Brzeg ([bʐɛk] ; Latin: Alta Ripa, German: Brieg, Silesian German: Brigg, Silesian: Brzeg, Brzyg, Czech: Břeh) is a town in southwestern Poland with 34,778 inhabitants (December 2021) and the capital of Brzeg County. It is situated in Silesia in the Opole Voivodeship on the left bank of the Oder river.
The town of Brzeg was first mentioned as a trading and fishing settlement within fragmented Piast-ruled Poland in 1234. In 1248, Silesian Duke Henry III the White granted the settlement Magdeburg town rights and by the late 13th century the city became fortified. Sometimes referred to as "the garden town", the town's size greatly expanded after the construction of dwelling houses which were located on the city outskirts. From the early 14th to late 17th centuries, the town was ruled by the Piast dynasty as fiefs of the Bohemian Crown within the Holy Roman Empire. Within Germany, as the result of the Silesian Wars, the town passed to Prussia. In 1945, it was claimed part of Communist Poland.
