Kostrza, Lower Silesian Voivodeship
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Kostrza | |
|---|---|
Village | |
_(0013).jpg) | |
  Kostrza | |
| Coordinates: 50°59′06″N 16°15′59″E / 50.98500°N 16.26639°E | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship | Lower Silesian |
| County | Świdnica |
| Gmina | Strzegom |
| First mentioned | 1290 |
| Population | |
• Total | 785 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Vehicle registration | DSW |
Kostrza [ˈkɔstʂa] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Strzegom, within Świdnica County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.[1]
The village was founded by Slavic Lechitic tribes in the Early Middle Ages, and there is an archaeological site from that period in Kostrza.[2] The territory became part of the emerging Polish state in the 10th century. The oldest known written mention of the village comes from a medieval document of Duke Bolko I the Strict from 1290, when it passed from the Duchy of Wrocław to the Duchy of Świdnica and Jawor within fragmented Piast-ruled Poland. It developed as a linear settlement. It is possible that Duke Bernard of Świdnica granted the village to the knight Tyczko in 1318.[3] A church in the village was mentioned in the 1370s.[3] The church contains Renaissance and Baroque furnishings. There was a medieval tower castle, which was rebuilt into a Renaissance water castle in the 16th century, later rebuilt in Baroque style.
During World War II, in 1940, a forced labour subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was established by Nazi Germany at a granite quarry north of the village, which in the following year was converted into the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.[4] Its prisoners were mostly Jews, Poles and Soviet citizens.[4] It is now a museum. There was also a forced labour subcamp of the Stalag VIII-A prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs in Kostrza.[5]
