BIELITZ, a town of Austrian Silesia, in the circle of Teschen, on the Biala River, a sub-tributary of the Vistula, and opposite the Galician town of Biala, with which it is connected by a bridge. It is the seat of the superintendent of all the Protestants in Moravia, and the residence of the Sulkowsky family, in favour of w hom the lordship of Bielitz was raised to a duchy in 1754. The castle is a fine building of some antiquity, surrounded by a beautiful park. The principal industries of the town are the spinning of flax and the printing and dyeing of cloth, the last especially being carried on with great success. A valuable traffic is maintained not only in the produce of the factories but also in Hungarian wine and Galician salt. The town was founded in the 13th century, andin the 15th and 16th was a fortified place. It is connected by means of a branch line with the Kaiser-Ferdinand Northern Railway. Population in 1869, 10,721.