Zielona Góra is the largest city in Lubusz Voivodeship, located in western Poland, with 140,403 inhabitants (). Zielona Góra has a favourable geographical position, being close to the Polish-German border and on several international road and rail routes connecting Scandinavia with Southern Europe and Warsaw with Berlin. The region is closely associated with vineyards and holds an annual Wine Fest. Zielona Góra is one of the two capital cities of Lubusz Voivodeship, hosting the province's elected assembly, while the seat of the centrally appointed governor is in the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski. History The city's history began when Polish Duke Henry the Bearded brought first settlers to the area in 1222. In 1323 Zielona Góra was granted town privileges. The town was incorporated into the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1506. As part of Bohemia, in 1526 it became part of the Habsburg Empire and experienced a wave of witch trials in the 17th century. As a result of the First Silesian War, the city was annexed by Prussia and was also part of Germany from 1871 until the end of World War II in 1945. In accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, the province was handed over to Poland and resettled with Poles, most of whom came from central Poland, but some also had been expelled from the Eastern Borderlands. The first settlement in the area of Zielona Góra was built in the valley near the Złota Łącza stream during the reign of the Polish ruler Mieszko I. The oldest settlement was agricultural. It later developed into a trading point along routes from Poznań to Żagań and further to Łużyce. The written records of the Slavic settlement date to 1222 and an increase of its population by Henry the Bearded. Other documents date the settlement to 1302. The region received an influx of German burghers in the second half of the 13th century during the medieval Ostsiedlung. In 1323, the settlement became a city with Crossener Recht, a variation of Magdeburg rights. The earliest mention of the town's coat of arms is from 1421, although it is believed to have been arranged since the beginning of the 14th century. A document in the town archive of Thorn (Toruń) dating from before 1400 used a sigil with the name GRVNINBERG, an early form of the German name Grünberg. In 1294, Duke Henryk III of the Duchy of Głogów, founded a church in