Grodków

Grodków lies on the Silesian plain south of Brzeg. Its medieval town plan centred on a rectangular market, with streets leading to the gates and roads towards Nysa, Ziębice, Wrocław and Lewin. Walls were built in 1296, and the Gothic church of St Michael rose within them. The town obtained a staple right in 1308.

In 1344 Duke Bolesław III sold Grodków to Przecław, Bishop of Wrocław, who joined it to the episcopal Duchy of Nysa. The bishops thereafter bore the title of Duke of Grodków until their temporal lordship was secularised in 1810. Hussite fighting and the Thirty Years' War both devastated the town. It was rebuilt under Bishop Sebastian von Rostock, himself a native of Grodków, and passed to Prussia after the First Silesian War.