{{Short description|Town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland}} {{See also|Wołów, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Wołów | image_skyline = Wołów ratusz.JPG | image_caption = Town hall in Wołów | image_shield = POL Wołów COA.svg | image_flag = POL Wołów flag.svg | pushpin_map = Poland | pushpin_label_position = bottom | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = {{POL}} | subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship | subdivision_name1 = {{flag|Lower Silesian}} | subdivision_type2 = County | subdivision_name2 = Wołów | subdivision_type3 = Gmina | subdivision_name3 = Wołów | leader_title = Mayor | leader_name = Dariusz Chmura | established_title = First mentioned | established_date = 1157 | established_title2 = Town rights | established_date2 = around 1285 | area_total_km2 = 18.54 | population_as_of = 2019-06-30<ref>{{cite web |title=Population. Size and structure and vital statistics in Poland by territorial division in 2019. As of 30th June|url=https://stat.gov.pl/en/topics/population/population/population-size-and-structure-and-vital-statistics-in-poland-by-territorial-division-in-2019-as-of-30th-june,3,26.html|website=stat.gov.pl|publisher=Statistics Poland|date=2019-10-15|access-date=2020-02-14}}</ref> | population_total = 12373 | population_density_km2 = auto | timezone = CET | utc_offset = +1 | timezone_DST = CEST | utc_offset_DST = +2 | coordinates = {{coord|51|20|29|N|16|37|42|E|region:PL|display=title,inline}} | postal_code_type = Postal code | postal_code = 56-100 | blank_name = Car plates | blank_info = DWL | blank_name_sec2 = Voivodeship roads | blank_info_sec2 = 32px|link=Voivodeship road 338 32px|link=Voivodeship road 339 32px|link=Voivodeship road 340 32px|link=Voivodeship road 343 | website = http://www.wolow.pl }} '''Wołów''' {{IPAc-pl|'|w|o|ł|u|f}} ({{langx|de|Wohlau}}, {{langx|cs|Volov}}) is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland.{{TERYT}} It is the seat of Wołów County and Gmina Wołów. {{As of|2019}}, the town has a population of 12,373. It is part of the larger Wrocław metropolitan area.
==Etymology== The town's name is derived from the Polish word ''wół'' ("ox").
==History== The area around Wołów has been settled since prehistoric times.<ref>Hugo Weczerka, ''Handbuch der historischen Stätten, Schlesien'', 2003, p.570, {{ISBN|3-520-31602-1}}</ref> It became part of the emerging Polish state in the late 10th century under Mieszko I of Poland.<ref name=WO>{{cite web|url=http://wolow.pl/historia-wolowa/|title=Historia Wołowa|website=Urząd Miejski w Wołowie|access-date=August 8, 2019|language=pl|archive-date=July 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719062807/http://wolow.pl/historia-wolowa/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The town was first mentioned in 1157<ref>Józef Pilch, ''Leksykon zabytków architektury Dolnego Śląska'', Wydawn. "Arkady", 2005, p. 403 [https://books.google.com/books?lr=lang_en&hl=pl&as_brr=0&q=wo%C5%82%C3%B3w+1157&btnG=Szukaj+ksi%C4%85%C5%BCek link]</ref> when a wooden castle founded by Senior Duke of Poland Władysław II the Exile is documented,<ref>Romuald M. Łuczyński, ''Chronologia dziejów Dolnego Śląska'', Oficyna Wydawn. ATUT, Wrocławskie Wydawn. Oświatowe, 2006, p. 143 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ffRoAAAAMAAJ&q=wo%C5%82%C3%B3w+1157 link]</ref><ref>Ernst Badstübner, ''Dehio - Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler in Polen: Schlesien'', 2003, p.1028, {{ISBN|3-422-03109-X}}</ref> which developed into a castle complex, which was again mentioned in 1202.<ref>Badstübner, p.1028</ref> Two villages developed near the castle, one of them called Wołowo. Probably in the second half of the 13th century the town was founded near Wołowo and partially on the soil of the second village.<ref name="Weczerka, p.570">Weczerka, p.570</ref> Wołów received Magdeburg town rights about 1285 at the time of German Ostsiedlung in the region; a Vogt is mentioned in 1288.<ref name="Weczerka, p.570"/>
At that time Wołów belonged to the Duchy of Głogów, after 1312 to the Duchy of Oleśnica.<ref name="Weczerka, p.570"/> With the duchy it came under the suzerainty of Bohemia in 1328. Since the 15th century, the town was a center of clothmaking.<ref name=pwn>{{cite web|url=https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/Wolow;3997908.html|title=Wołów|website=Encyklopedia PWN|access-date=3 June 2021|language=pl}}</ref> From 1473 dates the oldest known seal of the town, which already shows an ox, as do all later seals. Wołów was ruled by local Polish dukes until 1492, and soon after, in 1495, it came into the possession of the Czech Podiebrad family, then in 1517 it came into the hands the Hungarian magnate Johann Thurzó, before returning to Piast rule in 1523, by passing to the Duchy of Legnica.<ref name=WO/> It remained there until the Piast dukes of Legnica-Brzeg-Wołów died out in 1675. As a result of the Thirty Years' War, the town's population fell by half.<ref name=WO/> thumb|left|220px|Wołów (as Wohlau) around 1750 The Protestant Reformation was introduced to the town in 1522 by duke Frederick II. After the extinction of the local Piasts the duchy passed to the House of Habsburg, which opposed the Protestant denomination in the town, as part of the Counter-Reformation. In 1682 the town's parish church was closed and given to the Catholics. According to the Treaty of Altranstädt the church however was already returned to the Protestants in 1707 and stayed Protestant until 1945. The small Catholic minority in return received a Josephinian curacy.<ref name="Weczerka, p.571">Weczerka, p.571</ref>
