Złotoryja

Złotoryja stands on the Kaczawa in Lower Silesia. A settlement of gold miners grew here in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and in 1211 Duke Henry the Bearded granted it town rights under Magdeburg law. The Duchy of Legnica, to which it belonged, became a Bohemian fief in 1329. Hussite forces captured and plundered the town in the fifteenth century, after which its council built walls.

As gold deposits declined, trade along the nearby Via Regia and crafts gained importance. A school opened in 1504, and after Protestant clergy arrived in 1522 it became a humanist Latin gymnasium. These institutions and routes gave the former mining settlement a continuing place in Silesian life.