Lubań

Lubań [ˈlubaɲ] (German: Lauban) is a town in southwest Poland north of the Jizera Mountains on the Kwisa river, with 22,137 inhabitants (2006). Situated within the historic Upper Lusatia region, it today belongs to the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (from 1975–1998 it was in the former Jelenia Góra Voivodeship). The town 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).

History

In the 9th and 10th century AD Lubań was a small settlement established by the West Slavic Milceni tribe, whose lands from 927 on were conquered by German king Henry the Fowler and incorporated into the marca Geronis in 939. In 965 the Milceni territory became part of the Margraviate of Meissen. In 1156 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa vested his ally Duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia with the former Milceni territory around Bautzen, that later would be called Upper Lusatia.

Likewise several other city foundings under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty, Lubań, owing to its favourable location on various trade routes, expanded rapidly. In 1220 or 1268 (the second date is more probable) Lauban became a town with Magdeburg rights. The centre of the town was a square marketplace with perpendicular streets, leading to four gates: Görlitzer Tor (Zgorzelecka) to the west, Bracker (Bracka) (built in 1318 together with stone curtains by Heinrich Jaworski) to the south, Mikołajska to the east and Nowogrodziecka to the north. The first mayor of the town was Nikolaus Hermann, and Lauban received its own seal. Since about 1253 Upper Lusatia had been under the rule of the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. In 1319 the Piast Duke Henry I of Jawor claimed their heritage and occupied the lands up to the town of Görlitz including Lubań. He built a new town hall, whose ruins can be seen today (Kramarska Tower). Henry ruled the town for eighteen years, before he finally ceded it to his brother-in-law King John of Bohemia.

Under the rule of the Bohemian kingdom, Lubań on 10 August 1346 established the Lusatian League, together with the towns of Görlitz, Löbau, Zittau, Bautzen and Kamenz. Twice however, in 1427 and 1431, the Hussites completely demolished the town, it was quicky rebuilt. In its history, Lauban has repeatedly suffered great fires, which often ruined the whole town. Many inhabitants died as a result of plagues. According to the rules of the 1635 Peace of Prague the town with Upper Lusatia passed to the Saxon Electorate. During Saxon rule, the Dom pod Okrętem ("House under the Ship") was built.

In 1815 the Lusatian territory around Lauban and Görlitz was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia after the Vienna Congress and incorporated into the Province of Silesia. In 1865 and 1866 Lauban obtained railway connections with Görlitz and Hirschberg. At the end of World War II in 1945, the region east of the Oder-Neisse line became part of the People's Republic of Poland following decisions approved at the Potsdam Conference. The remaining German inhabitants were expelled westward and replaced with Polish settlers. In 1992–2004 the marketplace was renovated. Streets were paved and town houses around the Kramarska Tower were rebuilt.

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).

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

Twin towns

In 1992 the Lusatian Six-City League was reactivated. Lubań is further twinned with:

• Skjern, Denmark
• Kolín, Czech Republic
• Prienai, Lithuania

External links

• Official town website
• Jewish Community in Lubań on Virtual Shtetl
• Map via mapa.szukacz.pl
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Lauban". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
  • "Lauban". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.