Radziejów

Radziejów lies in Kuyavia, a farming region of central Poland. Its market and craftsmen served the surrounding countryside, while town institutions gave it a place in the administration of the region. In 1298 Władysław Łokietek granted the town full Magdeburg rights; an earlier attempt to establish a town in 1252 may not have been carried through.

From 1510 the town hosted joint assemblies, or sejmiks, of the two Kuyavian voivodeships. Courts and the seat of a royal starosta also made Radziejów an administrative centre. War brought destruction: the town and its castle suffered during Swedish campaigns in the seventeenth century. These institutions and upheavals tied a small market town to the politics of the Polish crown and Commonwealth.