The town was founded in 1644 by a Polish Protestant activist and
Sejm deputy Jan Jerzy Szlichtyng () and was named after him
Szlichtyngowa/Schlichtingsheim. From 1634 he bought lands in the vicinity of the village of
Górczyna in
Greater Poland near the border with
Silesia, with the intention of establishing a town for religious refugees from Silesia during the
Thirty Years' War. It obtained
town rights from the Polish King
Władysław IV Vasa, by virtue of a
privilege issued in
Kraków in July 1644. With the dissolution of the Province of Posen, it became part of the Prussian
Province of Posen-West Prussia, within which it remained until 1938, when it became part of the
Province of Silesia and in 1941,
Lower Silesia. In spring 1945, the town was captured by the
Red Army and after the defeat of
Nazi Germany in
World War II, it became again part of Poland. The largely abandoned town was repopulated with
Poles from the nearby
Leszno and
Rawicz counties, those returning from
forced labour from Germany, as well as those expelled from
eastern Polish territories, annexed by the
Soviet Union. The remaining German population was
expelled. ==Transport==