Kamienna Góra
Town hall
Town hall
Flag of Kamienna Góra
Flag
Coat of arms of Kamienna Góra
Coat of arms
Kamienna Góra is located in Poland
Kamienna Góra
Kamienna Góra
Kamienna Góra is located in Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Kamienna Góra
Kamienna Góra
Coordinates: 50°47′N 16°02′E / 50.783°N 16.033°E / 50.783; 16.033
Country Poland
VoivodeshipLower Silesian
CountyKamienna Góra
GminaKamienna Góra (urban gmina)
First mentioned1232
Town rights1292
Government
 • MayorJanusz Chodasewicz
Area
 • Total17.97 km2 (6.94 sq mi)
Population
 (2019-06-30[1])
 • Total19,010
 • Density1,100/km2 (2,700/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
58-400
Car platesDKA
National roads
Voivodeship roads
Websitehttp://www.kamiennagora.pl

Kamienna Góra [kaˈmʲɛnːa ˈɡura] (German: Landeshut, Czech: Lanžhot or Kamenná Hora) is a town in south-western Poland with 18,235 inhabitants (2023). It is the seat of Kamienna Góra County, and also of the rural district called Gmina Kamienna Góra, although it is not part of the territory of the latter (the town forms a separate urban gmina).

Kamienna Góra on the Bóbr river is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship between the Stone Mountains and the Rudawy Janowickie at the old trade route from Silesia to Prague, today part of the National Road No. 5. It lies approximately 95 kilometres (59 miles) south-west of the regional capital Wrocław.

History

Historic townhouses at the Freedom Square

The area was part of the Great Moravian Empire in the Early Middle Ages, and became part of the emerging Polish state in the 10th century under its first ruler Mieszko I of Poland.[2] During the times of the fragmentation of Poland it was part of the duchies of Silesia, Legnica, Jawor and Świdnica. In the early 13th century, Polish Duke Henry the Bearded erected a defensive castle at the site, due to its proximity to the Polish–Czech border.[2] The settlement was mentioned in documents from 1232 (as Landeshut) and 1249 (as Landishute and Landishute forensis auch Camena Gora). In 1254 the Piast Duke Bolesław II the Bald of Legnica gave the area to the Benedictine monastery of Opatovice (in eastern Bohemia), who already had established the Krzeszów Abbey at nearby Krzeszów. When the abbey passed to the Cistercians in 1289, Kamienna Góra was acquired by Duke Bolko I the Strict of Świdnica, who extended it as a stronghold against the nearby Kingdom of Bohemia and granted town rights in 1292. In 1295, Poles repelled a Bohemian invasion, and Bolko I declared he would not allow any Bohemian or German ruler in Silesia.[3] Kamienna Góra received new privileges from Duke Bolko II the Small in 1334. In 1345 the heavily fortified town was captured by the Bohemians, probably by digging an underground tunnel.[4] In 1348 it was recaptured by the Poles, probably by using a ruse modeled on the Trojan Horse.[5] Carts with hidden soldiers, supposedly filled with hay or other goods, were reportedly used.[5] Nevertheless, the duchy fell to the Bohemian crown with Bolko's death in 1368. It burnt down during the 1426 Hussite campaign to Silesia and in the 1460s it passed to the Kingdom of Hungary, before in 1490 it fell back to Bohemia, then under the rule of Vladislaus II, who erected new town walls.[2]

During the Thirty Years' War the town was plundered by Austrian and Swedish troops.[2] As a result of the war, only two residents remained in the town in 1639.[2] After Frederick II of Prussia had conquered Silesia with Landeshut in 1742, it was the site of 12 battles during the Silesian Wars.[6] The two largest were fought on May 22, 1745 and June 23, 1760.[6] In the former Prussians defeated Austrian, Hungarian and Croatian forces,[7] and in the latter Austrians defeated a Prussian corps.

