Tarnów

Tarnów developed in Lesser Poland as a private town founded by Spycimir Leliwita, who obtained Magdeburg rights for it from King Władysław in 1330. His castle on St Martin's Hill was completed the following year. The Tarnowski family emerged from his lineage and retained the town; under Jan Tarnowski in the sixteenth century it prospered, with churches, a synagogue, a Calvinist prayer house and craft guilds.

The Renaissance remodelling of the town hall and the imposing tomb of Jan Tarnowski in the cathedral reflected this period of patronage. Swedish forces devastated Tarnów in 1655. After the first partition of Poland in 1772, the town entered Habsburg Galicia, ceased to be private property and became an administrative centre; a Catholic diocese was established there in 1783.