Cieszyn, a city located on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic, has a very long and complicated history.
According to legend, the city was founded in 810 by three sons of the Polish King Leszek III. In fact, Cieszyn was founded in the 10th century as a stronghold defending the southern border of the Polish state. A separate city developed from the surrounding borough.
From about 1290, Cieszyn was the capital of the independent Cieszyn Duchy, then founded on the basis of the duchy of the region – Cieszyn Silesia. Since the Reformation, it has been a religiously diverse city with a mixed national composition. Apart from the Polish population, Germans, Czechs and Jews lived here, and at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a small but visible colony of Hungarians.
The dispute over the territorial affiliation of Cieszyn Silesia led to the division of the city in 1920. The suburbs on the left bank of Olza became part of Czechoslovakia and created a new city. From that moment it develops as two border cities divided by the Olza River: Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn.
Attractions:
Castle Hill (Zamkowa Street) – on it, among others The 11th century Roman rotunda of Saint. Nicholas, a Gothic castle tower from the 14th century (the so-called Piast Tower), the Habsburg palace from the 19th century, fragments of the Piast castle, monuments of nature
The parish church of Saint. Mary Magdalene (Dominican Square), formerly Dominican – one of the oldest churches in Cieszyn; gothic elements from the turn of the 13th / 14th century, rebuilt after the fire at the end of the 18th century; Baroque decor from the 18th century
Church of St. George from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries
Well of Three Brothers
Do you know that:
The film review “CINEMA FOR THE BORDER” is a cyclical event taking place in Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn every year in April.
Cieszyn Rotunda of Saint. Nicholas from the beginning of the 11th century is one of the oldest preserved buildings on the plan of a circle in Poland. Her image is on a 20 zloty banknote.