HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL

This story concerns the part of Silesia that is least known and least talked about. When we talk about Silesia, we usually think of factory chimneys, where even white snow turns gray or the charms of the Vistula River or Istebna. And if Silesia is separated, our thoughts tend to wander to Olza rather than to the banks of the Oder. And always rather Black, rather Green, than the quietest, least publicized one - White, white-green, Opole.

S. Wasylewski, Na Śląsku Opolskim, Katowice 1937

This is how Stanisław Wasylewski wrote about Opole Silesia over eighty years ago, a region that was then unknown to Poles, located on the eastern border of the German Reich.

The concept of “Opole Silesia” is relatively young, having been used for about a hundred years – and in different periods to refer to different territories. The term “Opole Region,” which has replaced it, is used in everyday language largely because of rather illogical administrative names - we have the provinces of Silesia and Lower Silesia and Opole between, which name does not reveal its Silesian affiliation in the slightest. Meanwhile, of all three provinces,

it is Opole that consists of the largest percentage of the historical Silesia region. Most of the area of today's Opole Province belongs to Upper Silesia, of which Opole remains the historical capital. The Brzeg and Namysłów regions belong to Lower Silesia and only a small part of the province in the northeast, around Praszka, is the Wieluń region, which has a completely separate history and identity.

The history of our region is therefore the history of Silesia. The history of this borderland, unlike that of other areas of present-day Poland, is intertwined with the history of Central Europe. Silesia passed successively from Polish to Czech, Austrian and Prussian hands, only to find itself back within Poland's borders after the last war.

But let's start from the beginning. Before people appeared and settled in the Opole area, silesauruses ruled here. Silesaurus opolensis, less impressive but much older than the large dinosaurs we know, is perhaps the oldest known dinosaur in the world. It lived here about 230 million years ago, and you can find out what it looked like by visiting JuraPark in Krasiejów.

Silesaurus Opoliensis, photo Science and Entertainment Park - Jura Park Krasiejów

Much later, in the Neolithic period, only a few thousand years ago, the first permanent human settlements appeared in what is now the Opole Province. The people who arrived from the south through the Moravian Gate found their place mainly on the Głubczyce Plateau, where favorable conditions allowed them to engage in animal husbandry and develop agriculture.

Many archaeological artifacts relating to the oldest history of the region can be found at the exhibition “Prehistory of the Opole Region” at the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole.

At the end of the 10th century, the region was within the borders of Mieszko I's state. In the 1920s, during the demolition of the castle in Opole, it turned out that it concealed the remains of a wooden defensive stronghold of the Piast warriors. Several decades of comprehensive archaeological research of the stronghold in Ostrówek, Opole (including the site of today's amphitheater, among others) have made it possible to determine exactly what life was like in Opole a thousand years ago. We even know what sandals were in fashion and what the jewelry of the ladies of that time looked like. These and other interesting exhibits are presented at the permanent exhibition Opole - the town, the city, the capital of the region at the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole.

The 13th century was a period of urban development and Silesian cities are among the oldest in present-day Poland. Opole received its city rights in 1217 at the latest, Nysa in 1223 and Brzeg in 1248. Many other cities in the region were founded at the same time. We can still feel the atmosphere of such a medieval town today when walking along the defensive walls of Paczków or Byczyna. A few years ago, a knight's castle was built near the latter town, where the Opole knight's brotherhood revives medieval culture during shows and tournaments.

Imitation of a knight's castle in Biskupice near Byczyna, photo Jarosław Małkowski

The monument to Prince Casimir I of Opole, founder of the city, standing in the Opole market square, reminds us of the existence of the Piast Duchy of Opole, which became independent at the end of the 12th century. In the 13th century, the ducal authority also covered the area around Racibórz, hence the commonly used name: the Duchy of Opole-Racibórz.

The figures of Bolko I, Bolko II and Bolko III together with his wife Anna, can also be seen on the magnificent tombstones in the Franciscan church in Opole. The princes resided in a castle, of which only the Piast tower remains today.

The Silesian duchies, initially associated with the Piast Polish state, gradually came under Czech rule. The Opole Piast line died out in 1532, after the death of John the Good, who had no children. A Renaissance epitaph commemorating the last of the dynasty and a magnificent family tree of the Opole Piasts can be found in the Piast chapel in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Opole. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Silesian duchies, including the Duchy of Opole-Racibórz, were part of the Czech Crown. After the death of Louis Jagiellon, King of Bohemia and Hungary, in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, these territories came under the direct rule of the Habsburgs. However, there was a twenty-year period in the history of the Duchy of Opole, known for example from “The Deluge,” when this land was ruled by the Vasa dynasty, who sat on the Polish throne. The Duchy of Opole-Racibórz was temporarily given to the Polish kings as... compensation for unpaid statues of Habsburg women.

After the death of the last Piast ruler of Opole, the city's importance in the region declined. Two centers of culture and art emerged as the most influential at that time: on the one hand, the Protestant Piast ducal court in Brzeg, and on the other, the Catholic bishopric of Nysa. The Piasts of Brzeg, especially George II, known as the Magnificent, eagerly adopted new fashions coming from both Krakow (Frederick's first wife was the sister of Sigismund the Old) and directly from Italy.

Brought to Brzeg from northern Italy, from the vicinity of Lake Como (hence the name: Komaskowie), the builders erected a castle for the prince - a residence that was widely admired and imitated. Other noble residences dating back to the Renaissance have also been preserved in the region: the Prószkowski (von Proskau) castle in Prószków, the Pückler castle in Niemodlin and the Oppersdorff castle in Głogówek.