Wałbrzych (; ; or Walmbrich; or ) is a city located in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in southwestern Poland, seat of Wałbrzych County. Wałbrzych lies approximately southwest of the voivodeship capital Wrocław and about from the Czech border. Wałbrzych has the status of municipality. Its administrative borders encompass an area of with 110,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the voivodeship and the 33rd largest in the country.
Wałbrzych was once a major coal mining and industrial center alongside most of Silesia. The city was left undamaged after World War II and possesses rich historical architecture; among the most recognizable landmarks is the Książ Castle, the largest castle of Lower Silesia and the third-largest in Poland.
In 2015 Wałbrzych became widely known due to the search for an allegedly buried Nazi gold train, which however was not found.
Etymology The earliest documented mention of the settlement appears 1305 in the Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis, a tithe and revenue register of the Diocese of Wrocław. It is recorded there in Latinized form as Waldenberc, the first attested version of the German name Waldenburg (“forest castle”). This name, with variants such as Waldenberg, Walbrich or Walmbrich, remained the official designation until 1945. The Polish name Wałbrzych comes from the German dialect form Walbrich.Barbara Czopek, Adaptacje niemieckich nazw miejscowych w języku polskim, 1995, p. 55, It became the official name after 1945.
Polish local historiography has sometimes postulated a hypothetical pre-German Slavic name Lasogród (“forest castle”). This reconstruction first emerged in 19th-century Polish national historiography and was popularized after 1945 in regional narratives. However, Lasogród (or any comparable Slavic form) is absent from all primary documents – no medieval or early-modern charter, register or chronicle records it.
History
Middle Ages
Polish sources indicate the city's predecessor, Lasogród, was an early medieval Slavic settlementSłownik geograficzno-krajoznawczy Polski Maria Irena Mileska 1994 page 781 Wydawn. Nauk. PWN, 1994 whose inhabitants engaged in hunting, honey gathering, and later agriculture. Lasogród eventually developed into a defensive fort, the remains of which were destroyed in the 19th century during expansion of the city. However, some German sources say no archaeological or written records support notions of an early West Slavic or Lechitic settlement nor the existence of a castle before the late 13th century.Vorgeschichtliche Funde innerhalb des Stadtgebietes sind spärlich und zweifelhaft in der Deutung, so daß eine frühe Dauersiedlung nicht angenommen werden kann. Für die Existenz einer "Waldenburg" im Bereich der Altstadt gibt es keinerlei Anhaltspunkte. Weczerka, p. 555 They also denounce the idea that during the Middle Ages the area of Wałbrzych was part of an unpopulated Silesian forest, known as the Silesian Przesieka.Auch der Grenzwald spricht dagegen. Weczerka, pp.416 and 555Badstübner, p. 2.Petry, p. 11. In April 2022, a coin hoard was discovered near Wałbrzych dating from the first half of the 13th century.
According to 17th-century Polish historian Ephraim Naso, Wałbrzych was a small village by 1191.Kronika wałbrzyska Wałbrzyskie Towarzystwo Kultury, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe 1985 page 231 This assertion was rejected by 19th-century German sourcesAllgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Band 23, page 261, Markgraf, Duncker & Humblot, 1886 and by German historian Hugo Weczerka,Die Behauptung, die "Waldenburg" sei 1191 erbaut worden (Naso), ist nicht haltbar. Weczerka, p. 555 who says the city was founded between 1290 and 1293, and was mentioned as Waldenberc in 1305.Weczerka, p. 555. He places the city near Nowy Dwór (), built by Bolko I the Strict of the Silesian Piasts. The city website, however, cites the building of the castle as a separate event in 1290. A part of Nowy Dwór castle, a manor built in the 17th century, was destroyed in the 19th century.Weczerka, p. 341. Nevertheless, the region became part of Poland after the establishment of the state under the Piast dynasty in the 10th century and during the fragmentation of the realm, it was part of various Polish-ruled duchies, the last of which was the Duchy of Świdnica until 1392, later it was also part of the Bohemian Crown and Hungary.
In the late Middle Ages, it was a centre for silver and lead mining. The settlement was first mentioned as a town in 1426, but it did not receive the rights to hold markets or other privileges due to the competition of nearby towns and the insignificance of the local landlords. Subsequently, the city became the property of the Silesian knightly families, initially the Schaffgotsches in 1372, later the Czettritzes, and from 1738, the Höchberg family, owners of Książ Castle.
Modern era
Coal mining in the area was first mentioned in 1536. From the 16th to the 18th century, it was a centre for wool and linen weaving. The settlement was transformed into an industrial centre at the turn of the 19th century.
As a result of the First Silesian War the city was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742, and subsequently became part of Germany in 1871. It was one of the locations of the Silesian weavers' uprising of 1793, brutally crushed by Prussian troops. In 1843 the city obtained its first rail connection, which linked it with Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). In the early 20th century a glassworks and a large china tableware manufacturing plant, which are still in operation today, were built. During World War I, the German administration operated three forced labour camps for Allied prisoners of war in the city.
World War II During the German invasion of Poland at the start of World War II in September 1939, some 2,000 young men from the city were conscripted to the Wehrmacht.
