Wroclaw
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Wrocław (formerly Breslau) is a city in Silesia in present-day southwestern Poland, situated on the Oder River. Wrocław has a population (2003) of 638,666. It is the principal city of the Lower Silesia region and the administrative seat of the Lower Silesian Voivodship (since 1999), previously of Wroclaw Voivodship. The city is also a separate city-county and a site of the Wroclaw County.
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2 History 3 Historical population 4 Universities, industry and infrastructure 5 Photos 6 External links 7 Books |
The Polish name, Wrocław, is pronounced "vrotswaf". Historically, the city was known by the German name, Breslau, in English, being a German city. In Czech the city is called Vratislav, and in Latin Vratislavia.
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 (Wratislaw), duke of Bohemia (915-921). 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 Mongol invasion in 1241 most of the population of the city was evacuated. Settlement was then sacked and burned by Mongols, but they had no time to siege the castle where rest of burghers found refugee.
Solny square
Documents of the time refer to the town by many variants of the name, including Bresslau, Presslau, Breslau and Latin Wratislaw. The restored Breslau town was given Magdeburg city 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. In 1335 it was along with the almost entire province of Silesia incorporated into the Kingdom of Bohemia and was part of it until 1740s, from 1526 under Habsburg dynasty all continuously part of the H.R.E. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants became Protestants during the Reformation, but were forcibly suppressed during the Catholic Reformation by the Jesuits, working with the support of the Habsburg rulers.
City Hall
In 1569 Silesia had made a contract with Brandenburg, that in the case that the last Silesian Piast rulers died out, the land would be united with Brandenburg. This was the case in the 17th century, but the Habsburgs kept Silesia. The Protestant churches were closed and Silesia, including Breslau, was forced to become nearly all Catholic again. Because Brandenburg-Prussia was more sympathetic to their choice of religion, many people from Silesia and Bohemia sought refuge in Brandenburg-Prussia, and particularly Berlin. The Prussian king Frederick the Great even built a church dedicated to Saint Hedwig, the patroness of Silesia, in Brandenburg and Berlin. The diocese of Berlin was attached to the archdioce of Breslau.
Annexed by the kingdom of Prussia in the 1740s, Prussia and the city became part of the German Empire in 1871 after the demise of the HRE in 1806. 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 in 1860-1910 to over half a million. Its municipal boundaries were greatly extended in 1928.
University of Wroclaw
Many of the city's 10,000 Jews were murdered during the Nazi genocide of World War II. When Red Army approached, Wroclaw was declared fortress and most of population, except 150,000, was expelled by Nazi authorities. To build the fortifications slave workforce was needed, therefore the number of concentration camps prisoners increased. After a 3 month siege by the Soviet army in 1945, the fortress surrendered on May 6, 1945. The city was damaged in almost 70%, burned by the Nazi themselves and bombed by the Soviets. A modern residential district, around the Kaiserstrasse, was pulled down by prisoners (thousands of them died) to construct a military airfield. According to the Potsdam agreement the city was given to Poland.
The remaining German population of Wroclaw was transferred to Germany by Soviet- installed communist administration by the half of 1946, in line with the decision of the Allies. It was replaced by Poles either from the small town and villages form the provinces nearby, or those expelled from territories lost by Poland to the USSR (many of them from the Lviv, former Lwow, area).
Hala Ludowa
Gradually the old city was restored to its beauty, nearly all the monumental buildings were preserved. Now it is a uniquely European city in Poland, with its architecture echoing that in Austria, Bohemia, Prussia. Wroclaw Gothic style is originally Silesian, its Baroque style owes much to court builders of Hapsburg Austria (Fischer von Erlach, Ch. Tausch), and Wroclaw still has a number of buildings by eminent 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.
Name
History
Nobel laureates from Breslau
Historical population
1800: 64,500 inhabitants
1831: 89,500 inhabitants
1852: 121,100 inhabitants
1880: 272,900 inhabitants
1900: 422,700 inhabitants
1910: 510,000 inhabitants
1925: 555,200 inhabitants
1933: 625,198 inhabitants
1939: 629,565 inhabitants
1946: 171,000 inhabitants
1960: 431,800 inhabitants
1970: 526,000 inhabitants
1975: 579,900 inhabitants
1980: 617,700 inhabitants
1990: ?
1999: 650,000 inhabitants
2003: 638 666 inhabitantsUniversities, industry and infrastructure
Today's Wroclaw has nine universities, including Wroclaw University (Uniwersytet Wrocławski), Wroclaw University of Technology (Politechnika Wrocławska), Medical Academy of Wroclaw (Wrocławska Akademia Medyczna), University School of Physical Education. Its major industries are the manufacture of railroad cars and electronics. The city has both an airport and a river port.Photos
A skating ring in the Rynek (Market Square) - Dec 2003.External links
Books