Biała, informally Biała Prudnicka [ˈbʲawa prudˈɲit͡ska] (German: Zülz, Zültz, as well as older Zel(c)z, Zeltz, Silesian: Biołŏ, Biołŏ Prudnickŏ), is a small town in southern Poland, located in the southern part of Opole Voivodeship in Prudnik County near the border with the Czech Republic.

The city is situated on the Biała Uplands (Polish: Wysoczyzna Bialska; a part of the Silesian Lowlands).

[6] The region became part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler Mieszko I of Poland in 990.

[8] Biała was located on a trade route connecting Kraków and Nysa,[8] and various crafts developed.

[7] As a result of the fragmentation of Poland, it was part of the duchies of Silesia, Opole, Niemodlin and Oleśnica,[7] and remained ruled by local Polish dukes of the Piast dynasty until 1532, although in 1327 it fell under the suzerainty of Bohemia.

Around the foot of the castle, a village, settled by new colonists, including Germans, the seat of its local parish, served as a setting-off point for further settlement in the region, which was densely forested and bordered Moravia.

In 1270 Biała, was a county seat, and it was granted town rights in 1311,[7] later modeled on Środa Śląska and Wrocław.

[8] Around the year 1270, a new settlement, named Zolez and later Zülz, was founded between castle and the small surrounding village.

This was significant, as under the rule of the barons, Zülz was only one of two Silesian cities, the other being Głogów, which did not expel their Jewish populations.

Under a 1601 petition of the barons, Bohemian King Rudolf II extended special protective privileges to the Jewish population of Zülz.

The main effect of this came several decades later, in the form of an emancipation decree issued by Frederick William III.

In 1756, the castle became the property of count Rudolf Matuszka from Bohemia and his descendants, until the breakup of the local administrative units to which Zülz belonged, in 1841.

[10] After World War II, the town passed again to Poland in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement, and its original name Biała was restored.