This is the ninth edition of the publication devoted to the history and present day of our city. The 2016 edition has more than 230 pages and covers an exceptionally wide range of topics. The Research into the History of Bolesławiec section contains three articles: “The 40th Infantry Regiment in Bolesławiec” (Part I), “The Old Evangelical Cemetery in Bolesławiec” and “Finds from the Town Hall Tower in Bolesławiec”.
The second section, Articles and Materials on Local Topics, contains two texts devoted to the period of the Napoleonic Wars and the reminiscences of those events in the city’s contemporary cultural landscape: “Bolesławiec in the European Federation of Napoleonic Cities” and “Monuments and Traces of the Napoleonic Campaign in the City and Bolesławiec County”. Two articles are also devoted to Bolesławiec’s first mayor, Bolesław Kubik: “The Death of Bolesław Kubik in the Light of Archival Sources” and “Family Memories of Bolesław Kubik”. A number of texts concern anniversaries important to local communities and celebrated in 2016: “The 70th Anniversary of the ‘Bolesławiec’ Ceramic Works”, “70 Years of the Municipal Public Library in Bolesławiec”, “The Anniversary of the Guild of Various Crafts and Small Businesses in Bolesławiec”, “40 Years of the ‘Ziemia Bolesławiecka’ Song and Dance Ensemble” and “Municipal Sports Club Bolesłavia: An Ever-Young 50-Year-Old”. This section also includes the articles “Jan Stolarczyk – From Mining to Great Poetry”, “The Observance of World Mental Health Day in Bolesławiec 2016” and “Local Periodicals Published in Bolesławiec and the Region in 1945–2000”.
A substantial part of the Bolesławiec Yearbook 2016 is the Announcements section, devoted to important events that took place in the past year. It includes the following texts: “The Academic Conference ‘The People of Bolesławiec Did Not Come from Nowhere. Around the Settlement Landscape of Lower Silesia’”, “Honorary Citizen of the City of Bolesławiec – Krystyna Gay-Kutschenreiter”, “Honorary Citizen of the City of Bolesławiec – Rev. Józef Gołębiowski”, “The Association of Ceramic Municipalities of the Republic of Poland”, “The Conference of the Association of European Border Regions in Bolesławiec”, “The Memorial Plaque for the Victims of the Smolensk Air Disaster in Bolesławiec”, “How the Bolesławiec–Zbarazh Town Partnership Came About”, “An Indian Fascination of a Woman from Bolesławiec”, “Olga Tokarczuk in Bolesławiec”, “On Searching for the Truth, the Czechs and Reportage – An Interview with Mariusz Szczygieł”, “The Bolesławiec Film School” and “The Brzozowski Confectionery in Bolesławiec”. The section concludes with “Announcement on the Meeting of the Chapter of the 10th Edition of the Bolesławiec Mayor’s Award Competition”.
The Contemporary Work of Bolesławiec Residents section contains a text devoted to the activities of amateur artists from Bolesławiec in 1970–2016. Tomasz Niewodniczański shared his memories of ceramic designer Izabela Zdrzałkówna (1921–2010), published in the Memories of Bolesławiec Residents section. The Interests of Bolesławiec Residents section, in turn, presents the interests of Anna Kowalska, Zbigniew Kaźmierski and Zbigniew Junkiewicz.
The In Memoriam section begins with a profile of Leon Piątkowski. It also presents biographies of people important to our city who died in the past year: Anna Baniecka, Zdzisław Czyżowicz, Wiesław Słobodzian and Piotr Żądło. The penultimate section is the Bolesławiec Chronicle, an extensive chronological overview of past events covering the 2016 calendar year.
The Bolesławiec Yearbook concludes with Reviews and Discussions of publications written by Bolesławiec residents or issued by local institutions, including academic and popular-science publications: “From Bosnia to Poland”, “Before the Great Copper”, “The People of Bolesławiec Did Not Come from Nowhere. Around the Settlement Landscape of Lower Silesia”, “Wresting Land from the Wilderness… Memories of Bolesławiec Re-emigrants from Yugoslavia”; exhibition catalogues: “From Bolesławiec Clay. Exhibition of the Association of Ceramic Municipalities of the Republic of Poland”, “In Awe of the World. The Work of Mieczysław Kozłowski” and “Where Did We Come From? Bolesławiec Settlers after the Second World War”; commemorative publications: “70 Years of the Guild of Various Crafts and Small Businesses in Bolesławiec 1946–2016” and “We Know How to Make Use of Dreams. 20 Years of the Bolesławiec Amazons’ Club”; novels: “The Devil’s Circle” and “Masks of Evil”; and children’s books: “The Adventures of Kichuś the Gnome” and “A Little Chest of Fairy Tales”.
The “Bolesławiec Yearbook” has been published since 2008 under the editorship of Edmund Maliński, Anna Bober-Tubaj and Grzegorz Matoryn. The publication reviewer is Prof. Grzegorz Strauchold. The following people contributed to this year’s edition as authors of texts, reviews and studies: Adam Baniecki, Barbara Bednarowicz, Anna Bober-Tubaj, Agata Bojanowska, Ewa Browarczyk, Zygmunt Brusiło, Monika Czarnota, Maria Czyżowicz, Agnieszka Gergont, Barbara Glinkowska, Krzysztof Hewak, Grzegorz Hryciuk, Eugeniusz Jabłoński, Iwona Jaślan, Lesław Kasprzycki, Zbigniew Kaźmierski, Franciszek Kozdra, Halina Majewska, Edmund Maliński, Danuta Maślicka, Tomasz Niewodniczański, Joanna Nowosielska-Sobel, Mariusz Olczak, Andrzej Olejniczak, Ewa Ołenicz-Bernacka, Tadeusz Orawiec, Józef Pokładek, Anna Puk, Krzysztof Rajczakowski, Alina Rataj, Dariusz Rataj, Stanisław Ratajski, Barbara Smoleńska, Maria Sobolska, Grzegorz Strauchold, Michał Szwed, Magdalena Zientara, Kamila Ziółkowska and Jan Żuralski. The graphic design was created by Grzegorz Matoryn.