Grybów

From the first partition of Poland in 1772 until 1918, the town was part of the Austrian monarchy (compromise of 1867), the chief city of the district with the same name, one of the 78 provinces of Austrian Galicia.[5] During Austrian rule, there was widespread poverty and starvation among local peasants. In 1846, several manor houses were burned in the so-called Galician slaughter. In 1849, Grybow was visited by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and in the 1860s, the town was visited by painter Artur Grottger, who came here to see his fiancée, Anna Monne. In 1900, Stanislaw Wyspianski and Jozef Mehoffer also visited the town.

By the late 19th century, Grybow slowly recovered, due to construction of rail line, and discovery of oil. In May 1915, the Battle of Gorlice took place nearby. In the Second Polish Republic, Grybow was the capital of a county, but only until 1932, when Grybow County was dissolved. In the 1930s, local villages were centers of peasant protests (see 1937 peasant strike in Poland), and the town was visited several times by Wincenty Witos.

On August 20th, 1942 360 Jewish citizens of the town were rounded up by the Nazis and taken two kilometers away to be slaughtered in the woods of Biata Nawa. There stands a monument on their mass grave today, and the restored Jewish cemetery was unveiled in November 2019.[6]

In late 1944, the Wehrmacht named Grybow a fortress, but due to rapid Soviet advance, the Germans retreated in January 1945. Nevertheless, almost 70% of the town was destroyed.