The first forced labourers, Poles, were probably brought to the city in early 1940, whereas Allied prisoners of war were brought to forced labour in the city probably since 1941. Several thousands POWs, Serbian, British, Italian, Belgian, Soviet, Polish, French and others, were held in various labour camps in the city,Sula (2016), pp. 19, 20, 23, 28 including subcamps of the Stalag VIII-A and Stalag VIII-B/344 POW camps. There were also several other forced labour camps, for Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, including camps solely for women,Sula (2016), pp. 21–23 two subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, intended for Jews, located in the present Gaj and Książ districts,Sula (2016), pp. 28, 31 and a Nazi prison. There are known cases when Polish civilian workers gave food to starving Soviet prisoners of war.Sula (2016), p. 26 The forced laborers made several attempts to escape, and those caught were either beaten by the Gestapo, sent to the Gross-Rosen camp or murdered.Sula (2016), pp. 27, 31 The camp in Książ was dissolved in February 1945, and its prisoners were sent on a death march towards Trutnov in German-occupied Czechoslovakia.Sula (2016), p. 31
It was conquered by the Soviet Red Army on 8 May 1945, a few hours before the German surrender and the end of World War II in Europe. Some 600 prisoners of the subcamp of Gross-Rosen in Gaj were liberated, and some stayed in the city after the war.Sula (2016), p. 30
Post-war period
After World War II, a previously unknown mass grave of roughly 18,000 murdered Jews was discovered in or near Wałbrzych. Waldenburg became again part of Poland under border changes demanded by the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference and was renamed to its Polish name Wałbrzych. Many of the Germans living in the city fled or were expelled. The town was repopulated by Poles, initially those who already were brought to the city as forced labourers by the Germans after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, then prisoners of the nearby Gross-Rosen concentration camp and prisoners-of-war. Afterwards they were joined by Poles from central Poland and those expelled from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, particularly from Borysław, Drohobycz and Stanisławów, as well as Poles returning from France and Belgium and from forced labour in Germany. Also some Jews, Czechs, Romanis and Yugoslavs came to the city. Wałbrzych was one of the few areas where a number of GermansWerner Besch, Dialektologie: Ein Handbuch zur Deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung, Walter de Gruyter, 1982, p. 178, were held back as they were deemed indispensable for the economy, e.g. coal mining.Stefan Wolff, German Minorities in Europe: Ethnic Identity and Cultural Belonging, Berghahn Books, 2000, p. 79, Also nearly 700 Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in Wałbrzych in the 1950s, however, most returned to Greece after 1983.Babińska, p. 292
The city was relatively unscathed by the Second World War, and as a result of combining the nearby administrative districts with the town and the construction of new housing estates, Wałbrzych expanded geographically. In 1951, city limits were expanded by including Biały Kamień, Rusinowa, and parts of Glinik, Konradów, Lubiechów, Opoka, Podgórze, Sobięcin and Szczawienko as new districts.
After the Treaty of Zgorzelec, remaining Germans were treated less harshly and an ethnic German society was established in 1957. The cultural activities however disappeared by the 1960s and the schools with German as the language of instruction gradually closed. The remaining German-speakers had little contact with the German spoken and written language and the local German-Silesian dialect became moribound.
From 1958 to the mid-1980s, the Kleks Poetry Theater, a leading school theater in Poland, was active in the city.
From 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of Wałbrzych Voivodeship. At the beginning of the 1990s, because of new social and economic conditions, a decision was made to close down the town's coal mines. In 1995, a Museum of Industry and Technology was set up on the facilities of the oldest coal mine in the area, KWK THOREZ. In 2001, the Wałbrzych Scientific Society was founded. The 2005 the film The Collector was filmed in and around Wałbrzych.
In 2016, a hoard of 1,385 late medieval coins, Prague groschen of Kings Charles IV and Wenceslaus IV, was found on the border of Wałbrzych and Boguszów-Gorce. The hoard may have been hidden after 1420 during the Hussite Wars. It is one of the largest groschen hoards found in Poland.
Geography
Wałbrzych is located in the Central Sudeten Mountains, near the border with the Czech Republic and Germany. The city is located by the Pełcznica River at 450–500 m above sea level in a picturesque structural basin of Wałbrzych above which there are wooded ranges of the Wałbrzych Mountains. The highest elevation in the city is Mount Borowa, also known as the Black Mountain, 853 m (2798 ft) above sea level, with an observation tower since 2007, which is the highest peak of the Wałbrzych mountains.
There are seven city parks in the city, and in the main city park (King Jan III Sobieski Park) is the only mountain shelter in Poland, located in the city center PTTK Harcówka.
Nature protection Protected areas in Wałbrzych
Książ Landscape Park – northern outskirts of the city Przełomy pod Książem Nature reserve – northern outskirts of the city Sudety Wałbrzyskie Landscape Park – southern outskirts of the city Chełmiec Mountain Natura 2000 area – western outskirts of the city
There are several natural monuments in the city; among them is the coat of arms oak, a descendant of the oak which was the inspiration for the coat of arms of the city, as evidenced by a nearby stone with the inscription "" ('City oak planted in 1933 in place of the coat of arms oak'). The mildest winter in the city was in 2006/2007 and 1992/1993.
Sights
Książ Castle, the largest Silesian castle, the third-largest castle in Poland behind Kraków's Wawel Castle and the Malbork Castle