History

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.