| Kożuchów | |
| Pushpin Map: | Poland |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Voivodeship |
| Subdivision Name1: | Lubusz |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Nowa Sól |
| Subdivision Type3: | Gmina |
| Subdivision Name3: | Kożuchów |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Paweł Jagasek |
| Area Total Km2: | 5.95 |
| Population As Of: | 2019-06-30[1] |
| Population Total: | 9432 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Coordinates: | 51.75°N 51°W |
| Timezone: | CET |
| Utc Offset: | +1 |
| Timezone Dst: | CEST |
| Utc Offset Dst: | +2 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 67-120 |
| Area Code: | +48 68 |
| Registration Plate: | FNW |
| Website: | http://www.kozuchow.pl |
Kożuchów (; German: Freystadt in Schlesien) is a town in Lubusz Voivodeship, Poland.
The town was founded in the 12th century, when it was part of the Kingdom of Poland. It was granted town rights in 1273 in the process of Ostsiedlung. As a result of the fragmentation of Poland, it became part of the Duchy of Głogów, ruled by the Piasts and Jagiellons until its dissolution in 1506.
While it was still a part of Austrian Silesia, the town became highly significant to German literature during the Baroque era. During the Thirty Years War in 1632, war poet Andreas Gryphius witnessed the pillaging and burning of Freystadt by the Protestant army of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Gryphius immortalized the sack of the city in a detailed account entitled Fewrige Freystadt, which made him many enemies.
In the Silesian Wars of the 18th century the town was annexed by Frederick the Great to the Kingdom of Prussia and, from 1871, was part of the German Empire. Three annual fairs were held in the town in the late 19th century.[2] After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the town became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. It was renamed to its historic[2] Polish name Kożuchów. The town's Silesian German-speaking population was expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement and replaced by an ethnic Polish population similarly expelled from former eastern Poland annexed by the USSR.
At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries Kożuchow was surrounded by fieldstone walls. The walls were up to 8 metres high and up to 2 metres thick. The fortifications of Kożuchow are among the best preserved in Poland. The walls and moat have survived for almost the entire medieval length.[3]
See twin towns of Gmina Kożuchów.