Gubin, Poland


Gubin is a town in Krosno Odrzańskie County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the administrative seat of the rural Gmina Gubin, though not part of it.
Gubin is located on the right bank of the Lusatian Neisse river, at the border with Germany. The rail and road border crossings are connected with the German town of Guben, of which Gubin was the central and eastern part until the division of the city by the Oder–Neisse line in 1945.

History

Prior to 1945, Gubin was part of the historic town of Guben, which belonged to the Prussian Province of Brandenburg within the German Reich. When after World War II the Oder–Neisse line was chosen as the new German–Polish border at the Potsdam Conference, Guben was split between the two countries. The eastern portion of the devastated town, including the historic centre, became Polish Gubin. The newly established town was ethnically cleansed from its pre-war German population which was expelled to the western section of the former town of Guben on June 20, 1945. They were replaced by Polish settlers from territories east of the Curzon Line.
Guben began to develop around 1200 as a trade and marketplace on the roads between Leipzig and Poznań and between Görlitz and Frankfurt. Henry III, Margrave of Meissen, granted this settlement Magdeburg rights on June 1, 1235 and declared it an oppidum. Between 1367 and 1635, Guben was part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1635, Elector John George I of Saxony received Lower Lusatia and Guben in the Peace of Prague. In 1751, Augustus III, who was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland in personal union, established a mint in present-day Gubin, which produced Polish copper coins. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Kingdom of Saxony ceded the town to the Kingdom of Prussia. Guben became the capital of a district within the Province of Brandenburg. In 1871, Guben became part of the German Empire.
The old town of Gubin was seriously damaged in the wake of the Soviet Vistula–Oder Offensive during the last stage of the war, with the historic town hall and church being burnt out. While the town hall dating from the 14th century has since been restored, the Late Gothic parish church is today a stabilised ruin. Recently, a historical society has set up plans for a reconstruction.
Gubin belonged to Zielona Góra Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998. A large garrison of the Polish Army was based in Gubin in 1951–2002, including the 5th Infantry Division, which evolved into the 5th "Saxony" Tank Division in 1956. The garrison was closed in 2002 following restructuring.
Since the Schengen Agreement entered into force on 21 December 2007, border controls between Gubin and Guben have been abolished.

Geography

Gubin is situated in the Polish part of the historic Lower Lusatia region, at the confluence of the Neisse and Lubsza rivers. It is located on the national road 32 operating as an orbital road for Gubin. It starts at the border crossing with Guben, runs to Krosno Odrzańskie and the regional capital Zielona Góra, and further leads to the national road 5 that connects Wrocław and Poznań. Gubin also has a railway border crossing on the line from Guben to Zbąszyń.
The municipal area of Gubin comprises 20.68 km² of which 61% is used for agricultural purposes and 5% is used for forest uses. The city takes up 1.5% of the area of the Krosno Odrzańskie County.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of both the city of Gubin and Guben are almost identical, which further emphasizes their shared history as one township. Whereas the original arms of Guben features the Saxon coat of arms, the Bohemian Lion and the Prussian Eagle, Gubin dropped the Saxon and Prussian shields after it became part of Poland, and replaced the Bohemian double-tailed Lion in the centre with the Polish Eagle.
Park

Education

In Gubin, all of the schools to date are run by the local government.

Sights

Gubin is twinned with: