Wschowa

Wschowa
View from Protestant church to town hall
Flag Coat of arms
Wschowa
Coordinates: 51°48′N 16°18′E / 51.800°N 16.300°E / 51.800; 16.300
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Lubusz
County	Wschowa County
Gmina	Gmina Wschowa
Government
• Mayor	Danuta Patalas
Area
• Total	8.38 km2 (3.24 sq mi)
Population (2006)
• Total	14,573
• Density	1,700/km2 (4,500/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	67-400
Car plates	FWS
Climate	Dfb
Website	http://www.wschowa.pl

Wschowa [ˈfsxɔva] (German: Fraustadt) is a town in the Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland with 14,607 inhabitants (2004). It is the capital of Wschowa County.

Wschowa was originally a border fortress in a region disputed by the Polish dukes of Silesia and Greater Poland. After German colonists had established a settlement nearby, it received Magdeburg rights around 1250. The Old Polish name Veschow was first mentioned in 1248, while the Middle High German name Frowenstat Civitas first appeared in 1290. After the Silesian Piast dukes had gradually accepted Bohemian suzerainty, King Casimir III the Great in 1343 finally conquered it for Poland. The ziemia Wschowa then was incorporated into the Greater Polish Poznań Voivodeship of the Polish Crown.

Wschowa and its Latin school was one of the centres of the Protestant Reformation in Poland and a retreat for religious refugees in the days of the Counter-Reformation in adjacent Habsburg Silesia.