RACIBRZ

German Ratibor, town, southwestern Katowice wojewdztwo (province), south-central Poland, on the upper Oder River. According to tradition, Racibrz was founded by a Slavic tribal ruler, Prince Racibor, in the 9th century and was united with Poland in the 10th. It was granted municipal rights in the 13th century and became the seat of a trade fair and handicrafts industry. It passed to the Habsburgs in the 16th century and to Prussia in 1742 but was returned to Poland after World War II, in which it was badly damaged. A regional museum is located there. An industrial town and rail junction, Racibrz has electrotechnical, chemical, woodworking, and food-processing industries that have been developed largely since 1945. Pop. (1994 est.) 64,900.