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The town of Cieszyn (Czech: Těšín German: Teschen) - one of the oldest towns in Silesia - has had a Slav population since at least the 7th century. According to legend, in 810 three sons of a Slav king – Bolko, Leszko and Cieszko, met here after a long pilgrimage, found a spring, and in their happiness decided to found a new settlement. They called it Cieszyn, from the Old Polish words cieszym się ("I'm happy"). This well stands in the ulica Trzech Braci (Three Brothers Street), just west of the town square.[1][2] The town centres on Castle Hill (Góra Zamkowa), where the oldest traces of settlement date back to the 6th or 7th centuries. The gród built on the hill gradually gained importance and became and important religious and commercial centre. A Romanesque chapel erected here in the 11th century has survived to become one of the most important architectural landmarks of Silesia.
The first written reference to Cieszyn came in a document from Pope Hadrianus IV for the Wrocław bishop Valter from 23 April 1155. It concerned the castle of Tessin, which was the centre of a castellany. Around the castle a town was founded on a fortified headland above the Olza River. The city rights are documented as of 1290, and later confirmed in 1374. Around 1240 a parish church was also built.
The town shared the history of Silesia, and after the feudal division of Poland in 1173, Piast dukes of the Silesian line ruled the area. Cieszyn became a seat of the Duchy of Cieszyn. The duchy belonged to the Piast dukes of Upper Silesia, and in 1327 Casimir I swore homage to the Bohemian king John of Luxembourg. Since then, Cieszyn became an autonomic fiefdom of the Bohemian crown.[3] As a capital city of the Duchy, Cieszyn developed quickly and increased its significance. The largest development occurred during the rule of Przemysław I Noszak, who gained the city rights for Cieszyn in 1374 and reconstructed the wooden castle into the bricked one. It was back then when the mayor and city council appeared, first known mayor being Mikołaj Giseler. Town hall for the city council has been built.
Another rapid development of the town occurred during the rule of Casimir II, who invested in infrastructure of the town and erected defense walls around Cieszyn. In 16th century the town became an important centre of trade and commerce, with significant manufacture of arms and jewelry. It also became a centre of the Reformation. The town gradually developed until the 17th century, when it was heavily damaged during the Thirty Years' War. As a result of the war, economic and demographic decline followed in the whole Duchy.
The rule of the Cieszyn Piast dynasty continued to 1653, ending with the death of the last Duchess Elizabeth Lucretia. Thereupon the duchy lapsed directly to the Kings of Bohemia,[4] at that time Ferdinand IV of Habsburg. The Habsburg takeover of the duchy caused economic and political stagnation of Cieszyn until the end of the century.
The end of the era of Counter-Reformation allowed the construction of a large Lutheran church in Cieszyn in 1709-1750. Position of Cieszyn strengthened after the end of the Silesian Wars in the 17th century. As a result of the wars, Cieszyn Silesia remained part of Austria.[5] On 13 May 1779 the Peace of Teschen ending the War of Bavarian Succession has been signed in the town by Austria and Prussia. In 1772 Cieszyn also served as the main seat of the Bar Confederation.[5] Development of the town has been halted by the great fire of 1789, which damaged nearly the whole town.
In the 19th century Cieszyn underwent rapid cultural and educational development. In 1802 the priest Leopold Szersznik created a museum which later became a Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, one of the first public museums in Polish lands.[6] In 1839 the Piast castle has been finally dismantled, and a new Classicist castle erected in its place. In 1836 another fire affected Cieszyn and destroyed part of the central Cieszyn, including the town hall, which has been restored in 1846 and remains in this form since then. In the same year a brewery was built near Castle Hill. During the Spring of Nations of 1848, Cieszyn became an important centre of the Polish national thought. In the same year, the first Polish newspaper in the duchy, the Tygodnik Cieszyński has been published.
In 1869 the railway line reached Cieszyn and a rail station was constructed at the left bank of the Olza River (current Český Těšín). Construction of the rail station caused a quick development of the left bank of the town, which served as the industrial portion of the town. The industrial development was overshadowed by the more industrial neighbouring town of Bielsko. Cieszyn however remained an important administrative and cultural centre.
At the end of 19th century the population of the town consisted mostly of Germans and Poles, with Germans being the majority in the town and Poles being the majority in the whole duchy. There were also significant Jewish, Czech and Hungarian minorities.
According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 22,489 inhabitants, 21,550 of whom had permanent residence there. The census asked people to declare their native language: 13,254 (61.5%) were German-speaking, 6,832 (31.7%) were Polish-speaking and 1,437 (6.6%) were Czech-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish, most of them thus declared the German language as their native tongue. The largest religious groups included Roman Catholics with 15,138 (67.3%) followed by Protestants with 5,174 (23%) and the Jews with 2,112 (9.3%).[7]
In 1911 a tramway line was built in Cieszyn. It crossed the Olza River and connected the rail station on the left bank with the town centre on the right bank.[8] During World War I, Austrian troops were stationed in the town, and the General Staff of the Austrian army established itself there for some time.
At the end of World War I local Poles and Czechs each established their own self-governing organs. Both groups claimed that the whole of Cieszyn Silesia rightfully belonged to Czechoslovakia or to Poland respectively. To ease the friction which developed, the local self-governments concluded an interim agreement on 5 November 1918 concerning the division of the area based on ethnic composition. However, by 1919 metropolitan governments in Prague and Warsaw superseded the local administrations, with the Czechs arguing that the division was unfair. In particular, the crucial railway going to east Slovakia (Kassa-Oderberg railway) went through the region and access to the railway was vital:[9] newly-formed Czechoslovakia was at war with the Hungarian Soviet Republic over control over Slovakia. This set the stage for conflict.
Despite of the division being interim only, Poland decided to organise elections to the Polish parliament (Sejm) in the area. Czechoslovakia claimed that no sovereign rule could establish itself in the disputed area before determination of a definitive solution, and requested that the polls not take place in the area. Poland rejected the Czechoslovak request and Czechoslovakia attacked the Polish part of the region on 23 January 1919[10][11] and forced Poland, which was at that time in war also with the West Ukrainian National Republic over eastern Galicia, to withdraw from the western part of Cieszyn Silesia. After the fight near Skoczów a cease-fire was reached, signed in Paris on 3 February 1919. Poland had to recognize new borders running along the Olza River in 1920. Czechoslovakia received the western section (including the Karviná coal basin and the railway line) and smaller western part of the town, known later as Český Těšín, while Poland received the eastern section with Cieszyn and tis its historical centre.
Since then, Poland occasionally claimed the Czech section, eventually annexing it in October 1938 after the Munich Agreement.[12] The whole town was annexed by Germany in 1939 as a result of the Invasion of Poland. During World War II the city was a part of Nazi Germany. The 1920 borders were restored after the war in 1945. During the German occupation there was a stalag camp in the town, Stalag VIII-D.
