Niemcza

Niemcza () is a town in Dzierżoniów County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Niemcza.

==History== Niemcza is historically one of the most important towns of Silesia. The oldest traces date back to the Bronze Age. Between 1000 and 800 B.C. people of the Lusatian culture fortified the so-called "city hill" and incorporated this fortification into their Silesian defence system. This fort was probably destroyed during a battle against the Scythian around 500 BC. Members of the Germanic Silingi tribe who did not participate in the Migration Period but stayed in Silesia chose the place in the 4th century as their fortified center of a Germanic settlement area between "mons Silencii" (Ślęża) and the river "Selenca" (Ślęza). Slavs arrived after the 6th century and called this place "Nemci" ( = mute, metaphorically "those who do not speak our language"). Thietmar of Merseburg later described "Nemzi" as "eo quod a nostris olim sitcondita, dicta" (Nemzi is called like that because it is, according to reports, founded by our people). The settlement was expanded and evolved into the center of the Ślężanie district.