Oława

Oława grew between the Oder and the smaller river that shares its name. First mentioned in 1149, it became a ducal residence of the Silesian Piast dynasty and received town status in 1234. The rivers helped protect the settlement, though war repeatedly overcame its defences: Mongol forces destroyed it in 1241, and it suffered again in the Hussite wars and the Thirty Years' War.

Oława remained a Piast residence until the death of the last duke of Legnica in 1675. From 1691 to 1737 it was held by James Louis Sobieski, son of the Polish king John III. The town passed to Prussia with most of Silesia in 1742. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries its economy grew, and Oława became known for the cultivation of tobacco.