Sochaczew

Sochaczew lies west of Warsaw at a crossing of roads through Mazovia. First recorded in 1138, when Duke Bolesław III died at a local Benedictine monastery, its early stronghold became a castellany, and the town prospered from crafts and trade on routes linking Warsaw, Poznań and other centres. Duke Siemowit III built a castle here in the fourteenth century; Sochaczew later became a royal town of Poland.

Fires and the Swedish invasion brought ruin in the seventeenth century. After years of fighting, only thirteen inhabited houses remained in 1661. Recovery was slow, although a royal route between Warsaw and Dresden passed through the town in the eighteenth century. Prussia annexed Sochaczew in 1793; at that time its population included a large Jewish community.