Łęczyca

Łęczyca is an old royal town of central Poland, once the capital of a Piast duchy and later of a voivodeship bearing its name. After the Teutonic Knights sacked it in 1331, Casimir the Great fortified the town and built a brick castle, protected by a moat fed by the Bzura. The castle became a royal residence and a seat of the local starosta.

Władysław Jagiełło met his advisers here in 1409 to discuss the approaching war with the Teutonic Order. After Grunwald, prominent prisoners from the defeated order were held in the castle for ransom. Polish parliamentary sessions also met at Łęczyca, but the Swedish invasion in the seventeenth century devastated the town and ended a long period of local prosperity.