Żagań

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"Sagan" redirects here. For other uses, see Sagan (disambiguation).

Żagań (French and German Sagan) is a town in western Poland, with 26,665 inhabitants (2004). Historically the seat of the Silesian Dukes of Sagan, the town is the capital of Żagań County.

Situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Zielona Gora Voivodeship (1975-1998), it is the site of the castle of Sagan at the center of a fief that belonged to Wallenstein, the soldier-politician of the Thirty Years' War then passed to the illustrious Bohemian family of Lobkowitz.

In 1786 the fief of Sagan was purchased by Peter Biron, duke of Courland, and eventually (1843) passed to his daughter Dorothea, the wife of Edmond de Talleyrand, a nephew of the great French diplomat Talleyrand, who came to pass her retirement years at Żagań. A patent of the king of Prussia, January 6, 1845 invested her as duchess of Sagan and Napoleon III recognized the title in France, in favor of her son Louis.

Thus in France there is a prince and a duc de Sagan. The double title, both Prussian and French, served to render the duc de Sagan a neutral party in the World War II: his Château de Valençay provided a safe haven for treasures of the Louvre during the German occupation of France. During the World War II, Żagań was the location of the infamous Stalag Luft III.