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Wschowa (pronounced , ) is a town in the Lubusz Voivodeship in western Poland with 13,875 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Wschowa County and a significant tourist site containing many important historical monuments. It is part of the historic region of Greater Poland. Once an important royal city of Poland, due to its 18th-century history, it is sometimes called the "unofficial capital of Poland".

History

Medieval period

The territory became part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler Mieszko I in the 10th century. Following the fragmentation of Poland, Wschowa initially formed part of the Duchy of Greater Poland, and was mentioned in the Bull of Gniezno from 1136. Later on, Wschowa was a border fortress in a region disputed by the Polish dukes of Silesia and Greater Poland. The Old Polish name ''Veschow'' was first mentioned in 1248, while the Middle High German name ''Frowenstat Civitas'' first appeared in 1290. After German colonists had established a settlement nearby, it received Magdeburg rights around 1250.

From the 1290s, Wschowa was part of the Duchy of Głogów, and in 1343 it was captured by King Casimir III the Great and reunited with Greater Poland. Since then Wschowa was a royal town of Poland and county seat within the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. In 1345, the town was attacked by the dukes of Głogów. In 1365, the wedding of King Casimir III and Hedwig of Żagań was held in Wschowa. The coat of arms contains the double cross of the Jagiellonian dynasty. A municipal school was founded in 1404. In 1456, a Bernardines monastery was established.

Early modern period

In 1512, a conference took place in Wschowa with the participation of representatives of Poland, Bohemia, Saxony, the Duchy of Pomerania and large Polish cities such as Kraków, Poznań and Gdańsk over an ongoing trade conflict with the city of Wrocław.

Since the mid-16th century, Wschowa was one of the centres of the Protestant Reformation in Poland. In the early 17th century, a new Latin school was founded. Wschowa was a retreat for religious refugees from adjacent Lower Silesia during the Thirty Years' War. In the 1630s, starost founded the New Town for the refugees to the north of Wschowa. In the 17th century, Italian Niccolo Bacaralli established in Wschowa the first paint manufacture in Poland.

In the 18th century kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often resided in Wschowa and the town was even called the "unofficial capital of Poland". The Royal Castle hosted meetings of Polish kings with foreign delegations and even sessions of the Senate of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were held in Wschowa. In 1737 a concordat between the Holy See and Poland was signed in Wschowa.

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