G?ogów : Poland
n the 16th century, the G?ogw line of the Piast dynasty died out with the death of John II the Mad. In the years 1491-1506 G?ogw was ruled by John Albert and Sigmund the Old, future kings of Poland. Later it was taken over by the Habsburg dynasty. In the middle of the 17th century, during the Thirty Years’ War, G?ogw was turned into a stronghold. It was besieged and conquered by armies of Prussia, France, Russia, Sweden and Austria. Since 1740 it was subject to the Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty. During the Napoleonic Wars the Polish forces of Henryk Dabrowski stationed here, and the city was also visited thrice by Napoleon himself. The stronghold status slowed down the city’s development for many years.
The citizens tried to abolish the stronghold status in the 19th century, but only in 1873 the fortifications were moved to the East, and finally taken down in 1902, which allowed the city to develop. In 1939 it had 33,000 inhabitants.
In 1945, the town was once again made into a stronghold by the Nazi government. G?ogw was besieged for 6 weeks by the Soviet army and was 95% destroyed. After the Yalta Conference, G?ogw, just like all of Lower Silesia, was given to Poland, and in May 1945 the first settlers came to G?ogw, to find only ruins. The town hasn’t been fully rebuilt to this day. The town started to develop again only in 1967, after a copper foundry was built there. It is still the largest industrial company in the town.
