Białystok, the Esperanto´s cradle

Białystok is the largest city in the north-east of Poland. The city owes its name to the Biała rzeka (that means “white river”). Białystok literally means the white (Biały) slope (stok).

Due to the Branicki Palace the city is also called the Versailles of the North, the Versailles of Podlasie, and the Polish Versailles.

The Branicki Palace was built by Jan Kazimierz Branicki who was a Polish nobleman, magnate and Hetman, Field Crown Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

For linguists and translators, the most interesting information is that Ludwik Łazarz Zamenhof was born here. He was the creator of Esperanto, a language constructed to unite civilizations. You can learn more about Dr. Esperanto´s life visiting The Ludwik Zamenhof Centre.

One of the reasons for the creation of the Esperanto language was to unite the cultures that coexisted for many years in Białystok (Polish, Russians, Belarusians and Tartars).

 

There were several religions coexisting in the area (Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish) for many years. This coexistence was interrupted several times by wars and conflicts (the Polish–Swedish Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, the Second World War, and the Cold War). Nowadays there are still remnants of this coexistence.

 

Today Białystok is once again a beautiful city, fully recovered from the wars that stormed its past, full of places to discover, a commercial and cultural bridge between the west and the east.

Finally, if you are a nature lover, Białystok has two natural reserves which are located within the city’s borders and a zoo (Akcent ZOO) that is the house of the most popular representatives of the Polish fauna.

 

 

At Jensen Localization, we want to encourage our readers to visit Poland as it is a great place to discover, and to live. Remember that we are looking for candidates to open a Jensen Localization franchise there, preferably in Warsaw, but any other major city will be considered. Feel free to contact us for more information.