Iłowa

Iłowa is a town in Żagań County, in Lubusz Voivodeship, Poland, the administrative seat of the Gmina Iłowa.GeographyIt lies in the easternmost part of the historic Upper Lusatia region, at the border with Lower Silesia. The settlement is located on the Czerna Mała river, a tributary to the Bóbr, in the Silesian-Lusatian Lowlands. It is situated on the rim of the Lower Silesian Wilderness and just south of the future A18 autostrada.HistoryThe settlement arose in the 10th century, at the crossroad of the trade routes from Görlitz to Żagań and from Guben to Legnica. The medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg (975–1018) mentioned a castle of Ilva, where in 1000 AD the Polish duke Bolesław I Chrobry met with Emperor Otto III on his journey from the canonization of Bishop Adalbert of Prague to the Congress of Gniezno. From the 12th century onwards, the border fortress was controlled by the Piast dukes of Silesia.