25 Facts About Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in Czechia and Germany.

Silesia is along the Oder River, with the Sudeten Mountains extending across the southern border.

The largest city and Lower Silesia's capital is Wroclaw; the historic capital of Upper Silesia is Opole.

Silesia's borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states, resulting in an abundance of castles, especially in the Jelenia Gora valley.

The first known states to hold power in Silesia were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century and Bohemia early in the 10th century.

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In 1945, after World War II, most of the German-held Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allies and became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime.

Previously German-speaking Lower Silesia had developed a new mixed Polish dialect and novel costumes.

The names all relate to the name of a river and mountain in mid-southern Silesia, which served as a place of cult for pagans before Christianization.

In 1526 Silesia passed with the Bohemian Crown to the Habsburg monarchy.

Polish Silesia was among the first regions invaded during Germany's 1939 attack on Poland, which started World War II.

One of the claimed goals of Nazi German occupation, particularly in Upper Silesia, was the extermination of those whom Nazis viewed as "subhuman", namely Jews and ethnic Poles.

The Polish and Jewish population of the then Polish part of Silesia was subjected to genocide involving expulsions, mass murder and deportation to Nazi concentration camps and forced labour camps, while Germans were settled in pursuit of Lebensraum.

Silesia housed one of the two main wartime centers where medical experiments were conducted on kidnapped Polish children by Nazis.

Czech Silesia was occupied by Germany as part of so-called Sudetenland.

Silesia has undergone a similar notional extension at its eastern extreme.

However, to many Poles today, Silesia is understood to cover all of the area around Katowice, including Zaglebie.

The industry had grown while Silesia was part of Germany, and peaked in the 1970s under the People's Republic of Poland.

Deposits in Lower Silesia have proven to be difficult to exploit and the area's unprofitable mines were closed in 2000.

The Opole Silesia has for decades occupied the top spot in Poland for their indices of effectiveness of agricultural land use.

Nowadays, the largest part of Silesia is located in Poland; it is often cited as one of the most diverse regions in that country.

Austrian part of Silesia had a mixed German, Polish and Czech population, with Polish-speakers forming a majority in Cieszyn Silesia.

Upper Silesia was mostly Roman Catholic except for some of its northwestern parts, which were predominantly Lutheran.

In Upper Silesia, Protestants were concentrated in larger cities and often identified as German.

Attempts to repopulate Silesia proved unsuccessful in the 1940s and 1950s, and Silesia's population did not reach pre-war levels until the late 1970s.

The Polish settlers who repopulated Silesia were partly from the former Polish Eastern Borderlands, which was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939.

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