Sucha Beskidzka (before 1961 called only Sucha) is a county town in the southern Poland (see: Sucha Beskidzka county), in the Lesser Poland Voivodship since 1999, previously in Bielsko-Biala Voivodship (1975-1998). Population: 9,737 inhabitants (2002).

It developed strongly in the end of 19th century thanks to railway junction: Krakow - Sucha Beskidzka - Zakopane and Zywiec - Sucha Beskidzka.

Since the beginning of the 20th century it is the centre of the mountainous tourism in this part of the Beskidy Mountains (part of the Carpathians). In the town there are some examples of old architecture: worth seeing is the Renaissance castle (16th cent.), called Little Wawel, the church with cloister (17th cent.) and the old wooden inn, called Rzym (Rome) (18th cent.).

Education

In the town, there is two higher education schools:

• College for the Foreign Languages Teachers (Nauczycielskie Kolegium Języków Obcych, NKJO, [1])
• Higher School of the Tourism and Ecology (Wyższa Szkoła Turystyki i Ekologii, WSTiE, [2])

Population

1827 - 1811
1848 - 1842
1870 - 2280
1900 - 4214
1921 - 5151
1931 - 6004
1939 - 6250
1946 - 5866 (during the WW2 some 400 Jewish population of the town was killed)
1960 - 6599
1970 - 7751
1980 - 8735
1989 - 9754
2001 - 9810
2002 - 9737

External links

• Official site of the Sucha Beskidzka powiat (county) (in Polish, English and German)