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city in Opole voivodeship, Poland
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Prudnik [ˈprudɲik] ⓘ (Czech: Prudník, Silesian: Prōmnik, German: Neustadt) is a town in southern Poland, located in the southern part of Opole Voivodeship near the border with the Czech Republic. It is the administrative seat of Prudnik County and Gmina Prudnik. Its population numbers 21,368 inhabitants (2016). Since 2015, Prudnik is a member of the Cittaslow International.
The town was founded in the 1250s, and was historically part of the Piast-ruled Duchy of Opole, and afterwards was located within the Habsburg monarchy, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Habsburg monarchy again, Prussia, the German Reich, and eventually Poland again. It was once an important industrial hub known for its shoe-making traditions and more recently towel making by the ZPB "Frotex" Company, one of the largest towel manufacturers in Europe. The town also possesses numerous architectural monuments and historic buildings such as the Main Town Hall and "Wok's Tower" (Wieża Woka) from the 13th century.
The name "Prudnik" was created after the Polish word prąd (flow, stream, Czech: proud, Silesian: prōnd), similarly to the nearby villages of Prężyna and Prężynka, and means a river with a fast stream. In the Middle Ages, the town's name was written with a letter u, which was a Czech counterpart of ą (1262 Pruthenos, 1331 Prudnik). Since the 17th century, the name Prudnik was used alongside the German name Neustadt.
The town's German name was also written in its Latin form – Neostadium. Its occasionally used Polish and Czech translations were: Nowe Miasto and Nové Město. The town's older name also had its Latin form – Prudnicium. The town was also called Polnisch Neustadt ("Polish New Town"), but in 1708 it got replaced with Königliche Stadt Neustadt ("Royal Town New Town"). Its Polish counterpart, Nowe Miasto Królewskie, was used in a Polish document published in 1750 by Frederick the Great.
In the 19th century, the town's name was changed to Neustadt in Oberschlesien ("New Town in Upper Silesia"), while the Slavic name Prudnik was still used by its Polish inhabitants, which was mentioned in Upper Silesia's topographical description from 1865: "Der ursprünglische Stadtname "Prudnik" ist noch jetz bei den polnischen Landbewohnern üblich". In the alphabetic list of cities of Silesia published by Johann Knie in Wrocław in 1830, Polish name Prudnik was used along with German Neustadt ("Prudnik, polnische Benennung der Kreistadt Neustadt").
In Polish publications since the 20th century, the town's name was written as Prądnik. This name was also used formally in 1945. The town's name was changed to Prudnik on 7 May 1946.
In Polish, the town's name has masculine grammatical gender.
Traces of human presence in the area of the present-day town of Prudnik, confirmed by archaeological research, date back to the Paleolithic era. The oldest settlements near Prudnik were formed by groups of hunters who exploited the surrounding flint deposits. Their products, found during excavations, are typical of the Acheulean culture, from the interglacial era. The local population of early Slavs held trade contacts with Rome, as documented by Roman coins found in Prudnik dating back to 700 BC–1250 AD. On a hill by the Złoty Potok river, in the western part of town, the remains of a warrior of the Germanic Vandals tribe, who died in the 4th century AD, were excavated.
The area of present-day Prudnik was located at the borderlands between the local West Slavic tribes of Golensizi and Opolans. The earliest written information regarding settlements near Prudnik were included in the 1233 will of a Silesian nobleman Johannes Sibote, the owner of nearby villages of Jasiona, Skrzypiec, Krzyżkowice, Czyżowice and Lubrza. In 1253, the area was captured by the Czechs during a revenge campaign for the invasion of Opavian Silesia by Polish dukes Vladislaus I of Opole and Bolesław V the Chaste.
In the Autumn of 1255, King Ottokar II of Bohemia instructed Vok of Rosenberg to help new settlers move into the borderland. Between 6 November and the middle of December of that year, Vok founded the Wogendrüssel castle in the defensive bend of the Prudnik river. The castle controlled the trade route between Nysa and Opava. The foundation of the castle in this place is equivalent to the foundation of Prudnik as a settlement. Prudnik was the northernmost stronghold of the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Vok's son, Henry I of Rosenberg, obtained Magdeburg rights for the town in 1279. After Henry's death, Prudnik was passed over to knight Jaxa de Snelwald. Prudnik belonged to the historical region of Moravia until 1337, when the town became a part of the Duchy of Opole in the Upper Silesia region, and remained under the rule of local Polish dukes of the Piast dynasty until the dissolution of the duchy in 1532, when it was incorporated into the Austrian-ruled Bohemian (Czech) Crown. It was located on a trade route between Wrocław and Vienna.
In 1373, the town suffered a plague epidemic. Several residents survived the epidemic by escaping into the nearby Opawskie Mountains. Having returned to Prudnik, they burned down most of the buildings and started the process of rebuilding the town. The oldest known form of Prudnik's coat of arms comes from a 1399 wax seal.
During the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War, a knight known as Maćko of Prudnik (Maczke von der Neuwidnstadt) fought in the Battle of Grunwald on 15 July 1410 alongside Polish troops. After the death of late Duke Vladislaus II's wife, brothers Bernard of Niemodlin and Bolko IV of Opole took over the area of Prudnik and Głogówek. The rule of the area was later passed over to Bolko IV's son, Bolko V the Hussite. The first written mention of Bolko V as the ruler of Prudnik is dated 6 May 1425. Bolko V titled himself as the Duke of Głogówek and Prudnik. During the Hussite Wars, the town of Prudnik and nearby villages were plundered and burned down by the Hussites. On 23 March 1464, Prudnik and villages around it were excommunicated by Pope Pius II for refusing to pay the debt of Duke Konrad IV the Elder. Although local historian Antoni Dudek has claimed that the excommunication was revoked in 16th century, the Holy See never revealed a document that lifted the curse.
