Zielona Góra

Zielona Góra, or Grünberg, grew on routes linking Poznań with Żagań and Lusatia. Its name means Green Mountain, and the hills around it became known for vineyards. The town received its privileges in 1323; clothmaking and wine were important to its livelihood. It belonged to the Duchy of Głogów, whose changing rulers left their mark on its history.

In 1477 the townspeople repelled a Brandenburg attack during a struggle over the duchy's succession. The future Polish king Sigismund granted its clothmakers access to markets throughout Poland in 1505. After the duchy passed to the Bohemian Crown and then to the Habsburgs, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation divided the town's religious life. War, fire and debt burdened it in the seventeenth century, when a wave of witch trials also took place. Prussia acquired the town in 1742, and a Protestant church was built a few years later.