Cosel

Koźle
Kosel in 1st half of 18th century
Coordinates: 50°20′7″N 18°8′45″E / 50.33528°N 18.14583°E / 50.33528; 18.14583Coordinates: 50°20′7″N 18°8′45″E / 50.33528°N 18.14583°E / 50.33528; 18.14583
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Opole
County	Kędzierzyn-Koźle
Urban Gmina	Kędzierzyn-Koźle
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Koźle (German: Cosel) is a district of Kędzierzyn-Koźle (since 1975), Poland and is at the junction of the Kłodnica and Oder rivers, c. 50 km southeast of Opole. The district has a Roman Catholic church, a medieval chateau, remains of a 19th-century fortress and a high school. Koźle's industries include a shipyard and an inland port.

First mentioned in the 12th century Gesta principum Polonorum, from 1281 to 1355 Koźle was the seat of an independent Piast duchy. In 1532 it was absorbed to Bohemia, it was besieged several times during the Thirty Years War, and it became a Prussian possession by the 1742 Treaty of Breslau. Frederick II converted it into a fortress which held against Austrian sieges in 1758, 1759, 1760 and 1762. In 1807 it almost withstood a siege by the Von Deroy brigade of the Bavarian Army, which was allied with Napoleon. The Poles captured the part of the town east of the Oder during the 1921 Third Silesian Uprising. The Cosel district had a subcamp of Auschwitz III (Monowitz) which operated from April 1, 1944 to January 26, 1945. As part of Silesia, it was among territories obtained by Poland after World War II.