Łubowice, Silesian Voivodeship


Łubowice is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Rudnik, within Racibórz County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is known as the birthplace of the German Romantic poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff.

Geography

It is situated in the historic Upper Silesia region, in the southeastern part of the Silesian Lowlands on the higher left bank of the Oder river, approximately north-east of Rudnik, north of Racibórz, and west of the regional capital Katowice.
The village has a population of about 365. Several inhabitants belong to the German minority in Poland.

History

Archaeological findings denote a fortress possibly already existed at the site during the era of the Lusatian culture from the 9th century to the 6th century BC. The settlement of Łubowice in the Upper Silesian Duchy of Racibórz was first mentioned in 1376 AD, when the former Piast duchy was part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown.
Łubowice Palace, south of the village, was the birthplace of Joseph von Eichendorff in 1788. The Eichendorff noble family, originally from Zerbow in the Brandenburgian Neumark region, had acquired the manor in 1784. It remained the domicile of Joseph von Eichendorff's mother Karoline until her death in 1822, after which it was sold by auction and later purchased by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild. From 1852 it was a possession of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst and his descendants, who bore the title of a "Duke of Ratibor" since 1840. The palace was largely rebuilt in a Tudor style from 1858 to 1862. It was leased to the Eichendorff literary society in 1938. The site of a Wehrmacht artillery post in the late days of World War II, the castle was heavily bombed and burnt down completely during the Red Army Vistula-Oder Offensive.
On 14 November 1989, during the Revolutions of 1989, the Polish prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and German chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed to preserve the common heritage at Łubowice. A Polish Eichendorff association was founded and an Upper Silesian cultural and meeting centre opened at Łubowice on 12 July 2000. The castle's reconstruction is a matter of ongoing discussions.

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