Ostrzeszów

Ostrzeszów is an old royal town in the historic Wieluń Land. It gained town privileges in the thirteenth century and later became a county seat within Sieradz Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. Its coat of arms bears the crowned head of the Polish eagle. Casimir the Great endowed it with a castle, defensive walls and the Gothic Church of the Assumption, giving the town a prominent place in the region.

Crafts and trade sustained Ostrzeszów in the early modern period, when a number of guilds were founded and district courts met here. Its prosperity was interrupted during the Swedish invasion of Poland: in 1656 the Swedes destroyed the town and its castle. Ostrzeszów declined after the devastation, though the surviving castle tower still recalls the royal stronghold.