History
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Human settlement in the area dates back to prehistoric times, and cemeteries of the Lusatian culture were discovered within the city limits during archaeological excavations.
Middle Ages[edit]
Archaeological evidence attests to prehistoric activity in the area, including cemeteries of the Lusatian culture found within today’s city boundaries. In the Early Middle Ages the region was settled by West Slavic tribes, specifically the Bobrzanie, one of the old Polish tribes. In the 7th century it was possibly part of the short-lived Samo's Empire, and incorporated into the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I around 990. A modest fortified hillfort (gród) of probable Piast-period origin existed on the hill known until 1945 as Hausberg (renamed Wzgórze Krzywoustego / Bolesław Wrymouth Hill only after 1945) during the 10th–12th centuries, which lies west of the area where the medieval town was later established.
Later Polish tradition attributes the founding of a settlement to Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth in 1108 and its use as a base for his 1110 campaign against Bohemia , as well as a fortification expansion by Duke Bolesław II the Horned in 1242 ; these claims lack contemporary documentation and are regarded as legendary. The Jelenia Gora Valley remained thinly populated and heavily forested, with no signs of continuous settlement or urban development until the high medieval period.
St. Anne Chapel and Wojanowska Gate, part of the medieval defense complex
The documented history of the place begins only in 1281, when it is first reliably mentioned in written records under its German name Hyrzberc as part of the German eastward expansion (Ostsiedlung). From this Middle High German form the name Hirschberg evolved and remained the official designation until 1945. In 1288 Duke Bolko I the Strict granted city rights, laying the foundation for the planned urban settlement that developed into the medieval town.
The city flourished in the 14th century, and became a center of crafts and trade. Weaving developed, and the citizens were exempt from tolls in trade with Wrocław and Bohemia. In 1317, the Corpus Christi Hospital was first mentioned in documents, although it possibly was founded in the 13th century. In 1345 a city council was established. In 1348 an earthquake struck the city, and Duke Bolko II the Small granted it new privileges. In 1361 the city was allowed to build a winery, market stalls and was given the privilege of minting its own gold and silver coins. When the Silesian Piasts lost inheritance and Agnes of Habsburg, the last duchess of Świdnica-Jawor died in 1392, the city passed to Bohemia, ruled by the House of Luxembourg. In 1426 and 1427 the city was invaded by the Hussites.
Modern era[edit]
In 1502 King Vladislaus II issued a privilege extending the city's autonomy and in 1519 King Louis II granted the right to an annual fair.
The town was inherited by Habsburg Austria in 1526, two years after the town adopted the Protestant faith. In 1533, all old privileges of the city were confirmed. In 1539, a second annual fair was established. In 1540 the municipal school suffered a fire. In 1548, the city refused to support Charles V in the religious Schmalkaldic War, for which he fined the city and deposed the mayor. A Protestant school was built in 1566. In 1560 a fire destroyed large parts of the city and stopped the economic development, which until then had been characterized by linen-weaving. The city recovered when Joachim Girnth, a shoemaker on a return journey from Holland, introduced veil-weaving. The first "light veils" were offered in 1625, and five years later the city received an imperial privilege by Ferdinand II for these veils.
Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church, 18th-century
Paulinum Palace, now a hotel
During the Thirty Years' War the city suffered badly. It was beleaguered by troops of both parties, paid high contributions, and during a siege in 1634 the city burned down again. Two more sieges followed in 1640 and 1641. The town needed several years to recover. One reason for the new boost was the creation of a merchant society in 1658, which secured the city's position as the most important center of linen and veil trade in the Silesian mountains during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Protestants of the city were oppressed during the Counter-Reformation, but the second Treaty of Altranstädt, which allowed a Protestant community center and church to be established outside the medieval city walls, brought relief. Great sacrifices by the merchant society, especially its most prominent member Christian Menzel, made the construction of a large church, modelled after Church of Catherine in Stockholm, possible. The cemetery of the church was the preferred burial place for most merchant families.
