Olkusz description, location, history. Poland map.

Olkusz description, location, history. Poland map.

Olkusz is a poviat town (land county) located in Małopolskie Voivodeship (Province); before the administrative reform in 1999, the town belonged to Katowickie Voivodeship. Olkusz is situated on the Baba River, along the western boundaries of Krakowsko-Częstochowska Upland.

The appearance of the first settlement, which was later transformed into town, is associated with the rich galena ores. Superficial deposit of the ore, numerous outcroppings, metalic look and the easy way of obtaining the material, must have been the reasons of its early discovery.

Before 1299 the city obtained the location privilege according to German law.

From that moment on, the town began to develop dynamically. At the beginning of the 15th century, the town was surrounded with the wall of stone and St. Andrew Apostle Church was extended.

During the reign of Jagiellon dynasty the town flourished. The oldest town stamp comes from 1386; it was attached to the document in which town citizens paid homage to the new king Ladislaus Jagiello .

In the 15th century, when all superficial deposits were exhausted, draining tunnels were constructed. They gave the local miners the access to even more beds of lead ores containing silver.

As a result of the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Olkusz was under the reign of Austria. Soon, however, after the Treaty of Schönbrun in 1809, the town belonged to the Duchy of Warsaw, and from 1815 to the Congress Duchy.

At the beginning of September 1939, the town was occupied by Wermarcht and was annexed into the so-called "das General-Government". The Germans built a Jewish ghetto and changed the name of the town twice: first into Olkusch, and later into Ilkenau.