Pre-history

Archaeological research conducted in eastern Legnica in the late 1970s, showed the existence of a bronze foundry and the graves of three metallurgists. The find indicates a time interval about year 1000 BC.^[8]

A settlement of the Lusatian culture people existed in the 8th century B.C. After invasions of Celts beyond upper Danube basin, the area of Legnica and north foothills of Sudetes was infiltrated by Celtic settlers and traders.

Tacitus and Ptolemy recorded the ancient nation of Lugii (Lygii) in the area, and mentioned their town of Lugidunum, which has been attributed to both Legnica^[9] and Głogów.^[10]

Early Poland

Battle of Legnica, medieval illuminated manuscript, collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California

Slavic Lechitic tribes moved into the area in the 8th century.

The city was first officially mentioned in chronicles from 1004,^[11] although settlement dates to the 7th century. Dendrochronological research proves that during the reign of Mieszko I of Poland, a new fortified settlement was built here in a style typical of the early Piast dynasty.^[12] It is mentioned in 1149 when High Duke Bolesław IV the Curly funded a chapel at the St. Benedict monastery.^[13] Legnica was the most likely place of residence for Bolesław^[14] and it became the residence of the high dukes of Poland in 1163^[2] and was the seat of a principality ruled from 1248 until 1675.

Legnica became famous for the battle that took place at Legnickie Pole near the city on 9 April 1241 during the First Mongol invasion of Poland. The Christian army of the Polish duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, supported by feudal nobility, which included in addition to Poles, Bavarian miners and military orders and Czech troops, was decisively defeated by the Mongols. The Mongols killed Henry and destroyed his forces, then turned south to rejoin the rest of the Mongol armies, which were massing at the Plain of Mohi in Hungary via Moravia against a coalition of King Bela IV and his armies, and Bela's Kipchak allies.^[15]

Former Dominican monastery and burial site of Bolesław II the Horned

After the war, nonetheless, the city was developing rapidly. In 1258 at the church of St. Peter, a parish school was established, probably the first of its kind in Poland.^[16] Around 1278 a Dominican monastery was founded by Bolesław II the Horned,^[16] who was buried there as the only monarch of Poland to be buried in Legnica. Already by 1300 there was a city council in Legnica.^[16] Duke Bolesław III the Generous granted new trade privileges in 1314 and 1318 and allowed the construction of a town hall, and in 1337 the first waterworks were built.^[16] In the years 1327–1380 a new Gothic church of Saint Peter (today's Cathedral) was erected in place of the old one,^[16] and is one of Legnica's landmarks since. Also by the 14th century the city walls were erected.^[16] In 1345 the first coins were produced in the local mint.^[16] In 1374, the potters' guild was founded, as one of the oldest in Silesia.^[16] Queen consort of Poland Hedwig of Sagan died in Legnica in 1390 and was buried in the local collegiate church, which has not survived to this day.^[17]

Duchy of Legnica

The Piast Castle in Legnica

As the capital of the Duchy of Legnica at the beginning of the 14th century, Legnica was one of the most important cities of Central Europe, having a population of nearly 16,000 residents. The city began to expand quickly after the discovery of gold in the Kaczawa River between Legnica and Złotoryja (Goldberg). Unfortunately, such a growth rate can not be maintained long. Shortly after the city reached its maximum population increase, wooden buildings which had been erected during this period of rapid growth were devastated by a huge fire. The fire decreased the number of inhabitants in the city and halted any significant further development for many decades.

Legnica, along with other Silesian duchies, became a vassal of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the 14th century and was included within the multi-ethnic Holy Roman Empire, however remained ruled by local dukes of the Polish Piast dynasty. In 1454, a local rebellion prevented Legnica from falling under direct rule of the Bohemian kings.^[18] In 1505, Duke Frederick II of Legnica met in Legnica with the duke of nearby Głogów, Sigismund I the Old, the future king of Poland.^[16]

Mausoleum of the last Piast dukes in the Saint John the Baptist church

One of the preserved streets in Legnica's Old Town with the Castle in the background

The Protestant Reformation was introduced in the duchy as early as 1522 and the population became Lutheran. In 1526, a Protestant university was established in Legnica, which, however, was closed in 1529.^[16] In 1528 the first printing house in Legnica was established.^[16] After the death of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia at Mohács in 1526, Legnica became a fief of the Habsburg monarchy of Austria. The first map of Silesia was made by native son Martin Helwig. The city suffered during the Thirty Years' War. In 1633 a plague epidemic broke out, and in 1634 the Austrian army destroyed the suburbs.^[16]

In 1668 Duke of Legnica Christian presented his candidacy to the Polish throne, however, in the 1669 Polish–Lithuanian royal election he wasn't chosen as King. In 1676, Legnica passed to direct Habsburg rule after the death of the last Silesian Piast duke and the last Piast duke overall, George William (son of Duke Christian), despite the earlier inheritance pact by Brandenburg and Silesia, by which it was to go to Brandenburg. The last Piast duke was buried in the St. John's church in Legnica in 1676.^[16]

18th and 19th centuries

Silesian aristocracy was trained at the Liegnitz Ritter-Akademie, established in the early 18th century. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the city in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland traveled that route many times.^[19] The postal milestone of King Augustus II comes from that period.^[20]

In 1742 most of Silesia, including Liegnitz, became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after King Frederick the Great's defeat of Austria in the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1760 during the Seven Years' War, Liegnitz was the site of the Battle of Liegnitz when Frederick's army defeated an Austrian army led by Laudon.

