Tarnowskie Gory Poland description, location, history. Poland map.

Tarnowskie Gory Poland description, location, history. Poland map.

Tarnowskie Góry is a town located in Śląskie Voivodeship (Province), on the northern edge of the Upper Silesian Industrial Area.

The name of the town comes from the name of the village Tarnowice (today's district of the town - Stare Tarnowice) and the word "gory" which in in Old Polish language meant "mines". Tarnowskie Góry is reach in natural resources, such as lead, silver, zink and iron ores.

According to the legend, the first metallic silver ore was ploughed by the peasant called Rybka around 1490. From that moment on the new settlers started to colonize the area and the first mining settlements were established.

The then owners of those lands, Jan II, the prince of Opole and Racibórz, and the margrave Jerzy Hohenzollern, decided in 1526 to support the growing city by granting it a "Miners Freedom Decree" privilege. Soon, Gwarki castle received municipal rights.

In the middle of the 16th century, Tarnowskie Góry was the most modern centre of metallic mining in the Upper Silesia region. Many of the town's citizens were eager followers of the Reformation movement; the further consolidation of the movement took place after the death of Jan II the Good (1532), when the town was passed under the rule of the Hohenzollerns. The Protestants built the first wooden church in 1529, which two years later was replaced by a new stone one.

A new government mine and smelting works "Fryderyk", named after King Fryderyk Wilhelm von Reden, were established in the 1780s. It was here that in 1788 the first steam engine was installed (first in the continent) to pump water out of the mining excavations.

As a result of its development, in 1873 Tarnowskie Góry became the seat of the Poviat Starosty (local government). As the years passed by, the mineral resources were exhausted and at the beginning of the 20th century their excavation was finished.