In 1506, a Silesian Sejm took place in Prudnik, in the presence of King Sigismund I the Old of Poland. While in Prudnik, the King recruited 200 troops into the light cavalry to maintain public order in Silesia. After the death of Duke Jan II the Good in 1532, Prudnik, along with the entire Duchy of Opole and Racibórz, was incorporated into the Habsburg monarchy. In 1562, the Austrian-ruled Duchy of Opole and Racibórz passed a resolution that obligated Jews to sell their houses, pay their debts, and leave the duchy in a year. On the basis of this resolution, in 1564, Jews were ordered to leave Prudnik, but Krzysztof Prószkowski, who leased the land there, let them stay until 1570.
In the years 1645–1666, Prudnik belonged to the Polish–Lithuanian House of Vasa as a fief. As a royal city, Prudnik became a hub of trade and industry. Linen makers of Prudnik were exporting their products to the Netherlands. Tanning businesses were also started in the town. Since the 16th century, the richest noblemen of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz were settling in the town, and Prudnik became the most important industrial and political hub of Upper Silesia. It was also the place in which the Silesian Sejms took place. The noble family of Bilitzer originated from Prudnik.
The population of Prudnik was decimated during the Thirty Years' War. In 1625, the town suffered a plague epidemic. On 12 February 1629, Emperor Ferdinand II exiled the Protestant clergy of Prudnik, while people of the town were forced to convert to Catholicism. In 1642, the Swedish army captured Prudnik, then they plundered it and burned it down. After the end of the war, the town was rebuilt thanks to Emperor Ferdinand III's financial help. Soon, Prudnik would become the biggest city of Upper Silesia. Prudnik was a place of witch trials.
Because of Prudnik being located at the borderlands, the town was a sight of multiple battles during the Silesian Wars. On 30 June 1761, King Frederick the Great of Prussia visited the town. In February 1779, during the War of the Bavarian Succession, Austrians led an artillery attack on Prudnik, burning down most of the town's buildings. In an act of revenge, Prussians destroyed Krnov. Prudnik was visited by Emperor Joseph II in August 1779. On 20 August 1788, King Frederick William II of Prussia was passing through the town. He spent the night in the local Town House, while his son Frederick William III accommodated in a house by the Market Square.
In the middle of the 18th century, Prudnik was considered to be the richest town of Upper Silesia. Its incomes were ten times higher than that of Opole, the capital of the region. This was caused by the fact that the town was an owner of eleven nearby villages: Czyżowice, Dębowiec, Dytmarów, Jasiona, Krzyżkowice, Lubrza, Piorunkowice, Pokrzywna, Skrzypiec, Szybowice, Wieszczyna and a part of Rudziczka. After the feudal service was abolished in the 19th century and the villages became independent, Prudnik's Town Council began to look for a source of income in forestry. Prudnik owned one of the biggest communal forest complexes in Upper Silesia (the Prudnik Forest), with an area of more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres).
The start of the 19th century saw further development of the town, mainly through the accommodation of Prussian soldiers. During the Napoleonic Wars, Prudnik was captured by the French army at the start of 1807. In accordance to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's decree from 6 April 1807, an uhlan regiment of the Legion of the Vistula was formed in Prudnik. The regiment was made up of Polish troops returning from Italy, reinforced with recruits from Greater Poland. Prudnik remained under French occupation until 1812, when it was captured by Russians. After the wars, in 1816 the town had a debt of 82,330 thalers, with revenues of 14,687 thalers and expenses of 14,238 thalers. The debt lasted until the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. In 1828, the town had about 4,000 inhabitants. The first spinning and weaving mills for wool, linen and silk were built in the town, as well as a textile factory (known as ZPB "Frotex" since 1945) founded by the Jewish industrialist Samuel Fränkel. A brickyard, a brewery, mills and a vinegar factory were also built. In reference to the main professions of its inhabitants, Prudnik was nicknamed the "town of weavers and shoemakers".
Despite Prudnik being one of the biggest industrial centres of Upper Silesia, no workers' protests against capitalists were recorded to take place in the town, even during the Silesian weavers' uprising of 1844 and the Revolutions of 1848. In preparations to the January Uprising of 1863, the Central National Committee designated Prudnik as a "contact point" and a "weapons collection point". Poles carried out conspiratorial activities in the vicinity of the town. After the start of the uprising, controls on the border between Prussia and Austria were tightened. Everybody arriving in Prudnik had to report to the police, and the local military garrison was put on alert and took over the duties of units from nearby cities, as they were sent to guard the Prussian–Russian border. Three Polish soldiers from Prudnik took part in the January Uprising: Hieronim Olszewski, Piotr Linowski and Antoni Strogiński.
In 1876, Prudnik was connected with Nysa and Koźle via a railway line, and in 1896, a railway line between Prudnik and Gogolin started operating. In January 1898, the first social democratic conference of Upper Silesia took place in Prudnik.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Prudnik”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.