Szlaki województw śląskiego i opolskiego

Kietrz is a town in the Głubczyce district and the seat of the Kietrz urban-rural municipality, in the southern part of the Głubczyce Plateau, on the Troja river. It was founded on the site of a Slavic settlement. The location of the town was carried out in 1321 by Bishop Conrad of Olomouc. Since the Middle Ages, Kietrz and its surroundings had constituted the property of the Olomouc bishopric. After the First Silesian War, from 1742, it was within the borders of the Kingdom of Prussia. One of the main occupations of the inhabitants of Kietrz was weaving. There was a branch of Samuel Fränkel's textile plants here, with its headquarters in Prudnik. At the beginning of the 20th century, a mechanical weaving mill with a Jacquard machine and carpet production, among others, were launched in the town. After the outbreak of World War I, Keilholz organized a system of cottage sewing rooms in Kietrz, sewing underwear for the Prussian army. The Weaving School operated in Kietrz until 1935. During World War II, one of the network of German concentration camps intended for Poles in Silesia – Polenlager 92 – operated in the town from 1942. The historic town center was burned by Soviet troops in 1945. After World War II, the ruins were dismantled, and the recovered bricks were transported out of the town. The monuments of the town include, among others, the old town, the Baroque Church of St. Thomas, and the 20th-century Franciscan monastery church.