Niemcza
Encyclopedia
Niemcza ' is a town in Dzierżoniów County
Dzierzoniów County
Dzierżoniów County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the town of Dzierżoniów, and it...

, Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province , is one of the 16 voivodeships into which Poland is currently divided. It lies in southwestern Poland...

, in south-western Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina
Gmina
The gmina is the principal unit of administrative division of Poland at its lowest uniform level. It is often translated as "commune" or "municipality." As of 2010 there were 2,479 gminas throughout the country...

) called Gmina Niemcza
Gmina Niemcza
Gmina Niemcza is an urban-rural gmina in Dzierżoniów County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Niemcza, which lies approximately east of Dzierżoniów and south of the regional capital Wrocław.The gmina covers an area of , and as of 2006 its total...

.

The town lies on the Ślęza River, approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Dzierżoniów
Dzierzoniów
Dzierżoniów is a town in southwestern Poland. It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship...

, and 48 kilometres (30 mi) south of the regional capital Wrocław.

From 1975 to 1998 Niemcza was in Wałbrzych Voivodeship.

History

Niemcza is historically one of the most important towns of Silesia. The oldest traces date back to the Bronze age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

. Between 1000 and 800 B.C. people of the Lusatian culture
Lusatian culture
The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...

 fortified the so called "city hill" and incorporated this fortification into their Silesian defence system. This fort was probably destroyed during a battle against the Scythian around 500 BC. Members of the Germanic Silingi
Silingi
The Silings or Silingi supposedly were an East Germanic tribe, probably part of the larger Vandal group. According to most scholars, examples Jerzy Strzelczyk, Norman Davies, Jerzy Krasuski, Andrzej Kokowski, Henryk Łowmiański, the Silingi may have lived in Silesia...

 tribe who did not participate in the Migration Period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

 but stayed in Silesia chose the place in the 4th century as their fortified center of a Germanic settlement area between "mons Silencii" (Ślęża
Mount Sleza
Ślęża is a mountain in the Sudetes foothills in Lower Silesia, from Wrocław, southern Poland. This natural reserve built mostly of granite is 718 m high and covered with forests....

) and the river "Selenca" (Ślęza
Ślęza
Ślęza is a 78.6 km long river in Lower Silesia, southern Poland, a left tributary of the Oder. It starts in the Niemcza Hills , part of the Sudete Highlands , and flows near Mount Ślęża through the Silesian Lowland and enters the Oder in Wrocław.The most important tributary is: Mała...

). Slavs arrived after the 6th century and called this place "Nemci" ( = mute, metaphorically "those who do not speak our language"). Thietmar of Merseburg
Thietmar of Merseburg
Thietmar of Merseburg was a German chronicler who was also bishop of Merseburg.-Life:...

 later described "Nemzi" as "eo quod a nostris olim sitcondita, dicta" (Nemzi is called like that because it is, according to reports, founded by our people). The settlement was expanded and evolved into the center of the Ślężanie
Slezanie
Ślężanie were a tribe of West Slavs, specifically of the Lechitic , inhabiting territories of Lower Silesia, near Ślęża mountain and Ślęza river, on the both banks of the Oder, up to the area of modern city of Wrocław...

 district.
In early times Niemcza became a important base in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

s fight for Silesia. After 990 it was seized by Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and withstood both emperor Henry II.
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry II , also referred to as Saint Henry, Obl.S.B., was the fifth and last Holy Roman Emperor of the Ottonian dynasty, from his coronation in Rome in 1014 until his death a decade later. He was crowned King of the Germans in 1002 and King of Italy in 1004...

 in 1017 and a major offensive of Bohemia in 1093. After 1155 it became the center of a Piast castellany district. This preurban civitas consisted of a settlement enclosed by imposing ramparts in great-moravian
Great Moravia
Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...

 design (the only one in Silesia), the castellany castle with St. Peter chapel, first mentioned in 1288/95, and a market place around St. Adalbert church, one of the oldest churches of Silesia, outside and to the west of the ramparts. The area was surrounded by several manors.

The German Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung , also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day western and central Germany into less-populated regions and countries of eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia...

 reached Niemcza and the surrounding area already in 1210. The settlement however grew only slow as the new German town was founded directly on the soil of the cramped old Polish urbs, whereas the more spacious market place around St. Adalbert was remodeled to a village. Remarkable was the establishment of the parish church St. Marien, which in 1295 was assigned to both Poles and Germans for shared and separate usage. Before 1300 a new city wall was built, which is in parts preserved. At the same time the wooden castellany castle was replaced by a stone castle, and a city hall was first mentioned in 1474.

