Lewin Brzeski

History

Located along the medieval trade routes from Silesia to Hungary, although it fell under the suzerainty of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown in 1329, Hungary in 1469, and again Bohemia in 1490, then ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty until 1526 and the House of Habsburg afterwards. The 16th century brought an economic boom to the city. Since 1592 yearly fairs were organized with the permission of the duke of Brzeg. After the Reformation the town became mainly Protestant, and the Catholic parish was disbanded. During the Thirty Years' War the town was looted, burned, and struck by the plague. After the dissolution of the Duchy of Legnica in 1675, it was incorporated into the Habsburg monarchy. In 1742, under the Germanized name Löwen, In the final stages of World War II, in January 1945, the Germans evacuated most of the population, leaving only the elderly in the town, and recruited many inhabitants into the Volkssturm. Its co-founder, Mieczysław Józefczyk, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of the highest Polish decorations, in 2017. A monument of Pope John Paul II was unveiled in Lewin Brzeski in 2014. Lewin Brzeski was one of the most affected towns during the 2024 Central European floods, with 90% of the town's area flooded.