Stężyca

Stężyca grew beside a crossing of the Vistula in Sandomierz Land, where boats could stop and travellers ford the river. Floods repeatedly troubled the settlement: in 1479 the Franciscan church was lost to the waters, and the town was later moved. In 1563 the Polish Sejm ordered the restoration of local court jurisdiction. During the interregnum after Henry of Valois left Poland, nobles gathered at Stężyca in 1575 and declared the throne vacant, making this small riverside town a stage for the kingdom's politics.