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- Not to be confused with Lyuban near Saint Petersburg in Russia.
Lubań [ˈlubaɲ] (German: Lauban) is a town in southwest Poland (Lower Silesia), with 22,137 inhabitants (2006). It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (from 1975–1998 it was in the former Jelenia Góra Voivodeship). It is the seat of Lubań County, and also of the smaller administrative district called Gmina Lubań (although it is not part of the territory of the latter, as the town is a separate urban gmina in its own right).
[edit] History
In the 9th and 10th century AD Lubań was a small settlement, but owing to its favourable location on various trade routes it expanded rapidly. In 1220 or 1268 (the second date is more probable) Lubań became a town with Magdeburg rights. The centre of the town was a square marketplace with perpendicular streets, leading to four gates: Zgorzelecka to the west, Bracka (built in 1318 together with stone curtains by Henryk Jaworski) to the south, Mikołajska to the east and Nowogrodziecka to the north. The first mayor of the town was Mikołaj Herman, and Lubań received its own seal. In 1319 the town was inherited by Duke Henryk, who built a new town hall, whose ruins can be seen today (Kramarska Tower). He ruled the town for eighteen years, before it passed to the Czech King Jan Luksemburski.
On 10 August 1346 there came into being the Six-City League of Upper Lusatia, consisting of the towns of Lubań, Zgorzelec, Lubij, Żytawa, Budziszyn and Kamieniec Łużycki. Twice, in 1427 and 1431, Hussities completely demolished the town, it was quicky rebuilt. In its history, Lubań has repeatedly suffered great fires, which often ruined the whole town. Many inhabitants died as a result of plagues. During Saxon rule, the Dom pod Okrętem ("House under the Ship") was built. The region was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia during the Silesian Wars. In 1865 and 1866 Lubań obtained railway connections with Zgorzelec and Jelenia Góra. At the end of World War II in 1945, the region became part of Poland following decisions approved at the Potsdam Conference. The remaining German inhabitants were expelled westward and replaced with Polish settlers. In 1992 the Six-City League was reactivated. In 1992–2004 the marketplace was renovated. Streets were paved and town houses around the Kramarska Tower were rebuilt.
[edit] Places of interest
Points of interest in Lubań include:
• Kramarska Tower – remains of the 13th-century Gothic town hall
• Stone curtains (1318) made from basalt from a local quarry. Behind the curtains were situated four main gates: Nowogrodziecka, Mikołajska, Bracka i Zgorzelecka
• Bracka Donjon (built in 1318 by Henryk Jaworski)
• Trynitarska Tower (1320 r.) on Wrocławska street, a remnant of Holy Trinity Church
• Salt House or Cereal House (Polish: Dom Solny/Dom Zbożowy) (1539), a building made of basalt
• Town hall built in 1554 in Renaissance style
• House under the Ship (Polish: Dom pod Okrętem) (1715), the house of the Kirchoff family
• Park on Kamienna Góra hill (14 hectares). Contains evidence of an extinct tertiary volcano, such as basalt columns or “volcanic bombs”; also has a wood with exotic trees: Liriodendron tulipifera, Pinus pinea, Pinus nigra. Kamienna Góra also has an amphitheatre and a castle-style residence, which was built in 1824 and rebuilt in 1909, offering views of the Sudetes mountains (including Śnieżka, the highest peak).
[edit] Famous people born in Lubań
• Martin Behm (1557-1662), pastor, writer
• Johann Knöfel (1525–30-1617), composer
• Jakob Bartsch (1600-1633), astronomer
• Konrad Gottlob Anton (1745-1814), orientalist
• Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow (1831-1890), explorer of Africa
• Elisabeth von Saldern (1878-1938), Mother Superior
• Karl Hanke (1903-1945), NSDAP-Politician
• Otto Kuss (1905-1991), theologian
• Heinz Keßler (1920), general in the National People's Army, Minister of Defense in the Ministerrat, and representative in the Volkskammer of the German Democratic Republic
• Horst Klaus (1930), unionist
• Hans Geisler (1940), politician
• Konrad Weiß (1942), film director
• Helmut Bakaitis (1944), actor
• Ludwig Danziger (1874–1925), painter
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 51°07′N, 15°18′E
Poland
