Krosno Odrzańskie

Krosno stands at the meeting of the Bóbr and the Oder, guarding a crossing of the latter river. A stronghold existed here by 1005, and Duke Henry the Bearded later built a stone castle. The town's position made it important to the western frontier of the early Polish state and to the Silesian duchies that followed.

After Duke Henry XI of Głogów died without an heir in 1476, his widow Barbara of Brandenburg inherited Krosno. Henry's cousin Jan II of Żagań contested the claim and ravaged the town, but an agreement in 1482 left the district to Brandenburg. It remained formally connected to the Bohemian Crown until King Ferdinand renounced its rights in 1538. Krosno then belonged to Brandenburg's Neumark and became part of Prussia with the electorate in 1701.