Kamieniec

Kamieniec, now Kamieńczyk, stood beside the Bug near the mouth of the Liwiec in eastern Mazovia. From 1377 it served as the seat of a castellany, placing this river town within the dukes' territorial administration. A privilege of 1452 renewed its municipal rights. When the remaining Mazovian duchy passed to the Polish Crown in 1526, Kamieniec became a royal town.

The settlement was considerably more substantial than its later village appearance suggests. A survey of 1565 recorded a defensive castle, town hall, cloth hall, three churches, a royal court, a monastery and 189 houses. Bridges and river commerce helped sustain its position beside the waterways, while the castle and public buildings expressed its administrative functions. The Swedish invasion of 1655–1660 devastated the town. It did not recover its former prosperity, leaving a sharp break between the busy royal centre of the sixteenth century and the diminished settlement that followed the wars.