Wołów | |
|---|---|
 Town hall in Wołów | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Wołów | |
| Coordinates:51°20′29″N16°37′42″E / 51.34139°N 16.62833°E /51.34139; 16.62833 | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship | Lower Silesian |
| County | Wołów |
| Gmina | Wołów |
| First mentioned | 1157 |
| Town rights | around 1285 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Dariusz Chmura |
| Area | |
• Total | 18.54 km2 (7.16 sq mi) |
| Population (2019-06-30[1]) | |
• Total | 12,373 |
| • Density | 667.4/km2 (1,728/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 56-100 |
| Car plates | DWL |
| Voivodeship roads |     |
| Website | http://www.wolow.pl |
Wołów[ˈvɔwuf] (German:Wohlau,Czech:Volov) is a town inLower Silesian Voivodeship in south-westernPoland.[2] It is the seat ofWołów County andGmina Wołów. As of 2019[update], the town has a population of 12,373. It is part of the largerWrocław metropolitan area.
The town's name is derived from thePolish wordwół ("ox").
The area around Wołów has been settled since prehistoric times.[3] It became part of the emerging Polish state in the late 10th century underMieszko I of Poland.[4] The town was first mentioned in 1157[5] when a wooden castle founded bySenior Duke of PolandWładysław II the Exile is documented,[6][7] which developed into a castle complex, which was again mentioned in 1202.[8] Two villages developed near the castle, one of them called Wołowo. Probably in the second half of the 13th century the town was founded near Wołowo and partially on the soil of the second village.[9] Wołów receivedMagdeburg town rights about 1285 at the time of GermanOstsiedlung in the region; aVogt is mentioned in 1288.[9]
At that time Wołów belonged to theDuchy of Głogów, after 1312 to theDuchy of Oleśnica.[9] With the duchy it came under the suzerainty ofBohemia in 1328. Since the 15th century, the town was a center of clothmaking.[10] From 1473 dates the oldest known seal of the town, which already shows an ox, as do all later seals. Wołów was ruled by local Polish dukes until 1492, and soon after, in 1495, it came into the possession of theCzechPodiebrad family, then in 1517 it came into the hands theHungarian magnateJohann Thurzó, before returning toPiast rule in 1523, by passing to theDuchy of Legnica.[4] It remained there until thePiast dukes of Legnica-Brzeg-Wołów died out in 1675. As a result of theThirty Years' War, the town's population fell by half.[4]
TheProtestant Reformation was introduced to the town in 1522 by dukeFrederick II. After the extinction of the local Piasts the duchy passed to theHouse of Habsburg, which opposed the Protestant denomination in the town, as part of theCounter-Reformation. In 1682 the town's parish church was closed and given to the Catholics. According to theTreaty of Altranstädt the church however was already returned to the Protestants in 1707 and stayed Protestant until 1945. The small Catholic minority in return received a Josephinian curacy.[11]
In 1742 Wołów was annexed byPrussia.[10] The duchy was divided into two districts and the town became county seat of one of the districts. The structure of the town was, until 1700, defined by craft, especially clothiers. As the seat of a duchy and a district administrative function however became more and more important. Theindustrialization played only a minor role and mostly affected smaller companies of the timber industry.[11] In 1781 the city suffered a fire.[4]
.jpg)
_ID_598547.jpg)
.jpg)
DuringWorld War I, the German administration operated a forced labour camp forAlliedprisoners of war in the town.[12] DuringWorld War II, the Germans operated a youth prison in the town, with multipleforced labour subcamps in the region, including one in the town itself.[13] In 1943–1945, the Germans carried out mass executions ofAlliedprisoners of war in the forest in the present-day district of Gancarz.[10] In January 1945 – just before town was taken by theRed Army – theWehrmacht evacuated theGerman population westwards.[citation needed] AfterNazi Germany's defeat inWorld War II, the town became again part of Poland. The totality of the town's previous population wasexpelled in accordance with thePotsdam Agreement.
Deportation of Germans from the surrounding villages proceeded in 1945-46. Often, the local mayor announced at eve that families were to show up for deportation the next morning. Very often, the victims' luggage was plundered.[14]
In 1962, the town was the site of theWołów bank robbery, one of the largest bank robberies in Poland.
The localfootball team is MKP Wołów.[15] It competes in the lower leagues.
Seat:Wołów | ||
| Urban-rural gminas |  | |
| Rural gmina | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
