Kłodzko ([ˈkwɔt͡skɔ] ⓘ; Czech: Kladsko; German: Glatz; Latin: Glacio) is a historic town in south-western Poland, in the region of Lower Silesia.

With 25,717 inhabitants at the 2021 Census, Kłodzko is the main commercial centre as well as an important transport and tourist node for the area.

There are several archaeological sites both in and around the town that indicate that there must have been a settlement located on the ancient Amber Road that conducted extensive trade relations with the Roman Empire.

The town gained significant profits from its location on the ancient road from Bohemia to Poland through mountain passes in the Sudetes.

The Augustinian abbey became one of the most important centres of culture in the region – for example, in 1399 one of the earliest texts in the Polish language, the St. Florian's Psalter (Psałterz Floriański), was written here.

The wars left the town depopulated by plagues, partially burnt, and demolished by several consecutive floods.

In 1459 whole Kłodzko Land was elevated by Bohemian king George of Poděbrady to the status of county – thus the city became a seat of Count (for most of time ruler of Bohemia itself) and local Diet – but still remained integral part of Bohemia as "outer region" (Czech: vnější kraj), and was not counted as part of Silesia.

The Kingdom of Prussia annexed Glatz during the 18th century Silesian Wars, although Austrian influence is still evident in the architecture and culture of the region.

In 1884–1885 a new synagogue was built on the Grünestraße [Green Street], designed by the Breslau architect Albert Grau [de].

The area of the former county became a popular place among the rich bourgeoisie of Breslau (Wrocław), Berlin, Vienna, and Kraków.

In 1910 the city had 17,121 inhabitants: 13,629 Roman Catholics, 3,324 Protestants (mostly members of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces), and 150 Jews.

The Kłodzko Valley region on the Eastern Neisse River was the focus of several attempts to reincorporate the area into Czechoslovakia after the First World War even though it had a German majority.

During World War II, the fortress was changed into a prison administered by the Reich Ministry of Justice and Wehrmacht.

In 1941–1942, many prisoners were sent to forced labour in various locations in German-occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria, and in 1942–1943, six FStGA field penal battalions (1, 7, 10, 13, 16, 20) were established in the town and afterwards relocated to the Eastern Front.

[17] In November 1942 and January 1943, the town was the site of a German trial of 39 members of the Związek Orła Białego Polish resistance organization, 18 of which were sentenced to death.

[20] Beginning in 1944, the casemates housed the AEG arms factory evacuated from Łódź, in which some 1,500 Poles were subjected to slave labour.

Evictions of the surrounding villages began in winter 1945/46, while Germans of Glatz were deported in February 1946, in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement.

[citation needed] On 20 August 1946, the town was struck by a large tornado, rated by the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) to have been F2–F4 intensity on the Fujita scale.

It turned out that throughout the city's history, generations of Kłodzko's merchants had developed an extensive net of underground basements and tunnels.

With time the tunnels were forgotten, especially after the original German population was deported, and during the years after World War II many of them started to collapse, along with the houses above.

Located in western Poland where there is the clash of marine air masses and the interior of Siberia, they collide and generate a highly variable climate, although the patterns of the west are predominant.