From 1871 the town formed part of Germany. The town was not destroyed during World War I and II. With the rise of Nazism among the Germans, a local branch of the NSDAP was established in 1929, and soon five Nazis became town councilors.[8] In 1934, a local branch of the Hitler Youth was estaliblished.[9] The town's mayor, Günther Ries, supported the Nazis and provided funding for the Hitler Youth.[10] The Nazis held three party ceremonies in the town, on June 22, 1935, November 9, 1937 and March 2, 1939.[10] During Kristallnacht in 1938, the Germans destroyed a synagogue and four Jewish stores.[10]

During World War II, the Germans established and operated a subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.[2] Around 1,600 men, mostly Poles, and also smaller groups of other ethnicities, were imprisoned and used as forced labour in the subcamp, and many of them died.[11] There was also a forced labour camp for Jews.[12] It was captured by the Soviets on May 9, 1945, and after the war it became again part of Poland.[2] According to the Potsdam Agreement the German populace was expelled and the town was repopulated by Poles, expellees from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and settlers from central Poland.[2] Initially renamed to the 19th-century Polish name Kamieniogóra,[13] in 1946 the name Kamienna Góra, which was first recorded in 1249, was adopted.

From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Jelenia Góra Voivodeship.

Sights

The main historic district of Kamienna Góra is the Old Town (Stare Miasto) with the Freedom (Plac Wolności), Grunwald Squares (Plac Grunwaldzki) and Brewery (Plac Browarowy) Squares, filled with numerous historic buildings. Among the historic sights of Kamienna Góra are:

  • Gothic churches of Saints Peter and Paul and Corpus Christi
  • Baroque Church of Our Lady of the Rosary
  • Town Hall
  • Weaving Museum (Muzeum Tkactwa)
  • Lower Silesian Rehabilitation Center (Dolnośląskie Centrum Rehabilitacji)
  • Culture Centre (Centrum Kultury)
  • ZUS office
  • preserved medieval town walls
  • ruins of the Grodztwo Castle
  • numerous historic townhouses and buildings, incl. the train station, tax office, high school, courthouse, etc.

There are also several monuments dedicated to the victims of the local branch of the Nazi German Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

Cuisine

The officially protected traditional food of Kamienna Góra, as designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland, is the kamiennogórski ser pleśniowy (Kamienna Góra blue cheese).[14]

Notable people

Twin towns – sister cities

Kamienna Góra is twinned with:[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Population. Size and structure and vital statistics in Poland by territorial division in 2019. As of 30th June". stat.gov.pl. Statistics Poland. 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Historia". Starostwo Powiatowe w Kamiennej Górze (in Polish). Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  3. ↑ Łaborewicz, Ivo (1989). "Kamiennogórskie epizody wojenne z lat 1345 i 1348 a recepcja antyku na Śląsku". Rocznik Jeleniogórski (in Polish). Vol. XXVII. Jelenia Góra. p. 93.
  4. ↑ Łaborewicz, p. 94
  5. 1 2 Łaborewicz, p. 96
  6. 1 2 Kisiel, Robert (2004). "Potyczka pod Kamienną Górą w 1745 roku". Rocznik Jeleniogórski (in Polish). Vol. XXXVI. Jelenia Góra. p. 111. ISSN 0080-3480.
  7. ↑ Kisiel, pp. 116–119
  8. ↑ Pazgan, Mateusz (2014). "Narodowosocjalistyczna Niemiecka Partia Robotników w powiecie kamiennogórskim w latach 1929-1945". Rocznik Jeleniogórski (in Polish). Vol. XLVI. Jelenia Góra. p. 88. ISSN 0080-3480.
  9. ↑ Pazgan, p. 89
  10. 1 2 3 Pazgan, pp. 90–91
  11. ↑ "Subcamps of KL Gross- Rosen". Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  12. ↑ "Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden Landeshut". Bundesarchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Rymut, Kazimierz (1987). Nazwy miast Polski (in Polish). Ossolineum. p. 99.
  14. ↑ "Kamiennogórski ser pleśniowy". Ministerstwo Rolnictwa i Rozwoju Wsi - Portal Gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  15. ↑ "Współpraca z zagranicą – Miasta partnerskie". kamiennagora.pl (in Polish). Kamienna Góra. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
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