Eclectic tenements located at Witelona Street

During the Napoleonic Wars and Polish national liberation fights, in 1807 Polish uhlans were stationed in the city,^[21] and in 1813, the Prussians, under Field Marshal Blücher, defeated the French forces of MacDonald in the Battle of Katzbach (Kaczawa) nearby. After the administrative reorganization of the Prussian state following the Congress of Vienna, Liegnitz and the surrounding territory (Landkreis Liegnitz) were incorporated into the Regierungsbezirk (administrative district) of Liegnitz, within the Province of Silesia on 1 May 1816. Along with the rest of Prussia, the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the unification of Germany. On 1 January 1874 Liegnitz became the third city in Lower Silesia (after Breslau and Görlitz) to be raised to an urban district, although the district administrator of the surrounding Landkreis of Liegnitz continued to have his seat in the city. Its military garrison was home to Königsgrenadier-Regiment Nr. 7 a military unit formed almost exclusively out of Polish soldiers.^[22]

The 20th century

Old view of the Piast Castle

The census of 1910 gave Liegnitz's population as 95.86% German, 0.15% German and Polish, 1.27% Polish, 2.26% Wendish, and 0.19% Czech. On 1 April 1937 parts of the Landkreis of Liegnitz communities of Alt Beckern (Piekary), Groß Beckern (Piekary Wielkie), Hummel, Liegnitzer Vorwerke, Pfaffendorf (Piątnica) und Prinkendorf (Przybków) were incorporated into the city limits. After the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, Liegnitz was part of the newly created Province of Lower Silesia from 1919 to 1938, then of the Province of Silesia from 1938 to 1941, and again of the Province of Lower Silesia from 1941 to 1945. After the Nazi Party came to power in Germany, as early as 1933, a boycott of local Jewish premises was ordered, during the Kristallnacht in 1938 the synagogue was burned down,^[23] and in 1939 the local Polish population was terrorized and persecuted.^[24] A Nazi court prison was operated in the city with a forced labour subcamp.^[25] During World War II, several members of the Polish resistance movement were imprisoned and sentenced to death there.^[26] The Germans also established two forced labour camps in the city, as well as two prisoner of war labor subcamps of the POW camp located in Żagań (then Sagan), and one labor subcamp of the Stalag VIII-A POW camp in Zgorzelec (then Görlitz).^[27]

Cemetery chapel

After the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II, Liegnitz and all of Silesia east of the Neisse was preliminarily transferred to Poland following the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Majority of the German population was either expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement or fled from the city.

The city was repopulated with Poles, including expellees from pre-war eastern Poland after its annexation by the Soviet Union. Also Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in Legnica in 1950.^[28] As the medieval Polish name Lignica was considered archaic, the town was renamed Legnica. The transfer to Poland decided at Potsdam in 1945 was officially recognized by East Germany in 1950, by West Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt in the Treaty of Warsaw signed in 1970, and finally by the reunited Germany by the Two Plus Four Agreement in 1990. By 1990 only a handful of Polonized Germans, prewar citizens of Liegnitz, remained of the pre-1945 German population. In 2010 the city celebrated the 65th anniversary of the return of Legnica to Poland and its liberation from the Nazi Germany.^[29]

Post-war view of the Piast Castle (on the left) and the Głogów Gate (on the right)

The city was only partly damaged in World War II. In June 1945 Legnica was briefly the capital of the Lower Silesian (Wrocław) Voivodship, after the administration was moved there from Trzebnica and before it was finally moved to Wrocław.^[30] In 1947, the Municipal Library was opened, in 1948 a piano factory was founded, and in the years 1951-1959 Poland's first copper smelter was built in Legnica.^[30] After 1965 most parts of the preserved old town with its town houses were demolished, the historical layout was abolished, and the city was rebuilt in modern form.^[31]

From 1945 to 1990, during the Cold War, the headquarters of the Soviet forces in Poland, the so-called Northern Group of Forces, was located in the city. This fact had a strong influence on the life of the city. For much of the period, the city was divided into Polish and Soviet areas, with the latter closed to the public. These were first established in July 1945, when the Soviets forcibly ejected newly arrived Polish inhabitants from the parts of the city they wanted for their own use. The ejection was perceived by some as a particularly brutal action, and rumours circulated exaggerating its severity, though no evidence of anyone being killed in the course of it has come to light. In April 1946 city officials estimated that there were 16,700 Poles, 12,800 Germans, and 60,000 Soviets in Legnica.^[32] In October 1956, the largest anti-Soviet demonstrations in Lower Silesia took place in Legnica.^[30] The last Soviet units left the city in 1993.

Between 1 June 1975 and 31 December 1998 Legnica was the capital of the Legnica Voivodeship. In 1992 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Legnica was established, Tadeusz Rybak became the first bishop of Legnica.^[33] New local newspapers and a radio station were founded in the 1990s.^[33] In 1997, Legnica was visited by Pope John Paul II.^[33] The city suffered in the 1997 Central European flood.^[33]

Municipal politics

Legnica tends to be a left-of-center town with a considerable influence of workers' unions. The Municipal Council of Legnica (Rada miejska miasta Legnica) is the legislative branch of the local government and is composed of 25 members elected in local elections every five years. The mayor or town president (Prezydent miasta) is the executive branch of the local government and is directly elected in the same municipal elections.

Legnica – Jelenia Góra constituency

Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Legnica-Jelenia Gora constituency:

• Ryszard Bonda, Samoobrona
• Bronisława Kowalska, SLD-UP
• Adam Lipiński, PiS
• Tadeusz Maćkała, PO
• Ryszard Maraszek, SLD-UP
• Olgierd Poniźnik, SLD-UP
• Władysław Rak, SLD-UP
• Tadeusz Samborski, PSL
• Jerzy Szmajdziński, SLD-UP
• Halina Szustak, LPR
• Michał Turkiewicz, SLD-UP
• Ryszard Zbrzyzny, SLD-UP