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History Wschowa is a town of very rich history dated for many centuries, the capital of historical Wschowa Land. It belongs to 50 oldest towns in Poland. As early as the beginning of the Middle Ages it was a trading place on the road from Luzyce and Slask to Wielkopolska. It was mentioned for the first time in the historical sources in 1136. The localization of the town took place for the first time between the years 1248 and 1273. At that time the town belonged to the Princes of Slask - Silesia. In 1343 king Kazimierz Wielki - the Great -, after a victorious battle against Henryk V- the Glogowsko - Zaganski Prince, joined Wschowa to Wielkopolska. Since then Wschowa became a royal town, where the mayor office was situated. Thanks to numerous privilages and royal rights Wschowa was developing very quickly. In the XV century the stone - and- brick walls and moat were constructed around the town. Large parts of these are still to be seen and admired. In 1404 Wschowa obtained from the hands of King Wladyslaw Jagiello the royal right to have its own mint. In the same year the first school was founded. In the middle of the XVI the town water supply system was construced, and at the end of that century the royal mint was opened. It was in Wschowa, in the XVII that the minter Andrzej Tymff was minting the coins called "tymf". Old cityscape The XVII and XVIII centuries were a " golden " period in the development of the town. Thanks to a very tolerant policy of the Polish Rulers towards various denominations and religions, Wschowa situeted close to the border, became a shelter for a great number of people who had to leave their homes in various countries of Europe because of their religious believes. The arrival of many highly skilled craftsmen, especially from the German Lands, Slask and the Netherlandes, brought about a significant development. Cultural life is also flourishing, a protestant college is founded by the Protestant Church, and a jesuit college by the Parish Church. Wschowa reached the position of one of the main centres of economic and cultural life in Wielkopolska. During the reign of the Sas Dynasty Wschowa became the second, the other capital of Poland. It was in the Wschowa Townhall that the Kings stayed, the meetings and gatherings of the Parliament took place, the foreign missions were received. With the moment of joining Wshowa to Prusy - 1793 - as the result of the Second Partition of Poland, began a gradual deterioration of the town. One of the causes was the loss of the royal privilidges and the loss of the eastern markets that were so important for the development of craft. In spite of many valuable economical ininiatives - the construction of the railway, sugar plant, clothing factories, and so on - Wschowa never again regained its golden period becoming one more Prussian town. In 1922 Wschowa joined Marchia Graniczna Poznan - Prusy Wschodnie and since 1938 became a part of Prowincja Slaska. On the 2-nd of 1939 Polish soldiers attacked the territory of the III Rzesza - Germany - coming as far as the borders of Wschowa. During the World War II there were camps for the prisons of war in Wschowa. On the 31 -st of January 1945 the Red Army took over the town. And after 152 years Wschowa was once more within the borders of Poland.