EVERYTHING WHAT YOU NEEDTO DREAM...
Poland >
Wroclaw
KNOWLEDGE OF Wroclaw
Wrocław, German Breslau, Czech Vratislav, Latin Wratislavia or Vratislavia; many Polish documents in English use the spelling Wroclaw) is the capital of Lower Silesia in southwestern Poland, situated on the Oder River (Odra). As of 2004, the city's population was estimated to be 638,000. It is the principal city of the Lower Silesia region and the administrative seat of the Lower Silesian Voivodship (since 1999), previously of Wrocław Voivodship. The city is also a separate city-county.
Situated at a long existing trading place, a city was first recorded in the 10th century as Vratislavia (Wratislaw) (the origin of its various later names) after Vratislav I. The settlement was conquered by the Polish duke Mieszko I in the 990s. Already a place of some importance, it became the capital of Silesia in 1138, where Silesians had founded a settlement south of the river. During the Mongol invasion in 1241 most of the population of the city was evacuated. The settlement was then sacked and burned by the Mongols, but they had no time to besiege the castle where the rest of the burghers found refuge.
Documents of the time refer to the town by many variants of the name, including Bresslau, Presslau, Breslau and Latin Wratislaw. The restored Wrocław town was given Magdeburg Rights in 1262. The first illustration of the city was published in the Schedelsche Weltchronik in 1493.
Under direct overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire, the emperors granted government positions to members of various ducal and royal dynasties. The city was a member of the Hanseatic League of northern European trading cities. During much of the Middle Ages Wrocław was ruled by its dukes from the Piast dynasty. In 1335, it was incorporated with almost the entirety of Silesia to become the Kingdom of Bohemia and was part of it until the 1740s; from 1526, it was ruled by the Empire's Habsburg dynasty. By this time the inhabitants, although often of Polish ancestory, had become mainly German in speech. The overwhelming majority became Lutheran Protestants during the Reformation, but they were forcibly suppressed during the Catholic Reformation by the Jesuits, who were working with the support of the Habsburg rulers.
After the extinction of local Piast rulers in 1675, the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria inherited Wrocław. They resorted to forceful conversion of the city to back to Catholicism. During the War of the Austrian Succession in the 1740s, Silesia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia's claims were derived from the agreement, rejected by Habsburgs, between the Piast rulers of the Duchy and the Hohenzollerns who secured the Prussian succession after the extinction of the Piasts.
After the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the city remained under Prussian administration and joined Imperial Germany upon its creation in 1871. The kings of Prussia saw to it that Breslau became a major industrial centre, notably of linen and cotton manufacture, more than tripling in population between 1860 and 1910 to over half a million. Its municipal boundaries were greatly extended in 1928.
Many of the city's 10,000 Jews were killed during the Nazi genocide of World War II. When the Red Army approached in February 1945, Breslau was declared a fortress and much of the population was evacuated, although some 200,000 remained. To build fortifications, slave labour was needed to augment civilian workers, and concentration camp prisoners were forced to help.
After a siege of nearly three months, "Festung Breslau" surrendered on May 7, the last major city in eastern Germany to fall. Some 40,000 Breslauers lay dead in the ruins, and the city was almost 70% destroyed. During the siege, the German authorities razed a modern residential district, around the Kaiserstraße (now: Plac Grunwaldzki) in order to construct a military airfield that was supposed to re-supply the city. An unknown number of German civilians and slave labourers died constructing the airfield.
The incoming Red Army engaged in brutal attacks against the surviving civilian population. Unwarranted though such action was, it is difficult to see it in isolation from the grander sweep of events that had begun with the humiliating Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany after World War I, continuing with the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, and the millions of Soviet civilians who died at the hands of the German Army.
Like almost all of Silesia, Breslau was awarded to Poland under the terms of the agreement reached at the Potsdam Conference. Most of the surviving German inhabitants either left voluntarily or were expelled to post-war Germany between 1945 and 1949. However, as with other Lower Silesian cities a considerable German presence remained until the late 1950s. In fact, the last German school in the city was not closed until 1963. Wrocław was resettled by Poles either from the small towns and villages of central Poland or those expelled by the Soviets from territories lost by Poland to the USSR. Many of these were from Lwów (now L'viv, Ukraine).
Gradually the old city was restored to its beauty. Nearly all of the monumental buildings were preserved. Now it is a uniquely European city of present-day Poland, with its architecture echoing that in Austria, Bohemia, or Prussia. Wrocław's Gothic style is originally Silesian; its Baroque style owes much to court builders of Habsburg Austria (Fischer von Erlach, Ch. Tausch); and Wrocław still has a number of buildings by eminent German modernist architects, such as Hans Poelzig or Max Berg, the famous Jahrhunderthalle (Hala Ludowa) by Berg (1911–13) being the most important.
