photo Michał Nadolski /stv/ / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

Over time, in the settlement, which at the end of the 13th century obtained municipal rights from Bolek I Raw, the cloth and textile industry developed significantly – the period of the lush development of crafts and the history of the region is now commemorated by the Weaving Museum, which can be found in the historic merchant tenement house at the old town of Kamienna Góra.

One of the most important points on the city map is the Market Square with the surrounding buildings – most of the buildings date back to the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Exceptionally, we will not find a town hall in this place (the two previous buildings were destroyed as a result of fires and collapses) – the neo-Renaissance building from the beginning of the previous century is located at pl. Grunwaldzki, built after the destruction of the former Upper Gate. In the south-west part of the old town, there is the oldest church in Kamienna Góra – the church of st. Peter and Paul, originally erected at the end of the 13th century. Until our times, however, it has survived not in its original shape, but in the Gothic-Renaissance version (the effect of reconstruction after the destruction of the Hussite wars).

The history of Kamienna Góra is inseparably connected with the fate of the Renaissance castle, which was built in the northern part of the city in the 16th century, most probably in the place where a fortified building had already existed several centuries earlier. After a residence that once belonged to the most important aristocratic families (Schaffgotsch, Promnitz, Stolberg-Wernigerode), visited in its time, incl. by King Frederick William III and Tsar Alexander I (the monarchs visited the Grodztwo castle during the Napoleonic wars in 1813), unfortunately only the ruins standing near the bank of the Bóbr were left; the rest was consumed by fire in the 1960s.

There are, of course, many more mementoes of the past, places worth visiting, not to mention the surrounding area alone, of course: it is enough to mention the exceptionally good condition preserved Jewish cemetery from the 19th century (unique on the scale of the whole of Lower Silesia), a mausoleum dedicated to the memory of prisoners and victims of the branch of the Gross-Rosen camp, operating in Kamienna Góra from 1942 until the end of the war, and finally a post-Evangelical baroque church from the 17th century (one of the two preserved Churches of Grace) at the foot of Góra Parkowa, currently used by the Catholic faithful (church Our Lady of the Rosary).

A short trip to the vicinity of Kamienna Góra will make those who are still undecided that it is worth visiting this picturesque town. Within a short car ride, you can reach the Karkonosze or Rudawy Janowickie; south of Kamienna Góra, in the village of Dvůr Králové, we will find a unique Zoo-Safari, in Adršpach, located right next to the Polish-Czech border, we will visit an amazing rock town. Not to mention the various attractions on the Polish side, Krzeszów, Wałbrzych, Kolorowe Jeziorek and many, many other ideas for spending time in this part of Lower Silesia.

www.kamiennagora.pl