- published: 16 Feb 2016
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Chełm [xɛu̯m] ( listen) (Ukrainian: Холм, Russian: Холм, Kholm, both meaning a hill) is a city in eastern Poland with 67,702 inhabitants (2007). It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some 25 kilometres from the border with Ukraine. Since 1999 located in the Lublin Voivodeship, previously the town was the capital of a separate voivodeship.
The city is of mostly industrial character, though it also houses numerous notable historical monuments and tourist attractions.
Chełm gives its name to the protected area known as Chełm Landscape Park, which lies to the north and east of the city.
The first traces of settlement in the area of modern Chełm date back to at least 9th century. The following century a Slavic fortified town was created there and initially served as a centre of pagan worship. The etymology of the name is unclear, though most scholars derive it from the Slavic root helm or holm denoting a flat hill. In fact the town's centre is located atop of such hill called góra chełmska in modern times. However, there are also theories deriving the name from some Celtic root. In 981 the town, then inhabited by the Eastern Slavic tribe of Buzhans, was made a part of Kievan Rus', along with the surrounding Cherven Towns. According to a local legend, it was Vladimir the Great to build the first stone castle there in 1001 following the Polish capture of Kiev in 1018 the region for a short time was made part of Poland, but returned under Kievan rule in 1031.