12 Facts About Lower Silesia

1.

Lower Silesia is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Upper Silesia is to the southeast.

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2.

Lower Silesia emerged as a distinctive region during the fragmentation of Poland, in 1172, when the Duchies of Opole and Raciborz, considered Upper Silesia since, were formed of the eastern part of the Duchy of Silesia, and the remaining, western part was since considered Lower Silesia.

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3.

Lower Silesia is located mostly in the basin of the middle Oder River with its historic capital in Wroclaw.

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4.

Southern border of Lower Silesia is mapped by the mountain ridge of the Western and Central Sudetes, which since the High Middle Ages formed the border between Polish Silesia and the historic Bohemian region of the present-day Czech Republic.

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5.

Lower Silesia hills occur in areas of Obnizenie Sudeckie, Swidnik, and Kotlina Dzierzoniowska.

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6.

The flora of Lower Silesia is strongly influenced by geological and climatic history.

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7.

About 990 Lower Silesia was conquered and incorporated into the first Polish state by the Piast duke Mieszko I, who had gained the support of Emperor Otto II against the Bohemian duke Boleslaus II.

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8.

Duchy of Silesia was first split into lower and upper parts in 1172 during the period of Poland's feudal fragmentation, when the land was divided between two sons of former High Duke Wladyslaw II.

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9.

In 1469, Lower Silesia passed to Hungary, and in 1490 it fell back to Bohemia, then ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty.

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10.

In 1475 Glogow-born Polish printer Kasper Elyan founded the Drukarnia Swietokrzyska in Wroclaw, which published the Statuta synodalia episcoporum Wratislaviensium, the first incunable in Lower Silesia, which contains the first-ever text printed in the Polish language.

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11.

In 1526 Lower Silesia was acquired by Austria's Habsburg monarchy after the death of King Louis II of Bohemia.

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12.

Brandenburg contested the inheritance, citing a treaty made with Frederick II of Legnica, but Lower Silesia largely remained under Habsburg control until 1742.

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