small-scale farms, allowing the owners to build barns, cowsheds and pigsties. Until today, this layout has remained.
The single-story houses had their gables facing the street through front yards. These houses had a single row of rooms including a lobby, a main room, and a closet. Richer houses had two rows of rooms. The external feature of Frampol's layout was the external barn streets, surrounding the town. The Targowa Street may be an example of such a concept.
In 1851, the architect of the Zamość poviat, Hiacynt Dąbrowski, commissioned by the owner of Frampol, T. Niemirowski, developed a project to expand the town's premises at the expense of the market square by adding new building plots, parallel to the existing ones near the market square. The sale or lease of new plots was supposed to bring additional income to the owner. The project was accepted in July 1852, and then approved by the Government Committee of Internal Affairs, which agreed with the architect Dąbrowski, claiming that the area of the market was too large for the needs of the town.
These investment activities resulted in the creation of a new urban layout, which partially deformed the ideal plan. The addition of the inner plots reduced the size of the market square to its present state, i.e., approx. 140 x 140 m. At that time, Frampol had 236 houses and approx. 1,300 inhabitants. The increase in the population, mainly Jews, resulted in further investment processes, which led to the degradation of the original, ideal plan by partially building up the side squares. In 1880, the number of inhabitants was 2,154 people, including 1,189 Jews.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Frampol was an agricultural small town and a trade center. In 1939, Frampol had a population of about 4,000. On September 13, 1939, as a result of a Luftwaffe training bombing raid, 90% of the town was annihilated.
As a result of further extermination of the Jewish population during the war the population of Frampol shrunk to 1,266 people in 1946. The reconstruction of the town after World War II took place within the existing system of plots and quarters, with the majority being 1 - 2 storeys brick buildings.
On the outskirts of the external layout, small barn- lines have remained, creating a characteristic landscape of barn streets.
Currently, Frampol has 1,605 people, the population density per 1 km2 is 318 people, and the housing stock of multi-family housing owns 72 flats. The inhabitants of the town do not show interest in multi-family housing; however, two 3-storey buildings were erected. There is a good interest in individual housing.
Most of the previous wooden buildings suffered from technical degradation and were changed to brick buildings. The first brick houses appear around 1865. Such changes took place in almost all streets of Frampol. On the northern side of the city, larger-sized residential buildings and a school were built as a result of the extension of the premises.
The greatest expansion of the city happened in the southern part. A new street was added there – Tysiąclecia Street, where modern detached houses were built.
In the recent years, the number of residential buildings has been gradually increasing in the direction of Sokołówka village. There were also built a petrol station and the "Złoty Łan" Inn (towards Cacanin). The expansion of the town is also progressing towards Janowska and Gorajska Streets. This leads to the conclusion that the borders of Frampol are slowly shifting, and this may impact its original appearance.
However, the layout, modernized in 1852, has survived until today. It is unusual and original, therefore the town was enlisted in the register of the Provincial Conservator of Monuments. The spatial arrangement of Frampol has attracted the attention of the most outstanding urban planners from Poland and around the world, and has been frequently discussed in Polish and foreign publications.
Based on the basis of the website of the municipality of Frampol.
