History of Klodzko

suffered immense damage and depopulation during the Hussite Wars between 1419 to 1432, yet despite these setbacks, the town was declared an integral outer region of the Kingdom of Bohemia under King George of Poděbrady, who elevated Kłodzko as a county in 1459.

As Bohemia was subsumed under the Austrian Habsburg monarchy in the 16th century, Kłodzko (now under its German name Glatz) expanded greatly as a result of trade and royal investment. Much of its old town was built using Renaissance and later Baroque architecture. During the Thirty Years' War, Kłodzko faced conflict again between the rebellious Bohemian Estates and Austrian-led Imperial troops, who laid siege several times. After the war, the Austrians stripped all municipal and county government functions from Kłodzko.

During the First Silesian War in 1740, the Kingdom of Prussia invaded and successfully annexed the lands around the town, depriving Austria access to the Kłodzko Valley. Twenty years later in 1760 during the Seven Years' War, Austria briefly recaptured Kłodzko after a month-long siege, though the Austrians relinquished control of Kłodzko back to Prussia following the war's conclusion. The town was later captured by French and Bavarian forces during the War of the Fourth Coalition (a part of the Napoleonic Wars) in 1807.

Kłodzko became part of the German Empire in 1871. In the decades that followed, the town and its surrounding region underwent heavy investment due to the blossoming spa, sauna and health industries. Railroads connected the town to the rest of the empire, followed by tourists interested to relax in Kłodzko's sedate charms.

Kłodzko suffered no damage during World War II, yet its fortifications became a center for slave labor and prisoners of war during the Nazi regime. In 1945, the Soviet Red Army occupied Kłodzko, resulting in the expulsion of its German population and its subsequent annexation by Poland