Tarnowskie Góry


Tarnowskie Góry is a town in Silesia, southern Poland, located in the Silesian Highlands near Katowice. On the south it borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a megalopolis, the greater Silesian metropolitan area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The population of the town is 61,422. As of 1999, it is part of Silesian Voivodeship, previously Katowice Voivodeship.
The Historic Silver Mine of Tarnowskie Góry, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the town.

Names and etymology

The name of Tarnowskie Góry is derived from Tarnowice, name of a local village and word góry which in Old Polish meant "mines". In a Prussian document from 1750, the town is mentioned, among other Silesian towns, as "Tarnowskie Góry". The German name Tarnowitz was introduced in the late 18th century, after the Third Silesian War. As a result of Germanization of the area, all Polish or other Slavic names received German equivalents.

History

Early

The earliest settlements around Tarnowskie Góry date back to over 20 thousand years BC. Traces of the Upper Paleolithic inhabitants were found in village of Rybna, within present-day town borders. During the Bronze Age people lived along the banks of river :pl:Stoła|Stoła or Stola,, their tools, jewelry and weapons were excavated here, dating from between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. Silver, lead and zinc were bountiful in these grounds and the evidence of an early metal production dates back to at least 3rd century AD.

Medieval and Renaissance

, a village, now within Tarnowskie Góry's town limits, was mentioned in an official papal document dating from September 12, 1201. According to legend, the source of silver ore was first discovered in 1490, when local peasant-farmer named Rybka found a strange, heavy, metallic stone while plowing the field near village of Tarnowice. He presented his find to a local priest and within less than three decades this place became the largest silver mining center in the area. Its population rivaled in size some of the major cities of the Renaissance world and prospectors were coming from all corners of the continent, some as far as Spain, all of this fueled by the massive amount and quality of ore, so high that on many occasions it was said to be practically pure, metallic silver.
Initial growth can be attributed to Jan II the Good, the last Duke of Opole and Racibórz of the first Polish dynasty of Piast, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, both of whom, in 1526, gave the town special privileges called "Akt Wolności Górniczej". This revolutionary document awarded freedom to any peasant who chose to become a miner in the area; the same year new settlement was officially elevated to the town-status, christened Tarnowskie Góry and received additional set of town privileges and rights, cote of arms and official seal followed few decades later in 1562.
In 1528, "Ordunek Górny" strongly promoting farther exploration and offering a high percentage of profits to miners, was proclaimed and sparked a period of an explosive growth and prosperity. Many other associated businesses like trade, manufacturing, crafts etc., were rapidly developing and most of the old-town was already in place by 1540, including many of still existing brick and stone buildings and Protestant church. By the mid-16th century Tarnowskie Góry became the largest mining center in Upper Silesia and one of the largest in Europe; the combined length of main tunnels constructed under the 1sq mile of old town alone, exceed, still, representing only a small fraction of a total underground system.
Many Protestants found refuge in Tarnowskie Góry, and after the death of John II the Good town was ruled by the family of Hohenzollern, supporters of reformation movement. The first Protestant, wooden church was built in 1529 and two years later a stone structure was erected to replace it. In 1531, Szkola Różnowiercza was created and at the end of the 16th century was run by Daniel Franconius, famous scholar, educator, poet, and a propagator of Arianism.

Enlightenment

The prosperity of Tarnowskie Góry was abruptly halted by the Thirty Year War, and in 1676–77 its population was farther decimated by an outbreak of plague. In 1683, Polish King John III Sobieski rested in town on his way to the Battle of Vienna. In Tarnowskie Góry, Polish nobility welcomed the newly elected kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland, in July 1697 and January 1734, respectively, when they were heading for their royal coronations to Kraków.
December 16, 1740, was marked by the Prussian army entering the town during the first of the Silesian Wars; in 1742, Austrian domination ended and Tarnowskie Góry fell under Prussian rule. In 1742, after the end of Austrian rule, a Lutheran parish was established, whose first pastor was Polish religious writer and author of popular prayer-books Samuel Ludwik Zasadius. Around 1780 Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden opened a government-controlled mine as well as silver and lead foundry named "Frederyk" after Frederick William II, the king of Prussia.
Jews, with a few exceptions, were restricted or altogether banned from the area throughout the years; yet still they managed to have a great impact on the entire region's progress. Salomon Isaac, Jewish trade-agent and mining entrepreneur, was one of the greatest contributors to the development of the Sillesian metallurgical and mining industries and, ultimately, become one of the managing officers of the newly formed Prussian Office of Mining in Tarnowskie Góry.

