Szlaki województw śląskiego i opolskiego

Kluczbork is a town in the Kluczbork district, the seat of the Kluczbork urban-rural municipality. Historically, it lies in Upper Silesia, on the border of the Silesian Lowland and the Silesian Highland. The Stobrawa river flows through the town, which has approx. 23.5 thousand residents. The first mention of the town comes from the mid-13th century, when the order of the Crusaders with the Red Star received permission from the Duke of Wrocław, Henry III, to locate a town under German law in a place where a market settlement existed. From the end of the century, Kluczbork belonged to the Duchy of Głogów, and then to the Duchies of Oleśnica and Legnica. In the 15th century, the town was captured by the Hussites, and from 1536 until the extinction of the Brzeg line of the Piast dynasty, Kluczbork remained in the possession of the Dukes of Brzeg, vassals of the Bohemian Crown. In 1675, Kluczbork passed under the direct administration of the Austrian Emperor Leopold I, and after 1740, along with the whole of Silesia, it found itself within the borders of the Prussian state. In the mid-19th century, the town became an important railway junction in the northern part of the Opole regency, to which it was incorporated in 1820. In 1945, the town was taken over by the Red Army, and after the end of World War II, it found itself on the territory of the Polish state. In Kluczbork, the historic buildings of the old town, the Gothic Evangelical-Augsburg church and its observation tower, the remains of the defensive walls, and the Tower of the "Kraków" gate have been preserved.