Strzegom

Strzegom (german: Striegau) is a town in Świdnica County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the Gmina Strzegom administrative district ( gmina). It lies approximately north-west of Świdnica, and west of the regional capital Wrocław.

As of 2019, the town had a population of 16,106.

History

Middle Ages

Traces of settlement on the site during the Roman Empire period have been found. In the Middle Ages it was a fortified settlement under the rule of a castellan, founded in the 10th century, as part of Piast Poland, first mentioned in a deed issued by Pope Hadrian IV in 1155, confirming the boundaries of the Wrocław diocese. Its name is of Polish origin and comes either from the words ''strzec'' ("guard"), ''strzyc głowy'' ("cut hair") or ''trzy góry'' ("three mountains").

As a result of the fragmentation of Poland into smaller duchies, Strzegom became part of the Duchy of Silesia in the 12th century. The Piast Castle was built at that time. At the same time the building of the St. Peter and Paul parish church began, from 1203 under the patronage of the Order of Saint John. To help rebuild the devastated region after the first Mongol invasion of Poland (1241), Strzegom town granted town privileges by Anne of Bohemia, widow of the Silesian duke Henry II the Pious. In 1248 it passed to the Silesian Duchy of Legnica under Henry's son Bolesław II the Bald, contested by his nephew Henryk IV Probus, who, imprisoned by his uncle at Jelcz, finally had to renounce Strzegom in 1277. Since the 13th century Strzegom was a center of clothmaking. In the 1290s the defensive walls were erected. In 1307 a Benedictine monastery was established. In 1318 a bell was placed in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, it remains the oldest bell still operating in Poland.

From the late 13th century the town of Strzegom belonged to the Duchy of Jawor and Świdnica under Bolko I the Strict, and until 1392 was ruled by his descendants of the Silesian Piasts. Though they initially withstood the vassalisation attempts by King John of Bohemia, Strzegom subsequently shared the political fortunes of Silesia, and passed from Polish to Imperial Bohemian rule, Hungarian in 1469, again Bohemian in 1490, then under the Jagiellonian dynasty until 1526 and within under Austrian Habsburg sovereignty afterwards.

Modern era

During the Thirty Years' War the city suffered almost complete destruction, also the medieval Piast Castle was ruined, and in 1718 and 1719 fires struck the city.

In 1742 the town, under the Germanized name ''Striegau'', became part of Prussia. On 4 June 1745 the Battle of Hohenfriedberg, an important victory for King Frederick II against joint Austrian-Saxon-Polish forces during the War of the Austrian Succession, took place near the town. During the Seven Years' War