of the first public museums in Polish lands. In 1839 the Piast castle has been finally dismantled, and a new Classicist castle erected in its place. In 1836 another fire affected Cieszyn and destroyed part of the central city, including the town hall, which was restored in 1846 and remains in this form since then. In the same year a brewery was built near Castle Hill. During the Spring of Nations of 1848, Cieszyn became an important centre of the Polish national thought. In the same year, the first Polish and the first at all newspaper in the duchy, the Tygodnik Cieszyński appeared. After Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire a modern municipal division was introduced in the re-established Austrian Silesia. The town became a seat of political and legal district. In 1869 the railway line reached Cieszyn and a rail station was constructed at the left bank of the Olza River (current Český Těšín). Construction of the rail station caused a quick development of the left bank of the town, which served as the industrial portion of the town. The industrial development was overshadowed by the more industrial neighbouring town of Bielsko. Teschen however remained an important administrative and cultural centre. At the end of the 19th century the population of the town consisted mostly of Germans and Poles, with Germans being the majority in the town and Poles being the majority in the whole duchy. There were also significant Jewish and Czech minorities and occasionally a visible Hungarian minority. According to the censuses conducted in 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1910 the population of the town grew from 13,004 in 1880 to 22,489 in 1910 with a growing majority being native German-speakers (from 49.5% in 1880 to 61.5% in 1910) accompanied by a Polish-speaking minority (at most 42.7% in 1890, then dropping to 31.7% in 1910), Czech-speaking (at most 13.9% in 1880, later between 4.2% in 1890 and 6.7% in 1910) and at most 69 people speaking another languages in 1900. In terms of religion in 1910 majority were Roman Catholics (67.3%), followed by Protestants (23%), Jews (9.4%) and additional 65 people who were adherents to another faiths. Traditionally the town and especially its surroundings were inhabited by Cieszyn Vlachs speaking Cieszyn Silesian dialect. The growth of German language, then prestigious language of the state, can be partially attributed to various reasons, including cultural cringe of indigenous Slavic