page_title: Żary
section_title: Historical sites
hierarchical_section_title: Żary / Historical sites
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Kościół pw. Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa w Żarach Deutsch: Stadtpfarrkirche in Sorau (Żary), ehem. evang. Kirche St. Marien, jetzt kathol. Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Kościół pw. Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa)
context_page_description: Żary is a town in western Poland with 37,502 inhabitants, situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship since 1999. Previously it was located within Zielona Góra Voivodeship. It is the administrative seat of the Gmina Żary, though the town is not part of the gmina commune.
  Żary is located in the east of the historic Lower Lusatia region, in the borderland with the Silesian lowlands and Greater Poland, roughly outlined by the Bóbr and Oder rivers. The city is one of the biggest economic and tourist centers in the southern Lubuskie region and the largest town in the Polish part of Lusatia, therefore also referred as its unofficial capital. The city, whose history dates back more than 1000 years, features many historic sites.
context_section_description: Despite significant war damage, many interesting architectural historic sites have been preserved in Żary, including its medieval municipal urban arrangement.
  In the northwest part of the city there is the Dewins-Packs-Bibersteins' Castle, a huge, 13th century structure, reconstructed later in the Renaissance style. It neighbors on the Baroque Promnitzs' Palace, which was designed by Swiss architect Giovanni Simonetti. Both residences, purchased by a private investor, continue to wait for renovation. They are surrounded by the remains of an old geometrical park, with a garden palace and the Blue Gate dating from 1708.
  The Gothic Sacred Heart Church towers above the Old Town.  The church, which obtained its principal shape in the 15th century, remembers the times when the city was chartered; fragments of the wall in the northern wing date from the 13th century. The Baroque Promnitz Chapel near the eastern wall was added in 1670–1672. In the vicinity of the church we can find a Gothic rectory and a Gothic-Renaissance building of the old commissariat.  Today it houses the city archive.
  The garrison Church under the invocation of the Elevation of the Holy Cross build in the turn of 14th/15th centuries; originally the church of Grey Friars
  Church under the invocation of St. Peter and Paul (13th century) located in the former cemetery
  One of the main treasures of the Market Square is the newly renovated Town Hall dating from the turn of the 14th century, featuring a beautiful Renaissance portal. There are also tenement houses that surround the Market Square and some at Bolesława Chrobrego Street, which is a major commercial thoroughfare of the city.  The oldest buildings date from the 17th century.
  The remains of the medieval fortifications of the city are fragments of walls, two defense towers (the taller one of 14th/15th centuries, with ashlars made from meadow ore, has become a “landmark” of Żary), and a stone belfry from the turn of the 14th century.
  The Blue Gate build in 1708
  One of the tourist and natural attractions of the area is the “Green Forest” located near the southern border of the city, featuring the highest altitude in the Lubuski Region (227 m above sea level).
caption: Roman Catholic Church under the invocation of the Holiest Heart of Jesus (Protestant-Lutheran from 1524-1945)
exif: {"Image Make": "BenQ", "Image Model": "C640", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 CE", "Image DateTime": "2008:06:29 11:21:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Copyright 2007", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "782", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4523", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/261", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:06:26 13:50:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:06:26 13:50:12", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "67913/30000", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "2007/250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "497/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "MultiSpot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}