Gniezno

Gniezno was one of the chief strongholds of the early Piasts and a cradle of the Polish state. On Lech Hill, Bolesław the Brave placed the relics of Saint Adalbert in a church that became the centre of Poland's oldest archbishopric. Emperor Otto III met Bolesław here in the year 1000, and several early Polish kings were crowned in the cathedral. Even after the royal capital moved to Kraków, Gniezno retained its religious importance.

The Teutonic Knights devastated the city in 1331, but it was rebuilt under Casimir the Great. In 1419 its archbishops received the title of Primate of Poland. Four annual fairs attracted merchants from Polish towns and beyond, and crafts flourished despite destructive fires. Swedish wars and plague brought decline in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, before the city revived and became the capital of its own voivodeship in 1768.