The Brynica (German: ''Brinitz'') is a river in the

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It has a length of and has a drainage basin area of . The river is the main

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the Czarna Przemsza.

Course

The river flows entirely within the Silesian Voivodeship. Its sources are located in the village of Mysłów, at the Próg Woźnicki, at an altitude of approximately 350 m above sea level. It flows through the municipalities of Koziegłowy,

Siewierz Siewierz is a town in southern Poland, in the Będzin County in the Silesian Voivodeship, seat of Gmina Siewierz. Siewierz is located in Dąbrowa Basin (''Zagłębie Dąbrowskie''), which is part of the historical and geographical region of Less ...

, Mierzęcice, Miasteczko Śląskie,

Świerklaniec Świerklaniec (; ) is a village in Tarnowskie Góry County, in the Silesian Voivodeship of southwestern Poland. Formerly, from 1975 to 1998, Świerklaniec was a part of the Katowice Voivodeship. Geography Świerklaniec lies approximately east of ...

, Bobrowniki, Piekary Śląskie,

Siemianowice Śląskie Siemianowice Śląskie (; ; ) also known as Siemianowice is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice, in the core of the Metropolis GZM - a metropolis with a population of 2 million people and is located in the Silesian Highlands, ...

Czeladź Czeladź () is a town in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (part of historic Lesser Poland), in southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. Located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Brynica river (tributary of the Vistula), it is the oldest urban center ...

Sosnowiec Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Metropolis GZM municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industrial Re ...

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

, and

Mysłowice Mysłowice (; ) is a city in Silesia in Poland, bordering Katowice. The population of the city is 72,124. It is located in the core of the Metropolis GZM in the Silesian Highlands, on the Przemsza and Brynica rivers (tributaries of the Vistul ...

. The Brynica empties into the Czarna Przemsza near Mysłowice, at the border with Sosnowiec, carrying an average discharge of 3.7 m³/s.

Tributaries

Tributaries of the Brynica include the Czeczówka stream, the Jaworznik brook, Rów Michałkowicki, Potok Ożarowicki, the Rawa brook, a second Rów, the Szarlejka stream, Rów Śmiłowskiego, Rów Świerklaniecki, Potok Trzonia, Potok Wielonka, and Rów Wschodni.

Historical significance

The Brynica has historically served as a boundary between

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

and

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name ''Małopolska'' (; ), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate cult ...

. In 1443 it marked the border between the Siewierz Duchy, purchased by Kraków bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki, and the Cieszyn Duchy under the Kingdom of Bohemia. During the Silesian Wars (1740–1763), the course of the Brynica defined the state border between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Siewierz Duchy, which in 1790 was incorporated into the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

, later forming part of the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

(1807–1815) and then annexed by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

following the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

in 1815. Between 1918 and 1922, it served as part of the Polish–German border. After the Silesian Uprisings, on 20 June 1922, in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention on Upper Silesia of 15 May 1922, Polish troops under General Stanisław Szeptycki crossed the bridge over the Brynica between Szopienice and

, assuming control over the eastern part of Upper Silesia under Polish administration. One of the insurgents, Janusz Howaniec, symbolically broke the chains of subjugation—a moment commemorated by a plaque at the site.

References

Rivers of Poland Rivers of Silesian Voivodeship

External links

{{Commons-inline, Brynica (tributary of Przemsza), Brynica