A walk around Namysłów

From the beginnings till the 15th century.The town was established in the 13th century and gained city rights in around 1249. Due to the deposit made by Prince Bolesław III, Namysłów went under the rule of Casimir the Great (between 1341 – 1348). The momentous event that introduced Namysłów into historical annals was the peace treaty signed here by Casimir the Great and the Emperor Charles of Luxembourg in 1348. The treaty brought Silesia under Bohemia control. The trade revival on the route Wrocław – Krakow in the 15th century improved the town’s economic potential. At that time the residents dealt mainly in crafts, particularly cloths.
During Thirty Years’ War the town was besieged and conquered by the Swedes. Till the 17th century Namysłów served as a border fortress. In 1703 the Emperor sold the castle to the Teutonic Knights who maintained Namysłów Headquarter till the final secularization of the Order in 1810. After Napoleon’s Battle of Leipzig French captives were held in Namysłów.
During the Second World War a satellite camp of Gross Rosen Concentration Camp was located in Namysłów. In 1943 Polish Home Army started its military operations. At the same time Jan Skala, a Lusatian poet and journalist, lived and worked in the poviat area. He was shot in January 1945 by the soldiers of the Soviet Army and is buried in Dziedzice near Namysłów. After the battle of Smarchowice Śląskie the Soviet Army entered Namysłów. When the war ended repatriates from the east borderlands of Poland began arriving into the poviat. Till the end of September 1947, 6,500 Germans were expelled from the town and poviat to Germany.

Town entrance gate called Krakow gate was erected in the 14 century with monumental tower from 14/15th century (height – 26 meters).
Town walls, double in places, with single and double passages.
Gothic Church under the invocation of St Peter and Paul, erected in the 15th century, three-nave hall church. The whole naves space is occupied by high windows with stony open-works. The naves vaults are starry, ribbed, transverse. The church is surrounded by a former cemetery wall with a gate decorated with a figure of St John Nepomucen and two angles.
Post-Franciscan Church, erected in gothic style in the 14th century, rebuilt in baroque in the 17th century. The naves have cross vaults, the presbytery is gothic with cross-ribbed vault. A fragment of baroque polychromy can be found in the church. There is a monastery building nearby.
Gothic town hall erected in the centre of the square between 1374-78. The tower dates to the 15th century (its height – 57 meters). There are four clock faces in its upper part. The renaissance cupola probably from 1625, spherical, covered with sheet steel, crowned with a flag with dates 1625, 1839, 1895.
Neo-renaissance fountain from 1912 – 1913 with a brass figure of a boy made by Paol Baron from Wrocław. Over the hexahedron bowl in the crowning of the column there is a brass figure of a naked boy holding a dolphin in one hand and a vase in the other.
Gothic prince castle – for the first time mentioned around 1312. Originally it was a wooden structure but in about 1360 the building of the current form began by the order of the Emperor Charles IV. In the 16th century the castle was enlarged and an entrance gate with a rampart was erected. Formerly, the castle was surrounded by a moat. There is an interesting late-renaissance well dated to 1600 in the courtyard. Teutonic Order is mentioned among the castle’s many owners. Nowadays, it is a seat of Namysłów Brewery.