Niemcza () is a town in Dzierżoniów County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Niemcza. The town lies on the Ślęza River, approximately east of Dzierżoniów, and south of the regional capital Wrocław. From 1975 to 1998 Niemcza was in Wałbrzych Voivodeship. History Niemcza is historically one of the most important towns of Silesia. The oldest traces date back to the Bronze Age. Between 1000 and 800 B.C. people of the Lusatian culture fortified the so-called "city hill" and incorporated this fortification into their Silesian defence system. This fort was probably destroyed during a battle against the Scythian around 500 BC. Members of the Germanic Silingi tribe who did not participate in the Migration Period but stayed in Silesia chose the place in the 4th century as their fortified center of a Germanic settlement area between "mons Silencii" (Ślęża) and the river "Selenca" (Ślęza). Slavs arrived after the 6th century and called this place "Nemci" ( = mute, metaphorically "those who do not speak our language"). Thietmar of Merseburg later described "Nemzi" as "eo quod a nostris olim sitcondita, dicta" (Nemzi is called like that because it is, according to reports, founded by our people). The settlement was expanded and evolved into the center of the Ślężanie district. In early times Niemcza became an important base in Bohemias fight for Silesia. After 990 it was seized by Poland under first historic ruler Mieszko I of Poland and withstood both emperor Henry II. in 1017 (Siege of Niemcza) and a major offensive of Bohemia in 1093. In 1137, the Polish and Czech rulers, Bolesław III Wrymouth and Soběslav I, met in Niemcza. In 1152 the overthrown Polish ruler Władysław II the Exile stayed in Niemcza. After 1155 it became the center of a Piast castellany district. This preurban civitas consisted of a settlement enclosed by imposing ramparts in great-moravian design (the only one in Silesia), the castellany castle with St. Peter chapel, first mentioned in 1288/95, and a market place around St. Adalbert church, one of the oldest churches of Silesia, outside and to the west of the ramparts. The area was surrounded by several manors. The German Ostsiedlung reached Niemcza and the surrounding area already in 1210. The settlement however grew only slow as the new German town was founded directly on the soil of the cramped old Polish