With the partition of the Duchy of Wrocław/Breslau in 1311 the town passed to the Duchy of Brzeg/Brieg. In 1322 both the town and municipal area (Weichbild) became a pledged possession of the Duchy of Świdnica/Schweidnitz, whose duke Bolko I.
Bolko I the Strict
Bolko I the Strict also known as the Raw or of Jawor , was a Duke of Lwówek during 1278-81 and Jawor since 1278 , sole Duke of Lwówek since 1286, Duke of Świdnica-Ziębice since 1291.He was the second son of Bolesław II the Bald, Duke of Legnica by his first wife Hedwig, daughter of...

 used the strategic position of Niemcza/Nimptsch in his fight against Bohemia. After his duchy passed to Bohemia in 1392 the town came back to the duchy of Brieg. The Hussite
Hussite
The Hussites were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus , who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation...

s seized Nimptsch in 1430 and held the town for several years. After six unsuccessful sieges Nimptsch was returned in 1434 and razed to the ground by the Silesians.

In 1494 the administration of the municipal area was moved to Schlottnitz. Nimptsch, which was equipped below average, enclosed by noble properties, on the periphery of the municipal area, in the extreme western corner of the duchy and close to the far more successful foundations of Reichenbach
Dzierzoniów
Dzierżoniów is a town in southwestern Poland. It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship...

 (Dzierżoniów) and Frankenstein
Zabkowice Slaskie
Ząbkowice Śląskie is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is the seat of Ząbkowice Śląskie County, and of the smaller administrative district called Gmina Ząbkowice Śląskie....

 (Ząbkowice Śląskie), could never overcome such backlashes. A moderate recovery, marked by the reconstruction of the town wall, the modernisation of the,never used, ducal residence, the rebuilding of St. Adalbert as the Protestant church St. George in 1612 and the awarding of several town rights, was stopped by the Thirty Years War. In 1635 Daniel Casper von Lohenstein
Daniel Casper von Lohenstein
Daniel Caspar , also spelled Daniel Casper, and referred to from 1670 as Daniel Caspar von Lohenstein, was a Baroque Silesian playwright, lawyer, diplomat, poet, and chief representative of the Second Silesian School.-Family:The Casper and/or Caspar family came from the Brieg principality, first...

 was born in the residence, the only building not destroyed during this war. Only 12 out of 103 landlords of Nimpsch survived firestorm and pest.

The slow rebuilding, with the help of immigrated Bohemians, was again stopped by several major fires, which destroyed the town hall and parts of the residence. After the extinction of the local Piasts in 1675 the counter-reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...

 obtained the tension-filled reestablishment of a Catholic commune. At the same time Nimptsch became a center of sacred music thanks to Protestant cantor Johann Heinrich Quiel.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 Nimptsch passed to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and was renamed to Niemcza. The German inhabitants were expelled and the town was resettled with Poles. The city wasn't destroyed in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Of the three preserved historical buildings at that time the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 octagon of the residence and the Catholic Church are decayed and demolished. St. George is preserved, as well as the late Baroque residential buildings on the market place (rynek).

Population

year population
1740 1150
1787 1256
1825 2182
1905 2216
1939 3523 (16,24 km²)
1961 3557 (19,25 km²)
1970 3772
2006 3121
2007 3085

Twin towns — Sister cities

Niemcza is twinned
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 with: Gladenbach
Gladenbach
-Location:The town of Gladenbach lies on the eastern edge of the Westerwald in the Hessian Highland . This part of the Lahn-Dill Highland is often also called the Gladenbach Uplands...

 in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Letohrad
Letohrad
Letohrad is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has around 6,200 inhabitants. The town lies beneath Orlice Mountains, on the river Tichá Orlice.Villages Červená, Kunčice and Orlice are administrative parts of Letohrad.-Kyšperk:...

 in Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 Monteux
Monteux
Monteux is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-Geography:Monteux is near Carpentras, in middle of Comtat Venaissin, and around 20 km from Avignon, in the countryside between Mont Ventoux, the Rhône and the Durance.Its...

 in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

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