
Historically it was the part of "Ziemia
Biecka", the royal territory with local authorities in Biecz - one of
the most important towns in Poland of middle-century. "Ziemia Biecka"
was the borderland of Hungary and Halicka Russia.
In the middle-centuries two important roads led through this region:
from Silesia to the east and from central Poland to Hungary. It was the
reason of hold-up groups activity.
This is the region where the dynamic development of world's petroleum
industry has begun. Mr Ignacy Lukasiewicz, the "father" of petroleum
industry, led his first successful distillation of petroleum resulted
in kerosene in Gorlice. In the second half of XIX century it was the
main European center of petroleum mining, with mines in Lipinki (from
1860), Wojtowa (1864), Pagorzyna (1864).
During The I World War our region was a scene for
dramatic fights of Alliances with Russians. Gorlice's battle, the brave
and bloody break through the front line, had place here from 2 to 5 of
May 1915. As historians say - the campaign was the beginning of the end
for Tsar's Russia. It was one of the biggest operations of the First
World War - 300.000 soldiers took part in the battle.
And the newest page of our history - during the referendum concerning
accession of Poland to the European Union, 63 % of our inhabitants
voted for the EU.