Zgorzelec probably obtained city rights around 1215, and much earlier, at least from the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, there was a Slavic stronghold in this place, occupied by Bolesław the Brave. The city shared the fate of the entire Upper Lusatia, going through the periods of Czech, Saxon, Prussian and German rule, and under the treaty concluded at the Potsdam Conference, it finally got  within the borders of the Polish state that was being rebuilt from the war damage. The fighting on the eastern front for the crossing of the Nysa Łużycka successfully bypassed Zgorzelec itself, sparing the historic town buildings. They include, among others tenement houses and houses built over the course of several centuries, located in Przedmieście Nyskie, in the oldest part of the city – including the house of Jakub Böhme, a German philosopher and mystic who lived at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, or the Lusatian Museum, opened in 2007. The most important points on the tourist map of Zgorzelec include at least a few more interesting places – the buildings that make up the former Kruczy Folwark (also called Scultetus Manor, after an outstanding scientist and multiple town councilor in Zgorzelec), palace and court complexes at Francuska street (baroque) and Henrykowska street (neo-baroque), or from the beginning of the 20th century, the monumental building of the Upper Lusatian Hall of Fame, currently the seat of the Municipal Cultural Centre. And these are just some of the attractions, of which we can find just as many on the German side, in Görlitz – one of the most beautiful cities of our western neighbors, to which crowds come not only on the occasion of the annual Christmas Market.

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