Góra (german: Guhrau) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province, in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Wrocław, Legnica, Wałbrz ...

, in western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It is the administrative seat both of Góra County and of the smaller district (

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

) called Gmina Góra.

Geography

The town is located within the historic Lower Silesia region, approximately north-west of the regional capital

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

. As at 2019, it has a population of 11,797.

History

The settlement in the

Duchy of Silesia The Duchy of Silesia ( pl, Księstwo śląskie, german: Herzogtum Schlesien, cs, Slezské knížectví) with its capital at Wrocław was a medieval duchy located in the historic Silesian region of Poland. Soon after it was formed under the Pia ...

of fragmented

was first mentioned as ''Gora'' in an 1155 deed by

Pope Adrian IV Pope Adrian IV ( la, Adrianus IV; born Nicholas Breakspear (or Brekespear); 1 September 1159, also Hadrian IV), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4 December 1154 to his death in 1159. He is the only Englishman t ...

conveying the property to the Diocese of Wrocław. The name of the town means "hill" or "mountain" in

Old Polish The Old Polish language ( pl, język staropolski, staropolszczyzna) was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old ...

. In 1256 the bishop of Wrocław Tomasz I gave the village to the Polish knight Gosław.Barbara Trojak, ''Góra. Studium historyczne miasta'', 1983 (in Polish) In 1288 it became part of the

Duchy of Głogów The Duchy of Głogów ( pl, Księstwo głogowskie, cs, Hlohovské knížectví) or Duchy of Glogau (german: Herzogtum Glogau) was one of the Duchies of Silesia ruled by the Silesian Piasts. Its capital was Głogów in Lower Silesia. History In ...

and was granted Magdeburg town rights by the Piast duke Henry III. In 1300, Henry III sold the local

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...

to the city council of Góra. Henry III, as well as the succeeding dukes

Henry IV the Faithful Henry IV (II) the Faithful ( pl, Henryk IV (II) Wierny) ( 1292 – 22 January 1342) was a Duke of Żagań and parts of Greater Poland from 1309 until 1317 (with his brothers in all the lands except Głogów in different divisions among them), Duk ...

and Konrad I granted new privileges to the town in 1306 and 1310. From the 14th century onwards, the town developed to a centre of cloth manufacturing, specific privileges were granted to the clothiers of Góra in 1304. The Germanized name ''Guhrau'' is first documented in 1336. In 1343, an annual

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

was established. Also from that year comes the first mention of the existence of a parish school in Góra. The town remained under the rule of the Polish houses of Piast and

Jagiellon The Jagiellonian dynasty (, pl, dynastia jagiellońska), otherwise the Jagiellon dynasty ( pl, dynastia Jagiellonów), the House of Jagiellon ( pl, Dom Jagiellonów), or simply the Jagiellons ( pl, Jagiellonowie), was the name assumed by a cad ...

as part of the duchies of Głogów, Ścinawa and Cieszyn. until the 16th century. The town, as ''Guhrau'', was annexed by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

upon the First Silesian War in 1742 and from 1816 was the administrative seat of ''Landkreis Guhrau'' within the

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...

, which from 1871 to 1945 was also part of Germany. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was occupied by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

during the 1945 Vistula–Oder Offensive. According to the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

, the town passed to the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

, while the remaining German population was expelled. The historic name ''Góra'' was restored and the town was repopulated by

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

, expelled from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. Again a county seat from 1946, from 1975 to 1998 Góra belonged to Leszno Voivodeship. In 1999 Góra's town limits were expanded by including the settlement of Sędziwojowice as its eastern district.

Notable people

Benno Erdmann Benno Erdmann (30 May 1851, Guhrau – 7 January 1921, Berlin) was a German neo-Kantian philosopher, logician, psychologist and scholar of Immanuel Kant. Biography Erdmann received his Ph.D. in 1873 from the University of Berlin with a dis ...

(1851–1921), German philosopher *

Augustin Rösler Augustin Rösler, C.Ss.R. (6 March 18512 April 1922) was a Prussian theologian and sociologist, and a Redemptorist priest, who wrote both on the history of Christianity and contemporary issues. His best known work is ''Die Frauenfrage vom Standp ...

(1851–1922), German theologian *

Wilhelm Klemm Wilhelm Karl Klemm (5 January 1896 – 24 October 1985) was an inorganic and physical chemist. Klemm did extensive work on intermetallic compounds, rare earth metals, transition elements and compounds involving oxygen and fluorine. He and Hein ...

(1896–1985), German scientist * Werner Naumann (1909–1982), German Nazi secretary of state *

Izabella Sierakowska Izabella Antonina Sierakowska, née Kruszyńska (; 22 September 1946 – 31 March 2021) was a Polish politician and one of the leading and the most popular persons of the Polish left. Life She was born in Góra Śląska. Her parents, Krystyn ...

(1946–2021), Polish politician *

Radosław Kałużny Radosław Kałużny (; born 2 February 1974) is a Polish former professional Association football, footballer. Club career Born in Góra, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Kałużny spent his first ten years in pro football in Poland. In 2001, he mov ...

(born 1974), Polish football player

Twin towns – sister cities

See twin towns of Gmina Góra.

References

External links

*
Jewish Community in Góra
on Virtual Shtetl
Guhrau Gora Pictures

Góra Pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gora Cities and towns in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Góra County Cities in Silesia