Industrial Revolution

In 1788, sparking the onset of the Industrial Revolution the first steam engine in continental Europe was imported from England and installed with a purpose of draining the underground waters. This was not a small task, miles of a deep adit or drainage-tunnel. A 600-metre part of former Fryderyk adit is a tourist route named Black Trout Adit. Its tunnels were cut through a solid bedrock and one of the system outlets, near Repty, became the main contributory of river Drama.
Although Napoleonic Wars damaged and put a burden of heavy taxation on it, the town experienced another boom of growth and prosperity in the 19th century. In 1803 one of world's first schools of mining was initiated and, during following few decades, many new factories and businesses opened including: paper mill, iron foundry, printing shop, brewery, soap factory and natural gas production plant. During that period, the town square and two main streets were paved, gas lighting illuminated the town and a sewage system was installed. "Górnośląska Spółka Bracka" was organized with its headquarters in Tarnowskie Góry;. In 1857 the first railroad, leading to Opole, reached the town and eight years later Warsaw–Vienna line cut-through as well. Throughout the next few decades, because of its strategic location, the number of railroad lines grew rapidly, and by the end of the 19th century Tarnowskie Góry was well on its way to becoming the second largest marshaling yard in Europe. In 1873 a new county was formed in the area with Tarnowskie Góry as its capital; a hospital and court building were opened soon after.

Modern

In the beginning of the 20th century, the source of the silver ore dried out and the mining stopped completely. After World War I ended, between 1919 and 1921 three massive anti-German uprisings took place in entire Upper Silesian region and many of towns residents fought and supported the cause. Soon after the end of the third one, mandated by the Versailles Treaty, the Silesian Plebiscite was held, and an overwhelming majority of the Upper Silesia region voted for integration with newly independent Poland; in Tarnowskie Góry however, 82% of the participants favored Germany in large part due to "imported" votes. In 1922, after over 300 years of Austrian and Prussian domination, Tarnowskie Góry was returned to Poland. In the interwar period the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Army was stationed in Tarnowskie Góry.
At the onset of World War II in 1939, Polish independence came to an end and Nazi German occupation began. Mass arrests of priests, teachers, intelligentsia and fighters of three anti-German, Silesian Uprisings took place. The synagogue was burned while German minority enthusiastically welcomed invading Nazi forces. During the occupation, the Armia Krajowa undertook a sabotage campaign against Nazi forces, railroad-transport and local industry. Liberation of Silesia came in early 1945; in order to save the industrial infrastructure of the region, the Red Army opened an offensive supported by massive numbers of troops with minimal use of heavy artillery and air-bombardment. According to witnesses, the entire operation was extremely fast; countless, shoulder-to-shoulder, crowds of Russian soldiers passed through the town in matter of minutes followed by almost complete still. Liberation from the Nazi occupiers came with a great price and Poland once again lost its freedom; although officially a sovereign country, in fact the state was ruled by a puppet regime installed and fully controlled by Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.

Recent

The decades following the end of World War II saw an influx of immigrants from other parts of Poland to take over property of expelled German inhabitants, and as a result of planned-economy developments. Several large factories opened in Tarnowskie Góry’s area including: FASER, FAZOS, ZAMET, CHEMET, and Lead and Zinc Mill Miasteczko Slaskie. All of these "Molochs" employed thousands of workers and emitted countless pollutants into the surrounding environment. For decades the railroad industry remained one of the largest local employers, however, due to an aging infrastructure, it slowly decreased in volume and other cities of the area begun to handle more and more of the rail traffic in terms of both cargo and passenger trains.
The fall of Iron Curtain in 1989 brought freedom back to Poland accompanied by the chaos of restructuring and privatization, which led to a small but steady decline of population, beginning in mid-1990s and lasting throughout the first decade of the 21st century. Today, Tarnowskie Góry is an industrial, cultural, educational, and technological center and tourist destination.

Places and attractions

Twin towns – sister cities

Tarnowskie Góry is twinned with: