Brzeg Dolny

Sister cities

• Chernyakhovsk
• Mont-Saint-Aignan
• Kovel

History

The oldest Slavic settlements in present-day Brzeg Dolny date back to the early Middle Ages. In the 10th century the area became part of the emerging Polish state under its first ruler Mieszko I of Poland. Brzeg Dolny was first mentioned under the Old Polish name Brzege in a 1353 deed as a part of the Duchy of Wrocław, then within the Bohemian (Czech) Crown Lands. The Warzyń district is older, mentioned as a village in a 1261 document of Duke Henry III the White when the region was still part of medieval Piast-ruled Poland. There was a ferry crossing the Oder River in Brzeg Dolny. The Dyhrns had built a palace for their residence, which stayed in their possession until the early 1780s, when Count Wilhelm von Dyhrn (1749–1813) sold it to the minister of Silesia Karl Georg von Hoym (1739-1807), who had married Baroness Antoinette Louise von Dyhrn und Schönau (1745–1820). The new owners subsequently modernized the Baroque palace and the adjoining park according to the plans of Carl Gotthard Langhans. Langhans also directed the construction of a large neo-classical pavilion perpendicular to the central structure, which became known as the “Little Palace.” Following these changes, the grand complex remained much the same until 1849, when it passed into the hands of Tony von Lazareff. She had it refashioned to resemble a Renaissance château overlooking the Loire. The river bank garden was also given Renaissance character. In 1742, after the First Silesian War, the duchy became part of Prussia and remained in Prusso-German possession until 1945. In 1860, the first sisters of Charity of St. Charles Borromeo came to Dyhernfurth. In close proximity to the Chapel of St. Hedwig, the nuns established a small convent and a hospital, which would eventually expand into the town…