Bielawa

Sister cities

• Lingen

History

The oldest known mention of Bielawa dates back to 1284 in a letter sent by Bishop Tomasz II of Wrocław to a group of church leaders from the order of St. Augustine, where he complained that the duke Henry IV Probus has claimed possession of a list of villages that used to belong to the bishopric of Wrocław, including Bela, the Latin form of Bielawa. Also in 1288, Bialawa is mentioned when it was part of fragmented Piast-ruled Poland. In 1720 the first brick house was built in the village and in 1741 it was captured and afterwards annexed by Prussia. In 1805 Christian Dierig founded a weaving company (Christian Dierig AG). During the Napoleonic Wars, the village was occupied by France. In 1844 it was the site of the Weavers' Uprising, brutally crushed by the Prussians. During World War II the Germans established the FAL Langenbielau II subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in the town. In 1945 it was captured by the Soviets and eventually reintegrated with Poland. Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in Bielawa in the 1950s. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of the Wałbrzych Voivodeship.

Geography

Bielawa lies in the central part of Lower Silesia, along the Bielawica stream in the Owl Mountains region. The town covers an area in excess of . Bielawa lies at an altitude range of 280 and 964 m above sea level, in the Owl Mountains. The town is a year-round tourist destination; its outdoor attractions include four major hiking trails of varying difficulty in an park, as well as cycling trails and ski lifts.