Siechnice (, , ) is a town in

Wrocław County __NOTOC__ Wrocław County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed ...

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship (, ) in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. It covers an area of and has a total population of 2,899,986. It is one of the wealthiest ...

, in south-western

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 gained town status in 1997, and as of 2019 has a population of 8,113. Siechnice is part of the

Wrocław metropolitan area The Wrocław metropolitan area is a monocentric agglomeration in the south-western part of Poland, in the Lower Silesian Voivodship, consisting of the city of Wrocław (a global Gamma-level metropolis) and its satellite towns. The population livi ...

. It lies approximately south-east of the regional capital

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

, and since January 1, 2010 has been the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) of

Gmina Siechnice __NOTOC__ Gmina Siechnice is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Wrocław County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Siechnice, which lies approximately south-east of the county and regiona ...

. Previously the district was called ''Gmina Święta Katarzyna'', and Siechnice was the only town in Poland which neither gave its name to the gmina in which it lay nor served as its administrative seat. The Czechnica power plant, a part of the Wrocław power supply system, is located in Siechnice.

History

The settlement was mentioned in 1253 under the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

ized name ''Sechenice''. Between 1323 and 1810, the village was owned by the

Knights of the Cross with the Red Star The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star (, , , postnominal initials: O.Cr., O.Crucig.), also known as the Military Order of the Crusaders of the Red Star is a Catholic religious order present in the Czech Republic and Austria. It is the only re ...

, whose symbol is depicted in the town's coat of arms. The village was heavily destroyed during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

and the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

. In 1909, it gained a railway connection with the

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, ...

n capitals Breslau (Wrocław) and Oppeln (Opole). During the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

era, the settlement was renamed from ''Tschechnitz'' to ''Kraftborn'', in order to remove traces of its Polish origin. Shortly after the war it was renamed ''Czechnica'', the name its power plant holds to this day, and later to ''Siechnice''. Siechnice was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

on January 1, 1997.

Transport

The town has a railway station which connects Siechnice with

and

Jelcz-Laskowice Jelcz-Laskowice () is a town in Oława County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately north of Oława, and south-east of the regional capital Wrocław, within its metropolitan area. As of 2019, the town has a ...

Gallery

File:Elektrownia Siechnice.jpg, Czechnica power plant File:Osiedle elektrowni Siechnice.jpg, Housing for the Czechnica power plant employees File:Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Siechnice (2).jpg, Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

References

Cities and towns in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Wrocław County {{Wrocław-geo-stub