Hirschberg was annexed with Lower Silesia by the Kingdom of Prussia during the Silesian Wars. The city was again partly destroyed, had to pay contributions and was seized several times. The detachment from Austria and the new border in the mountains to the south badly damaged the economy as the merchants lost a large part of their customers. Although Prussia took on substantial efforts to revive the economy, they never recovered completely and finally lost their position during the Industrial Revolution.
In 1800, John Quincy Adams, ambassador in Berlin at that time and future President of the United States, visited Hirschberg and said: "Nothing can be more beautiful than the location of Hirschberg, a beautifully built city with numerous splendid buildings, in a valley surrounded by hills on all sides, with the magnificent view of the Giant Mountains".
Town hall, built between 1744 and 1749, is located on the main square
In 1871 the town became part of the German Empire with the Prussian-led unification of Germany, as one of the largest towns in the Province of Silesia. In 1882, a railway connecting the city with Kowary was opened, and in 1905 it was further expanded to Kamienna Góra. In 1891, a railway connecting the city with Piechowice was opened, and in 1902 it was further expanded to Szklarska Poręba and Harrachov. In 1889 the Deutsche Riesengebirgsverein (German Giant Mountains Club), an organization to protect the environment of the Giant Mountains and to promote tourism, was founded by Theodor Donat and 47 other dignitaries of the region.
20th century[edit]
After World War I, the town became part of the Prussian Province of Lower Silesia in 1919, and in 1922 became a separate city. On September 1, 1939, the day of the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, Luftwaffe used the airport in Hirschberg to conduct air raids on Poland. In April 1940, the first transport of 2,000 Poles deported from Sosnowiec, Będzin and Olkusz for forced labor arrived to the city. In the city, the Germans organized 19 labor camps in which they imprisoned mainly Poles, Czechs, Frenchmen and Belgians, but also Luxembourgers, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, and Estonians, including women. They also established four prisoner-of-war camps: two for French, one for Jews from different countries and one for Soviets. French POWs organized a secret resistance movement and cooperated with Poles from other camps. There were also two subcamps of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, whose prisoners were mostly Poles and Jews from various German-occupied countries, chiefly Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary. In 1943 and 1944 there was a significant influx of Germans from the bombed German cities, and in 1944, after the crushing of the Warsaw Uprising, Poles deported from Warsaw were temporarily imprisoned there. When the Red Army captured the city, as a result of the influx of people in the last years of the war, there were 160,000 people in the city.
Polish Independence Monument
According to the decisions of the Potsdam Conference, the city was annexed by Poland. It became officially known by its Polish name of Jelenia Góra, which was first recorded in 1847. All remaining German inhabitants were expelled westward in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and Polish settlers came to the city. In the 1950s also Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in Jelenia Góra.
A local unit of the Freedom and Independence Association was formed in 1945 by former Home Army partisans. From October 1945, the Polish underground newspaper Wolność ("Freedom") was issued and distributed in Jelenia Góra. In mid-1946, the communists carried out arrests of local resistance leaders, however, some managed to escape arrest.
In 1945, Jelenia Góra became the seat of the Polish Dolnośląskie Towarzystwo Turystyczno-Krajoznawcze ("Lower Silesian Tourist and Sightseeing Society") founded in nearby Przesieka, and after its merger with the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society it remained a seat of its branch, which runs a number of mountain huts in the nearby Giant Mountains.
The city was not destroyed in the war, but the state of its buildings and infrastructure declined over the next decade. The communist authorities dismantled the neglected tenements around the Old Town until 1965 and destroyed the cemetery of the former German Protestant church. Since then the buildings around the market place have been reconstructed in simpler 18th-century historical forms.
From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Jelenia Góra Voivodeship. In 1976, the city was enlarged through the incorporation of Sobieszów, Maciejowa and the spa town of Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój.
