Polkowice () is a town in south-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It is situated in

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship (, ) in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. It covers an area of and has a total population of 2,899,986. It is one of the wealthiest ...

. The town is the seat of

Polkowice County __NOTOC__ Polkowice County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passe ...

and of

Gmina Polkowice __NOTOC__ Gmina Polkowice is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Polkowice County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Polkowice, which lies approximately north-west of the regional capital Wr ...

Geography

Polkowice is located in historic

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a historical and geographical region mostly located in Poland with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany. It is the western part of the region of Silesia. Its largest city is Wrocław. The first ...

, about northwest of

Lubin Lubin (; ) is a city in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is the administrative seat of Lubin County, and also of the rural district called Gmina Lubin, although it is not part of the territory of the latter, as the town for ...

. The nearest airport is

Wrocław Airport Wrocław Nicolaus Copernicus Airport () is an international civil-military airport in Wrocław in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in southwestern Poland. It is Poland's 5th busiest airport. In 2023, it handled over 3.8 million passengers. The airport ...

, located from Polkowice. Situated in a traditional mining region, the town is part of the largest industrial

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

-extraction area in Poland, with a copper-processing plant operating nearby. Nearby

Polkowice Dolne Polkowice Dolne is a district (''osiedle'') of the town of Polkowice, in the administrative district of Gmina Polkowice, within Polkowice County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Formerly a village, it was incorporated within t ...

is the site of a former

State Agricultural Farm __NOTOC__ A State Agricultural Farm ( ;, PGR) was a form of collective farming in the Polish People's Republic, similar to Soviet sovkhoz and to the East German Volkseigenes Gut. They were created in 1949 as a form of socialist ownership ...

(PGR) and, since 1998, of a

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

diesel engine plant, another major employer in the region. Designated as an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

from 1945, Polkowice regained town status in 1967. In 1975–1998 it was in the former

Legnica Voivodeship Legnica Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Its capital city was Legnica. Major cities and towns (population in 1995) * Leg ...

History

The name of the town is probably derived from

Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...

(

Old Polish The Old Polish language () 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 Polish language are the data of the co ...

) '' Boleslaw'', meaning "great glory", a favoured dynastic name in the Polish royal

House of Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented List of Polish monarchs, Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I of Poland, Mieszko I (–992). The Poland during the Piast dynasty, Piasts' royal rule in Pol ...

. According to legend, The Silesian duke

Bolesław I the Tall Bolesław I the Tall (; 1127 – 7 or 8 December 1201) was Duke of Wrocław from 1163 until his death in 1201. Early years Boleslaw was the eldest son of Władysław II the Exile by his wife Agnes of Babenberg, daughter of Margrave Leopold II ...

(1127–1201) had a hunting lodge erected near the later town, later called ''Bolkewice'' or, adjusted to the German pronunciation, ''Polkovicz'' (1333). In the ''Statuta synodalia episcoporum Wratislaviensium'' from 1475 the town is named ''Polkewicze'' and ''Polkowice''. As a result of the

fragmentation of Poland The period of rule by the Piast dynasty between the 10th and 14th centuries is the first major stage of the history of Poland, history of the Polish state. The dynasty was founded by a series of dukes listed by the chronicler Gall Anonymous in t ...

into smaller duchies, it became part of the

Duchy of Silesia The Duchy of Silesia (, ) with its capital at Wrocław was a medieval provincial duchy of Poland located in the region of Silesia. Soon after it was formed under the Piast dynasty in 1138, it fragmented into various Silesian duchies. In 1327, t ...

, and later on the

Duchy of Głogów The Duchy of Głogów (, ) or Duchy of Glogau () was one of the Duchies of Silesia, formed in course of the medieval fragmentation of Poland into smaller provincial duchies. Its capital was Głogów in Lower Silesia. It existed in 1177–1185 an ...

. Polkowice was mentioned as a town (''civitas'') in a 1276 deed. It remained part of the Duchy of Głogów, ruled by the Polish houses of Piast and

Jagiellon The Jagiellonian ( ) or Jagellonian dynasty ( ; ; ), otherwise the Jagiellon dynasty (), the House of Jagiellon (), or simply the Jagiellons (; ; ), was the name assumed by a cadet branch of the Lithuanian ducal dynasty of Gediminids upon recep ...

, including future Polish kings

John I Albert John I Albert (; 27 December 1459 – 17 June 1501) was King of Poland Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of Roy ...

and

Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV of P ...

, until the duchy's dissolution in 1506, when it was incorporated into the Bohemian (Czech) Kingdom under the

Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. Parts of the medieval town were destroyed by a blaze in 1457, it suffered further damages during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

and by a plague epidemic in 1680. After the

First Silesian War The First Silesian War () was a war between Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia and Habsburg monarchy, Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. The ...

in 1742, it was annexed by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and later incorporated into the

Province of Silesia The Province of Silesia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1742 and established as an official province in 1815, then became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1919, as ...

. During the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, the town was visited by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

twice, in 1807 and 1812. The town was renamed ''Heerwegen'' in 1937 by

German Nazi Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

authorities during a campaign of erasing placenames of Polish origin. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a German

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

subcamp of the prison in

Jawor Jawor () is a town in south-western Poland with 22,890 inhabitants (2019). It is situated in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the seat of Jawor County, and lies approximately west of the regional capital Wrocław. One of the oldest towns ...

was operated in the present-day district of

. On January 11, 1945, the German administration evacuated the population, leaving only the army in the town. On February 9, 1945, the town was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. Afterwards the abandoned town became part of Poland, in accordance with the preliminary border regulations of the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

. The town was repopulated by

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

, many displaced from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. In 2005 the neighbouring village of

was included within the town limits.

Education

* Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technology ''(Dolnośląska Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości i Techniki)''

Sport

Górnik Polkowice KS Górnik Polkowice is a Polish football club based in Polkowice, Poland. The club currently plays in III liga which is the fourth tier of Polish football. They competed in the top tier for one season in 2003–04. History KS Górnik Polkowi ...

– football team, playing in the Polish third division. The team played in the country's top flight in season 2003-2004 * MKS Polkowice – women's basketball team, 3rd place in Sharp Torell Basket Liga in 2004/2005 season * CCC Polsat Polkowice – Road Cycling Team

UCI Professional Continental team The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) – the governing body of cycling – categorizes teams into three divisions. The first division, consisting of the top 18 teams, is classified as UCI WorldTeams, and competes in the UCI World Tour. The secon ...

Twin towns – sister cities

See twin towns of Gmina Polkowice

Notable residents

* Fritz Thiel (1916–1943), German resistance fighter * Hans Kratzert (born 1940), German screenwriter and film director

Gallery

"1zetem" Polkowice - Kościół pomocniczy św. Barbary.jpg, Saint Barbara church at night POL Polkowice ZGZM Office.JPG, ZGZM (''Copper Basin Gminas Association'') Office Polkowice - ul. Gdańska (zetem).jpg, Gdańska street Polkowice - Ośrodek historyczny miasta (zetem)5.jpg, Town center Pomnik ku chwale górników polskiej miedzi - panoramio.jpg, Memorial stone dedicated to Polish copper miners

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Polkowice County