In 1742 Wołów was annexed by Prussia.<ref name=pwn/> The duchy was divided into two districts and the town became county seat of one of the districts. The structure of the town was, until 1700, defined by craft, especially clothiers. As the seat of a duchy and a district administrative function however became more and more important. The industrialization played only a minor role and mostly affected smaller companies of the timber industry.<ref name="Weczerka, p.571"/> In 1781 the city suffered a fire.<ref name=WO/>
{{multiple image|align = right|perrow = 2|total_width=365 | image1 = Wolow (js).jpg | image2 = 785viki Wołów. Foto Barbara Maliszewska.jpg | image3 = SM Wołów Kościół Boromeusza (1) ID 598547.jpg | image4 = 753viki Wołów - mury miejskie. Foto Barbara Maliszewska.jpg | image5 = Wołów, Sąd Rejonowy - fotopolska.eu (217587).jpg | image6 = Wolow-wejscie.do.ratusza-herb.JPG | caption1 = Piast Castle | caption2 = Saint Lawrence church | caption3 = Saint Charles Borromeo church | caption4 = Medieval town walls (with a modern oxen monument) | caption5 = Courthouse | caption6 = Town hall (relief of the coat of arms of the Duchy of Legnica on the facade) }} During World War I, the German administration operated a forced labour camp for Allied prisoners of war in the town.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kujat|first=Janusz Adam|year=2000|title=Pieniądz zastępczy w obozach jenieckich na terenie rejencji wrocławskiej w czasie I i II wojny światowej|journal=Łambinowicki rocznik muzealny|location=Opole|language=pl|volume=23|page=13|issn=0137-5199}}</ref> During World War II, the Germans operated a youth prison in the town, with multiple forced labour subcamps in the region, including one in the town itself.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1491|title=Jugendgefängnis Wohlau|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=3 June 2021|language=de}}</ref> In 1943–1945, the Germans carried out mass executions of Allied prisoners of war in the forest in the present-day district of Gancarz.<ref name=pwn/> In January 1945 – just before town was taken by the Red Army – the Wehrmacht evacuated the German population westwards.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the town became again part of Poland. The totality of the town's previous population was expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement.
Deportation of Germans from the surrounding villages proceeded in 1945-46. Often, the local mayor announced at eve that families were to show up for deportation the next morning. Very often, the victims' luggage was plundered.<ref>{{cite book|title=Die Vertreibung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus den Gebieten östlich der Oder-Neisse|series=Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa|volume=I/2|year=1984|publisher=Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag|pages=831–832}}</ref>
In 1962, the town was the site of the Wołów bank robbery, one of the largest bank robberies in Poland.
==Transport== Wołów lies at the intersection of vovoideship roads 343, 340, 339 and 338.
Wołów has a station on the Zielona Góra-Wrocław railway line.
==Sports== The local football team is MKP Wołów.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mkp-wolow.futbolowo.pl|title=Strona internetowa klubu MKP Wołów|access-date=3 June 2021|language=pl}}</ref> It competes in the lower leagues.
==Notable people== *Jan II the Mad (1435–1504), Polish House of Silesian Piasts dynasty Duke of Żagań-Przewóz since 1439, died in Wołów and was buried in the local parish church *Maria Cunitz (1610–1664), astronomer, the most notable female astronomer of the early modern era *Oskar Müller (1896–1970), German politician *Mirosław Hermaszewski (1941-2022), first Polish national in space
==Twin towns – sister cities== See twin towns of Gmina Wołów.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Wołów}} * [http://wolow.pl/ Official site of Wołów]
{{Wołów County}} {{Gmina Wołów}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Cities and towns in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Category:Populated riverside places in Poland Category:Wołów County Category:Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland