Kościan

Kościan was a royal town and an important cloth-making centre in Greater Poland. In 1400 Władysław Jagiełło confirmed its municipal privileges under Magdeburg law. Its clothmakers received a protective mark from King Casimir IV, and flourishing trade and crafts helped make Kościan one of the region's wealthiest towns in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Swedish invasion in 1655 disrupted the town and contributed to the decline of its cloth industry. In 1793 the second partition of Poland placed Kościan under Prussian rule. It later formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw before returning to Prussia after the settlement of 1815.