Syców

Syców [ˈsɨt͡suf] (German: Groß Wartenberg, until 1888 Polnisch Wartenberg) is a town in Oleśnica County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Syców.

It lies approximately 27 kilometres (17 mi) north-east of Oleśnica, and 47 kilometres (29 mi) north-east of the regional capital Wrocław.

History

The settlement of Syczow or Wartinbergk in the Duchy of Silesia was first mentioned in the late 12th century deed issued by the Bishop of Wrocław. A castellan at Wrathenberc on the trade route to Kalisz in Greater Poland is documented about 1276. Then part of the Duchy of Legnica, it was gained by Duke Henry III of Głogów in 1291 and inherited by Duke Konrad I of Oleśnica in 1321, a vassal of King John of Bohemia from 1329. The town was given Magdeburg rights in 1369.

When the Oels branch of the Silesian Piasts went extinct in 1492, the Bohemian king Vladislas II seized the duchy as a reverted fief and established the state country of Wartenberg enfeoffed to the Haugwitz noble family. In 1734 it was acquired by Ernst Johann von Biron, whose descendants held Wartenberg even after the Prussian annexation of Silesia in 1742, until they were expelled in 1945.