Rudnik

Rudnik developed beside the navigable San, in the forested country of southeastern Poland. Through the efforts of the nobleman Krzysztof Gnojeński it gained a town charter in 1552, on the site of the village of Kopki. It remained privately owned for centuries and by the seventeenth century had a parish church and school. In early 1656, during the Swedish invasion, Stefan Czarniecki's cavalry struck a Swedish unit guarding Charles X Gustav here; the king narrowly escaped capture.