Białaczów
Białaczów is a village (a town in 1456 - 1870) in Opoczno County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Białaczów. It lies approximately south of Opoczno and south-east of the regional capital Łódź. The village has a population of 1,500. Historically, Białaczów belongs to Lesser Poland, and together with Opoczno, for hundreds of years it belonged to Lesser Poland’s Sandomierz Voivodeship. The village is the birthplace of Jan Prandota, the Bishop of Kraków (1242-1266). History. In the 13th century, Białaczów belonged to the Odrowąż family. The village  received its town charter in 1456. At that time, it was part of Opoczno County of Sandomierz Voivodeship, and remained part of it until the Partitions of Poland. Białaczów was a private town, changing hands several times. In the late 18th and early 19th century it belonged to Stanisław Małachowski, who in neighboring villages opened several early industry factories. In 1795 Białaczów found itself in the Austrian Empire, and later on, it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw (since 1815: Russian-controlled Congress Kingdom). Its coat of arms was devised by Stanisław Małachowski in 1787, and in 1870, like  many other towns of northern Lesser Poland, Białaczów was reduced to the status of a village, as a punishment for residents’ patriotic support of the anti-Russian January Uprising.