Любань: Тарихы мен географиясы

Town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
the town in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Lubań (Lauban; ), sometimes called Lubań Śląski (; , ); is a town in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in southwest Poland. It is the administrative seat of Lubań County and also of the smaller Gmina Lubań (although it is not part of the territory of the latter, as the town is a separate urban gmina in its own right).

Situated north of the Jizera Mountains on the western shore of the Kwisa River, Lubań is considered part of the historic Upper Lusatia region, although it was more closely associated with Lower Silesia in the early 14th century and from 1815. It is located about east of Zgorzelec/Görlitz and about northwest of Jelenia Góra.

The town probably is at the site of a small settlement established by the West Slavic Bieżuńczanie tribe, one of the old Polish tribes, in the 9th and 10th century. Bieżuńczanie together with the Sorbian Milceni tribe, with whom they bordered in the west, were subjugated in 990 by the Margraviate of Meissen. From 1002 to 1031, the area was part of Piast ruled Poland. In 1156, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa vested his ally, the Přemyslid duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia with the territory around Bautzen (Budissin), then called "Milsko", and after the 15th century called "Upper Lusatia". Luban was granted town rights with Magdeburg rights in the course of the German Ostsiedlung. It was first mentioned in 1268. Like several other town foundings under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty, owing to its favourable location on the historic Via Regia trade route close to the border with the Duchy of Silesia, Luban expanded rapidly. Since about 1253, Upper Lusatia temporarily had been under the rule of the Ascanian margraves John I and Otto III of Brandenburg. By the end of the 13th century, Luban's first brewery was founded by the Franciscans and cloth production flourished thanks to Flemish settlers. In 1297, a clothiers' uprising took place, which was brutally suppressed. Its two leaders were beheaded at the market square. Duke Henry I of Jawor built a new town hall, the ruins of which can be seen today (Kramarska Tower). In 1320, he founded a Magdalene monastery in Lubań. He appointed a separate wójt for the town, which to that point administratively was subordinate to the wójt of Zgorzelec. In 1469, Luban became part of Hungary. In 1490, it became again part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, now ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, and after 1526 by the House of Habsburg. Residents celebrated the election of Augustus II the Strong as king of Poland and the formation of the Polish Saxon union in 1697. During August II's visit to the town just before his royal coronation, a parade of the town's self defense troops was held. From 1915, French soldiers as well as political prisoners and common criminals were also imprisoned there. Józef Piłsudski and Aleksandra Piłsudska are today commemorated in Lubań with a memorial stone. During World War II, the Nazis created numerous forced labor camps in the town, the largest of which was Wohnheimlager GEMA, in which Polish and Russian women were imprisoned. Polish and Russian women were imprisoned also in other camps, as well as Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Latvians and Ukrainians. Lauban was the site of one of the last Nazi German victories in World War II. After it was taken in the Upper Silesian Offensive by the Red Army on 16 February 1945, the Wehrmacht successfully retook the town in a counterattack on 8 March 1945. After the war, the town became again part of Poland in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and was renamed to its historic Polish name Lubań. In 1945–46, the remaining German inhabitants were expelled, also in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, and the town was repopulated by Poles, including expellees from former eastern Poland, which was annexed by the Soviet Union. In the 1950s Greeks, refugees of the Greek Civil War, settled in the town and its vicinity. From 1975 to 1998 it was part of the former Jelenia Góra Voivodeship. Between 1992 and 2004, the marketplace was renovated. Streets were paved and town houses around the Kramarska Tower were rebuilt.

Lubań is the hub of culture in the Lubań Municipality. The town has a cultural centre (Dom Kultury). There is also a regional museum. Lubań is a stop on the Polish sections of the Way of St. James pilgrimage route.

Lubań has five kindergartens, five primary schools, and three secondary schools. The Adam Mickiewicz Post Primary School Complex (Zespół Szkół Ponadpodstawowych im. Adama Mickiewicza w Lubaniu) is ranked amongst the best secondary schools in the entire Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

Lubań has a hospital, the Lucjan Kopeć Lusatian Medical Centre (Łużyckie Centrum Medyczne im. Lucjana Kopcia).

Lubań has a bus station and a train station. Since 2011, a public transport system functions in the town. The Polish national road 30, and Voivodeship roads 296, 357, 393 pass through the town.