Brzeg is a historic city that in the past was the capital of an independent principality ruled by one of the Piast lines. The Renaissance castle known as the Silesian Wawel dates back to its heyday.
The city was founded in the 13th century on the site of earlier settlements. In 1311, it became the capital of an independent principality separated from the property of the Legnica Piasts. It was the Piast state that operated for the longest time in Silesia. The last ruler, George IV William, died childless in 1675.
Brzeg flourished in the 16th century. A printing house, school, trade and crafts developed here. This translated into the development of the city. Then the castle of the Silesian Piasts was rebuilt according to renaissance patterns. Its arcaded courtyard is compared to Wawel. Today the castle houses the Museum of the Silesian Piasts.
Earlier, because it is gothic, the church of St. Jadwiga, which is part of the former castle chapel. There is a crypt in which the Silesian Piasts and their family tree were buried. The baroque church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross from the mid-18th century, which was built as a temple for the Jesuit monastery, is characterized by a much richer interior.
