looˈblēn, city (1994 est. pop. 352,100), capital of Lubelskie prov., SE Poland. It is a railway junction and industrial center. Manufactures include trucks, agricultural machinery, chemicals, and foodstuffs. One of the oldest Polish towns, Lublin became the capital of a province in 1474 and the seat of a tribunal in 1578. It was the meeting place of several diets (16th–18th cent.), one of which united (1569) Poland with Lithuania. Lublin passed to Austria in 1795 and to Russia in 1815. It was (1918) the seat of a temporary Polish Socialist government. In 1941, Majdanek concentration camp was established by the Nazis in Lublin. In 1944 it was the seat of a provisional government rivaling the Polish government-in-exile in London. At the Yalta Conference (Feb., 1945) it was agreed to broaden the Lublin government by including members of the London cabinet; the Lublin government was recognized as the sole Polish authority at the Potsdam Conference (Aug., 1945). The Catholic Univ. at Lublin (founded 1918) was reopened in 1944 and renamed Maria Curie-Sklodowska Univ. Lublin's most notable buildings are a 14th-century city hall (rebuilt 1787), a 14th-century castle (rebuilt 1826), and a 16th-century cathedral.

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