In July 1997, the city was hit by a severe flooding of the Oder River. In 2005, the city was hit by a freak storm that felled a number of trees and killed three people. The storm was local and did not affect any other major cities.
Situated at a long existing trading place, a city was first recorded in the 10th century as Vratislavia (Wratislaw) (the origin of its various later names) after Vratislav I. The settlement was conquered by the Polish duke Mieszko I in the 990s. Already a place of some importance, it became the capital of Silesia in 1138, where Silesians had founded a settlement south of the river. During the Mongol invasion in 1241 most of the population of the city was evacuated. The settlement was then sacked and burned by the Mongols, but they had no time to besiege the castle where the rest of the burghers found refuge.
Documents of the time refer to the town by many variants of the name, including Bresslau, Presslau, Breslau and Latin Wratislaw. The restored Wrocław town was given Magdeburg Rights in 1262. The first illustration of the city was published in the Schedelsche Weltchronik in 1493.
Under direct overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire, the emperors granted government positions to members of various ducal and royal dynasties. The city was a member of the Hanseatic League of northern European trading cities. During much of the Middle Ages Wrocław was ruled by its dukes from the Piast dynasty. In 1335, it was incorporated with almost the entirety of Silesia to become the Kingdom of Bohemia and was part of it until the 1740s; from 1526, it was ruled by the Empire's Habsburg dynasty. By this time the inhabitants, although often of Polish ancestory, had become mainly German in speech. The overwhelming majority became Lutheran Protestants during the Reformation, but they were forcibly suppressed during the Catholic Reformation by the Jesuits, who were working with the support of the Habsburg rulers.
After the extinction of local Piast rulers in 1675, the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria inherited Wrocław. They resorted to forceful conversion of the city to back to Catholicism. During the War of the Austrian Succession in the 1740s, Silesia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia's claims were derived from the agreement, rejected by Habsburgs, between the Piast rulers of the Duchy and the Hohenzollerns who secured the Prussian succession after the extinction of the Piasts.
After the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the city remained under Prussian administration and joined Imperial Germany upon its creation in 1871. The kings of Prussia saw to it that Breslau became a major industrial centre, notably of linen and cotton manufacture, more than tripling in population between 1860 and 1910 to over half a million. Its municipal boundaries were greatly extended in 1928.
Many of the city's 10,000 Jews were killed during the Nazi genocide of World War II. When the Red Army approached in February 1945, Breslau was declared a fortress and much of the population was evacuated, although some 200,000 remained. To build fortifications, slave labour was needed to augment civilian workers, and concentration camp prisoners were forced to help.
After a siege of nearly three months, "Festung Breslau" surrendered on May 7, the last major city in eastern Germany to fall. Some 40,000 Breslauers lay dead in the ruins, and the city was almost 70% destroyed. During the siege, the German authorities razed a modern residential district, around the Kaiserstraße (now: Plac Grunwaldzki) in order to construct a military airfield that was supposed to re-supply the city. An unknown number of German civilians and slave labourers died constructing the airfield.
The incoming Red Army engaged in brutal attacks against the surviving civilian population. Unwarranted though such action was, it is difficult to see it in isolation from the grander sweep of events that had begun with the humiliating Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany after World War I, continuing with the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, and the millions of Soviet civilians who died at the hands of the German Army.
Like almost all of Silesia, Breslau was awarded to Poland under the terms of the agreement reached at the Potsdam Conference. Most of the surviving German inhabitants either left voluntarily or were expelled to post-war Germany between 1945 and 1949. However, as with other Lower Silesian cities a considerable German presence remained until the late 1950s. In fact, the last German school in the city was not closed until 1963. Wrocław was resettled by Poles either from the small towns and villages of central Poland or those expelled by the Soviets from territories lost by Poland to the USSR. Many of these were from Lwów (now L'viv, Ukraine).
Gradually the old city was restored to its beauty. Nearly all of the monumental buildings were preserved. Now it is a uniquely European city of present-day Poland, with its architecture echoing that in Austria, Bohemia, or Prussia. Wrocław's Gothic style is originally Silesian; its Baroque style owes much to court builders of Habsburg Austria (Fischer von Erlach, Ch. Tausch); and Wrocław still has a number of buildings by eminent German modernist architects, such as Hans Poelzig or Max Berg, the famous Jahrhunderthalle (Hala Ludowa) by Berg (1911–13) being the most important.
In July 1997, the city was hit by a severe flooding of the Oder River. In 2005, the city was hit by a freak storm that felled a number of trees and killed three people. The storm was local and did not affect any other major cities.
Chapi