Pilzno

Pilzno lies in Lesser Poland, in the valley of the Wisłoka. On 3 October 1354 King Casimir the Great authorised the knight Dobiesław to establish a town here under German law. A market square and streets were laid out around the earlier market settlement, and earthen defences enclosed its centre. Pilzno became a royal town and a district centre in Sandomierz Voivodeship. Its position on a trade route helped its development; a royal privilege of 1577 required merchants travelling towards Lviv not to bypass the town. The defences gradually lost their military importance during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as residents put parts of them to other uses.