Sulechów

Sulechów (pronounced su'lehuf, Züllichau) is a town located within the Zielona Góra County, in Lubusz Voivodeship, western Poland. It is the administrative seat of the Gmina Sulechów. Established in the Middle Ages, the town features many historical monuments significant to the Polish Lubusz region. From 1975 to 1998 Sulechów was part of Zielona Góra Voivodeship. The town limits cover . Olga Tokarczuk, the Nobel Prize in Literature winner for 2018 was born in 1962 in Sulechów. Sulechów is situated in the historic Lower Silesia region, north of the Oder river. The town centre is located about northeast of the regional capital Zielona Góra, where the national road 32 to Poznań crosses the expressway S3 to Gorzów Wielkopolski. The regional Zielona Góra Airport is about away. The settlement of the region on the Middle Oder dates back to the 4th century AD. In the late 10th century, the area was included in the emerging Polish state by its first historic ruler Mieszko I of the Piast dynasty. It became part of the Duchy of Silesia, a province of fragmented Poland, in 1138, and, later belonged to the Silesian Duchy of Głogów, established in 1249-51 under the rule of Duke Konrad I. In the beginning of the 14th century, Sulechów was encompassed by defensive walls. The settlement itself was first mentioned in a 1319 deed, at the time when the warlike Ascanian margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg campaigned the area, occupying Sulechów and neighbouring Świebodzin. Margrave Waldemar, however, died in the same year, and the localities fell back to the Piast dukes of Głogów. When the last Piast duke Henry XI of Głogów died without issue in 1476, inheritance claims were raised by his widow Barbara of Brandenburg and her father, the Hohenzollern elector Albrecht Achilles. The Brandenburg influence met with fierce opposition by Henry's Piast cousin, Duke Jan II the Mad of Żagań, who nevertheless after several years of fighting had to sign an agreement, whereby the Silesian towns of Crossen (Krosno) and the town passed to the Margraviate of Brandenburg as a fief of the Bohemian (Czech) Kingdom, an integral part of the Holy Roman Empire.