Polkowice () is a town in south-western Poland. It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The town is the seat of Polkowice County and of Gmina Polkowice.
Geography
Polkowice is located in historic
Lower Silesia, about northwest of
Lubin. The nearest airport is Wrocław Airport, located from Polkowice.
Situated in a traditional mining region, the town is part of the largest industrial copper-extraction area in Poland, with a copper-processing plant operating nearby. Nearby Polkowice Dolne is the site of a former State Agricultural Farm (PGR) and, since 1998, of a Volkswagen diesel engine plant, another major employer in the region.
Designated as an urban-type settlement from 1945, Polkowice regained town status in 1967. In 1975–1998 it was in the former Legnica Voivodeship.
History
The name of the town is probably derived from
Slavic names (Old Polish)
Boleslaw, meaning "great glory", a favoured dynastic name in the Polish royal
Piast dynasty. According to legend, The Silesian duke Bolesław I the Tall (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 into smaller duchies, it became part of the Duchy of Silesia, and later on the Duchy of Głogów. 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, including future Polish kings John I Albert and Sigismund I the Old, 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.
Parts of the medieval town were destroyed by a blaze in 1457, it suffered further damages during the Thirty Years' War and by a plague epidemic in 1680. After the Silesian Wars in 1742, it was annexed by Prussia and later incorporated into the Province of Silesia. During the Napoleonic Wars, the town was visited by Napoleon twice, in 1807 and 1812. The town was renamed Heerwegen in 1937 by Nazi Germany authorities during a campaign of erasing placenames of Polish origin. During World War II, a German forced labour subcamp of the prison in Jawor was operated in the present-day district of Polkowice Dolne.
In 2005 the neighbouring village of Polkowice Dolne was included within the town limits.
Education
-
Lower Silesian College of Enterprise and Technology (Dolnośląska Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości i Techniki)
Sport
-
Górnik Polkowice – football team, playing in the II liga. The team played in the country's Ekstraklasa 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
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
