city, Dolnośląskie województwo (province), southwestern Poland, in the Sudety (Sudeten) mountains on both sides of the Nysa Kłodzka River. A Polish frontier settlement existed there from the 6th to the 10th century; a fortress was then built to protect the town from Bohemian forces. Kłodzko passed to Bohemia in 1327, then to Austria and Prussia, successively; it returned to Poland in 1945. The oldest relic of Polish literature, the famous 15th-century Florian Psalter, was written in Kłodzko.

The city is a communications hub for the surrounding area and a well-known tourist centre containing a stone bridge (1390) and several historic buildings. The main industries are lumber milling, metallurgical working, textile weaving, and food processing. Pop. (2002) 29,173.