Antique map - Brzeg 1931

Pharus-Plan of Brieg (now Brzeg, Poland) in 1931: the residence of the Piast Dukes of Silesia, its Renaissance castle, which had become a museum a year earlier, and the Oder.

This Pharus-Plan shows Brieg in 1931. At the time, the city was in the Prussian province of Lower Silesia (Niederschlesien), in the Weimar Republic, on the Oder, about forty kilometres from Breslau. Today it is called Brzeg (Břeg in Silesian) and is part of the Opole Voivodeship in Poland.

The city was founded before 1250 under German law. In 1311, when the Duchy of Breslau was divided among three sons, the eldest, Bolesław III, made Brieg the capital of his duchy. The Piast Dukes of Silesia ruled there until 1675, when the duchy passed to the Bohemian crown, and thus to the Habsburgs. In 1741, during the First Silesian War, the Battle of Mollwitz, won by Count Schwerin's Prussians, took place at its gates. Brieg was captured by Prussia and severely damaged, then converted into a fortress. The city then lost its status as a residence and became, according to local history, a town of barracks, warehouses, and spinning mills.

Places and districts shown:

• The Piast Castle (Piastenschloss) - Duke George II of Brieg had it rebuilt in the Renaissance style by the Italian master builders Jakob Pahr and Bernhard Niuron: it is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1741, a fire destroyed two-thirds of the castle, and it was subsequently used as a barracks. In 1922, the castle's military camp was disbanded, the city of Brieg took it back, and opened a museum in the south wing in 1930, a year before this map. It now houses the Museum of the Piast Dukes of Silesia.
• The Illustre Gymnasium - this Protestant school, built from 1564 to 1569 by Jakob Pahr, had the status of a higher education institution and made Brieg one of the most popular study destinations in the southeastern German-speaking area. Destroyed in 1741, it became a mere high school again, then was destroyed again in 1945 and rebuilt between 1963 and 1967.
• The Town Hall and the Ring - after the fire of 1569, Duke George II had the town hall rebuilt in the heart of the old town, around the main square (Ring).
• The Railway Station (Bahnhof) - shown in red south of the city, it is the station of the Upper Silesian line, which reached Brieg as early as 1842 from Breslau and continued towards Oppeln and Neisse, according to the map's indications.
• The Barracks and Factories - the map names the barracks (Kasernen), but also a brewery (Brieger Aktien-Brauerei), a sugar refinery, several factories, and a normal school for teachers (Lehrerseminar), signs of a small administrative and industrial town.
• The Promenade and the Stadtwäldchen - the city is surrounded by greenery: the Promenade, a belt of gardens west and south of the old town, and the Stadtwäldchen, a small municipal woodland with a pond, to the southwest.
• The Oder - the river crosses the top of the map with its islands and an Oder canal, and the map also names a "New Lower Brieg Canal" (Neuer Brieger Unterkanal).

Cartographic details: this "Pharus-Plan Brieg" was published by Hugo Süssmann in Brieg, and printed in Berlin by Pharus-Verlag, which here produces the plan of a small provincial town. The legend only includes the railways and the theatre, and states that the work is protected by law ("Muster geschützt", "Nachahmung wird gerichtlich verfolgt"). A German compass rose (N. O. S. W.) is drawn at the top right. On the left, an alphabetical street directory refers to a grid of letters and numbers.

In short: for anyone with ties to Brzeg or Silesia, or who is interested in the Piasts or small German towns before 1945, this map shows the former ducal capital as it was before the war that destroyed about half of it.

What area does this map of Brieg cover? It covers Brieg (Brzeg) and its surroundings: the old town with the castle, the Promenade, the railway station, the industrial districts, the Oder and its canals, as well as neighbouring villages such as Briegischdorf and Gross Neudorf.

In what year was this map published? This map dates from 1931. It was published by Hugo Süssmann in Brieg and printed by Pharus-Verlag in Berlin.

Reproduction of the "Pharus-Plan Brieg", published in 1931 by Hugo Süssmann in Brieg and printed by Pharus-Verlag in Berlin.

Printed on 200 g/m² textured art paper. Landscape orientation, standard formats 50x70cm and 70x100cm: easy to frame.