Wleń

Poland, Poland

---

Wleń is a charming small town in southwestern Poland's Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in Lwówek Śląski County along the Bóbr River valley near Rudawy Janowickie Landscape Park, with a population of about 1,800. 

First settled as a fishing village called Brzozowo by 1146 at the foot of an ancient stronghold possibly founded around 1108 by Bolesław III Wrymouth, it received town rights in spring 1214 from Duke Henry I the Bearded and his wife Hedwig, who also funded the Church of St. Nicholas consecrated in 1217. 

Home to one of Poland's oldest castles on Zamkowa Góra—traced to a 10th-century fortified site and rebuilt in stone around 1160 by Bolesław the Tall—it shifted from Piast rule to Bohemian, Habsburg, and Prussian hands before returning to Poland in 1945, preserving a medieval core with rathaus, historic homes, and nearby Leśnia dam.