Wołów [ˈvɔwuf] (German: Wohlau, Czech: Volov) is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland.

[8] Wołów received Magdeburg town rights about 1285 at the time of German Ostsiedlung in the region; a Vogt is mentioned in 1288.

Wołów was ruled by local Polish dukes until 1492, and soon after, in 1495, it came into the possession of the Czech Podiebrad family, then in 1517 it came into the hands the Hungarian magnate Johann Thurzó, before returning to Piast rule in 1523, by passing to the Duchy of Legnica.

As a result of the Thirty Years' War, the town's population fell by half.

After the extinction of the local Piasts the duchy passed to the House of Habsburg, which opposed the Protestant denomination in the town, as part of the Counter-Reformation.

[12] In 1943–1945, the Germans carried out mass executions of Allied prisoners of war in the forest in the present-day district of Gancarz.

[9] In January 1945 – just before town was taken by the Red Army – the Wehrmacht evacuated the German population westwards.

[citation needed] After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, the town became again part of Poland.