Biecz

Biecz stands beside the Ropa in the Carpathian foothills, a royal town whose walls and towers recall its medieval importance. Once a castellany, it became a centre of administration and justice for southern Kraków Voivodeship. Its position on the route between Hungary and Red Ruthenia helped merchants and craftsmen make it one of Poland's substantial towns.

Casimir the Great promoted commerce in Biecz, ordering weighing scales and textile mills and establishing fairs in 1361. In 1372 Louis of Hungary required merchants on the Hungarian and Ruthenian route to pass through the town, where duties were collected. Under Casimir IV, Biecz acquired a municipal water supply. Prosperity gradually gave way to decline from the seventeenth century, as fire, floods and plague took their toll.