There are also historic buildings with outstanding and regionally significant artistic values.

History

The town, initially private, was chartered under German law prior to 1253. Founded upon the initiative of Castellan of Kłodzko Gallus (Havel) of Lemeberk. After 1319 it was raised to the rank of a royal city in Bohemia. In 1336 the local parish church was mentioned. From 2nd half of the In the 14th century Bystrzyca Kłodzka was the county with a seat of court. In the 15th century, the Hussite Wars caused unrest in the area. In the Middle Ages the town was mainly a craft centre with a developed cloth production and a not very numerous merchant population. Middle-Income Bourgeoisie. Agriculture and pond farming flourished in the suburbs. Since 1522 the Reformation started in Bystrzyca Kłodzka. In 2nd half of 16th century the town recorded an economic development, which was fuelled, among others, by the manufacturing of cloth and flax products. During the Thirty Years’ War the town was destroyed, among others by fires. It was restored until early 18th century. Since the 1740s, the Silesian Wars were held within town limits and consequently the entire Kłodzko County with Bystrzyca were annexed, along with Silesia, to Prussia. Under the Prussian rule, in 2nd half of 18th century, the local textile industry developed intensively. The bourgeoisie was still middle-income and large trade was in regression. Since the 1860s the local industry started to develop. In 1875 a railroad line was built from Wroclaw to Miedzylesie and connected with the railroad network in Czechia. In 1945-1973 Bystrzyca Kłodzka was a district town, nowadays it is an administrative centre of a large commune. 

Description

Bystrzyca Kłodzka is located in the southern part of Kłodzko region alongside the old trade routes, including the main route leading from Silesia to Czechia. It was founded in the Upper Neisse Trench, in a defensible place, embraced by the forks of the Neisse river and its left tributary, the Bystrzyca river. The downtown has an oval outline and a checkerboard-cross urban layout formed around the middle of 13th century. There are two adjacent markets within this layout. The proper one (at present it is called Freedom Square (Pl. Wolności)) with the Town Hall and with the exits of Sienna, S. Okrzei, Rycerska, Kupiecka, Siemiradzkiego, Podmiejska and Kościelna Streets. The Smaller Market Square (Mniejszy Rynek), former cattle market, now Small Market, with the Evangelist Church complex. In the north-western part of the town, at the culmination point there is a parish church built in mid 13th century and in the south-western part of Bystrzyca Kłodzka, at the steepest and most defensible place, the alderman’s brick tower erected in 1319. It was incorporated into the city fortification system formed by the city walls, currently with the Water Gate, the Kłodzko Gate Tower and the Knights Tower. Suburbs were located in front of the gates and along the routes, and developed more intensively from 16th century onwards. On their outskirts, there were arable lands with manor farms, grinding mills, fulling mills, lime kilns, malt houses, and a hospital. The medieval buildings of Bystrzyca Kłodzka were wooden, only the alderman’s tower was made of brick, now partly preserved in the building at 1 Podmiejska Street. From 1561 the guild of masons and stonemasons was operational in Bystrzyca, and a mention of a brickyard dates back to 1581. In 2nd half of 16th century and in early 17th century, private brick construction became widespread in town. The market square and some streets were then surrounded by Renaissance burgher houses. In 1737 a statue of the Holy Trinity was erected in the market square. In 2nd half of 19th century and in 1st half of 20th century the suburbs were being developed, with public buildings, schools, a train station, and industrial facilities being erected. The historical, residential buildings of the part of the city within the city walls, largely of Renaissance origin, has survived to date. The most valuable building is a very impressive, late Renaissance burgher house at Market Square 17 (ca. 1620) with three bays, a spacious, vaulted hallway, rich façade decorations, vaults and portals. In case of other renaissance tenement houses the preserved hallways are covered with barrel vaults with lunettes decorated with wire decorations imitating rib vault ceiling (Market Square Nos. 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 21, S. Okrzei Street 4). Few houses have preserved Renaissance portals (7, 11, 3 Market Square, 3 Kościelna Street). The Renaissance burgher houses were rebuilt in the 2nd half of 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and in early 20th century, also due to numerous fires plaguing the city in 1646, 1703, 1800 and 1823. 

The site is accessible all year round.

Complied by Iwona Rybka-Ceglecka, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Wrocław, 15 December 2015.

Bibliography

• Bartnik K., Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Wrocław 1992.
• Doering F., Das Habelschwerdter “Alte Stadtbuch”, Vierteljahrschrift für Geschichte u. Heimatkunde der Grafschaft Glatz, I. 1882.
• Dziewulski W., Bystrzyca i jej rozwój przestrzenny do 2 wojny światowej, “Rocznik Ziemi Kłodzkiej” 1959/1960 (Bystrzyca and its spatial development until WWII, “Yearbook of the Kłodzko Region” 1959/60), vol. 4/5.
• Rudysz-Tuczyńska K., Układ przestrzenny i architektura średniowiecznej Bystrzycy, “Rocznik Ziemi Kłodzkiej” 1964 (Spatial layout and architecture of medieval Bystrzyca, “Yearbook of the Kłodzka Region” 1964), vol. 6.
• Scheuer W., Habelschwerdter Geschichtskalender, Habelschwerdt 1931.
• Tham J., Geschichte der Stadt Habelschwerdt, in: Deutsche Städtebuch I, Berlin/Stuttgart 1939.
• Volkmer F., Geschichte der Stadt Habelschwerdt in der Grafschaft Glatz, Habelschwerdt 1897.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk (Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia), Wrocław 2006.