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Legnica

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Template:Infobox Poland

Legnica (Audio file "Legnica.ogg" not found, formerly Lignica; Template:Lang-de) is a town in Silesia in southwestern Poland. As of the 2005 census estimate, it has a total population of 106,122. Situated in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999) on the Kaczawa river, it is the administrative seat of Legnica County. From 1975 to 1998 it was the administrative center of Legnica Voivodeship.

History

The area of Legnica was inhabited for hundreds of years by East Germanic tribes, until about 500 AD, when they wandered to Southern Europe and were replaced by Slavic tribes from Eastern Europe.

The town was first mentioned in chronicles from 1004, although settlement dates to the 7th century. Legnica was originally known as Lignica. The town became the residence of the dukes of Lower Silesia in 1163 and was the seat of a principality ruled by a branch of the Piast dynasty from 1248 to 1675.

Legnica became famous for the Battle of Legnica (or Battle of Wahlstatt) that took place at Legnickie Pole near the city on 9 April 1241 during the Mongol invasion of Europe. The Christian army of Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, supported by the feudal nobility, included Poles, Germans, the Teutonic Knights, the Hospitallers, and the Knights Templar, but was decisively defeated by the Mongols. Although the Mongols killed Henry and destroyed his forces, their advance into Europe was halted when they turned back to attend to the election of a new Khagan (Grand Khan) following the death in the same year of Ögedei Khan. Minor celebrations are held annually in Legnica to commemorate the battle.

Legnica, along with other Silesian duchies, became a vassal of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the 14th century and was included within the Holy Roman Empire. The Protestant Reformation was introduced in the duchy as early as 1522 and the population became Lutheran. After the death of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia at Mohács in 1526, Legnica was inherited by the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria. The first map of Silesia was made by native son Martin Helwig. A 1564 tapestry depicts the coats of arms of the duke of territories of Li(e)nitz and Brieg and states Von Gottes Gnaden GEORG der ANDER dis Namens HERCZOG ZVR LIGNICZ VND BRIGK.. and the duchess as Von Gottes Gnaden BARBARA geborne MARKGREFIN ZV BRANDENBVRG- HERZOGIN IN SCHLESIENN ZVR LIGNITZ VND BRIGK.

In 1676, Legnica passed to direct Habsburg rule after the death of the last Silesian Piast duke, Georg Wilhelm (son of Duke Christian of Brieg), despite the earlier inheritance pact by Brandenburg and Silesia, by which it was to go to Brandenburg.

In 1742 most of Silesia, including Liegnitz, became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after King Frederick the Great's defeat of Austria in the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1760 during the Seven Years' War, Liegnitz was the site of the Battle of Liegnitz when Frederick's army defeated an Austrian army led by Laudon. In 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars, the Prussians, under Field Marshal Blücher, defeated the French forces of MacDonald in the Battle of Katzbach nearby.

After the administrative reorganization of the Prussian state following the Congress of Vienna, Liegnitz and the surrounding territory (Landkreis Liegnitz) were incorporated into the Regierungsbezirk (administrative district) Liegnitz, within the Province of Silesia on 1 May 1816. Along with the rest of Prussia, the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the unification of Germany. On 1 January 1874 Liegnitz became the third city in Lower Silesia (after Breslau and Görlitz) to be raised to an urban district, although the district administrator of the surrounding Landkreis Liegnitz continued to have his seat in the city.

Train station in Liegnitz (Legnica) in 1915.

The census of 1910 gave Liegnitz's population as 95.86 % German, 0.15 % German and Polish, 1.27 % Polish, 2.26 % Wendish, and 0.19 % Czechs. On 1 April 1937 parts of the Landkreis Liegnitz communities of Alt Beckern, Groß Beckern, Hummel, Liegnitzer Vorwerke, Pfaffendorf und Prinkendorf were incorporated into the city of Liegnitz. After the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, Liegnitz was part of the newly created Province of Lower Silesia from 1919 to 1938, then of the Province of Silesia from 1938 to 1941, and again of the Province of Lower Silesia from 1941 to 1945.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II, Liegnitz and all of Silesia east of the Neisse river was transferred to Polish administration following the Potsdam Conference in 1945. The German population was expelled from between 1945 and 1947 and replaced with Poles and, as the medieval Polish name Lignica was considered archaic, the town was renamed Legnica. The transfer to Poland decided at Potsdam in 1945 was officially recognized by East Germany in 1950, by West Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt in the Treaty of Warsaw signed in 1970, and finally by the reunited Germany by the Two Plus Four Agreement in 1990. By 1990 only a handful of Polonized Germans, pre-war citizens of Liegnitz, had remained of the pre-1945 German population.

From 1945 to 1990, during the Cold War, the headquarters of the Soviet forces in Poland, the so-called Northern Group of Forces, was located in the city. This fact had a strong influence on the life of the city. For much of the period, the city was divided into Polish and Soviet areas, with the latter closed to the public. These were first established in July 1945, when the Soviets forcibly ejected newly arrived Polish inhabitants from the parts of the city they wanted for their own use. The ejection was perceived by some as a particularly brutal action, and rumours circulated exaggerating its severity, though no evidence of anyone being killed in the course of it has come to light. In April 1946 city officials estimated that they were 16,700 Poles, 12,800 Germans, and 60,000 Russians in Legnica.[1] The last Soviet units left the city in 1993.

In the 1950s and 1960s the local copper and nickel industries became a major factor in the economic development of the area.

Until the winter of 2003, the longest osobowy (standard railway train stopping at every station, in contrast to fast and express trains) train service in Poland ran from Katowice to Legnica (via Kędzierzyn Koźle, Nysa, and Jaworzyna Śląska).

Economy

Education

Twin towns

As of 2005, Legnica is twinned with four other European towns.

Sports

Politics

Municipal politics

Legnica tends to be a left-of-center town with a considerable influence of workers' unions. The Municipal Council of Legnica (Rada miejska miasta Legnica) is the legislative branch of the local government and is composed of 25 members elected in local elections every five years. The mayor or town president (Prezydent miasta) is the executive branch of the local government and is directly elected in the same municipal elections.

Legnica - Jelenia Góra constituency

Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Legnica-Jelenia Gora constituency:

  • Ryszard Bonda, Samoobrona
  • Bronisława Kowalska, SLD-UP
  • Adam Lipiński, PiS
  • Tadeusz Maćkała, PO
  • Ryszard Maraszek, SLD-UP
  • Olgierd Poniźnik, SLD-UP
  • Władysław Rak, SLD-UP
  • Tadeusz Samborski, PSL
  • Jerzy Szmajdziński, SLD-UP
  • Halina Szustak, LPR
  • Michał Turkiewicz, SLD-UP
  • Ryszard Zbrzyzny, SLD-UP .

Famous residents

Reference

Template:German

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