Gubin

Gubin is a town situated in the Polish section of the region of Lower Lusatia, on the border with Germany, on the right bank of the Lusatian Neisse River, and by the Lubsza River. It was granted its borough rights on 1^st June 1235. In 1311, it was granted the right to mint its own coins, and later encircled by defensive walls. In the 14^th Century, it was incorporated into the territory of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Then, in the years 1469-1490, it came under the rule of Hungary. In 1635, Gubin became part of Saxony. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the town was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. Gubin constituted part of the German town of Guben, until 1945. As a result of the Yalta Conference and the changes in the layout of borderlines in Europe, it was decided that the western boundary of Poland would run along the Lusatian Neisse River, which meant that Guben was split in two parts – its right-bank portion was then incorporated into the territory of Poland and changed its name to one it has today. The local German populace was deported and replaced by settlers coming from the so-called Eastern Borderlands.

With nearly 90% of the town buildings destroyed during the Second World War, Gubin was deprived of its historic monuments, to a large extent. Among those preserved, we can find fragments of the defensive walls dating back to the 14^th and 15^th Centuries, ruins of a parish church erected at the end of the 15^th Century and the beginning of the 16^th Century, which used to be one of the most significant Gothic monuments in the western part of Poland. In the western portion of the market square, we can find a Renaissance City Hall, which was rebuilt from scratch in the 1970s and 1980s.

Gubin was a location, where Robert Gliński shot the film ‘Świnki / Piggies’, in 2009. The film depicts the everyday reality of young people living in the borderland between Poland and Germany, during the period of political transformation. The border crossing in Gubin is also shown in episode 12 titled ‘Obywatel Monte Christo’ (Citizen Monte Christo) of the television series ‘Zmiennicy / Subs’ directed by Stanisław Bareja.