Środa Wielkopolska

Środa lies in Greater Poland southeast of Poznań. First mentioned in 1228, it probably received town rights in 1261 and later became a royal town in Kalisz voivodeship. King Władysław Jagiełło built a Gothic castle there between 1402 and 1413. By the fifteenth century it was among the larger towns of Greater Poland, with developing trade and crafts.

From 1454 the regional assemblies, or sejmiks, of the Poznań and Kalisz voivodeships met in Środa. This gave the town a role in the political life of the Polish kingdom and Commonwealth. Prussia annexed it in the second partition of Poland in 1793; it formed part of the Duchy of Warsaw after 1806 and returned to Prussian rule in 1815.