Country Poland Gmina Gmina Polkowice Postal code 59-100, 59-101 Area 23.75 km² Local time Thursday 8:42 AM | County Polkowice County Time zone CET (UTC+1) Car plates DPL Population 22,279 (2006) Team CCC Polkowice | |
Weather 5°C, Wind E at 18 km/h, 79% Humidity Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship | ||
Polkowice [pɔlkɔˈvʲit͡sɛ] (German: Heerwegen; until 1937: Polkwitz) is a town in south-western Poland. It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship. The town is the seat of Polkowice County and of the smaller administrative district called Gmina Polkowice.
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Map of Polkowice, Poland
Geography
Polkowice is located in historic Lower Silesia, about 15 km (9 mi) northwest of Lubin on National road 3. The nearst airport is Wrocław–Copernicus Airport, located 72 km (45 mi) 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. From 1975–1998 it was in the former Legnica Voivodeship.
History
The name of the town is probably derived from Slavic (Old Polish) Boleslaw, meaning "great glory", a favoured dynastic name in the Polish royal House of Piast. 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).
Part of the Silesian Duchy of Głogów, Polkowice was already mentioned as a town (civitas) in a 1276 deed. It passed to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1365. 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 First Silesian War in 1742, the town was annexed by Prussia and later incorporated into the Province of Silesia.
In 1937, Polkwitz was renamed Heerwegen by the German Nazi authorities. After World War II, the region passed to the Republic of Poland according to the 1945 Potsdam Agreement. The native German populace was expelled and replaced with Poles. For more information on the general history of the region, see Silesia.
Education
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International relations
Polkowice is twinned with: