The oldest town of the Sącz region
The History of Stary Sącz
from a stronghold on the Dunajec to a Monument of History
photo Ffolas · CC BY-SA 3.0 pl
Seven centuries where the Dunajec meets the Poprad
A castellans’ stronghold, the town of St Kinga, the property of the Poor Clares for five hundred years, a sleepy Galician town and today a Monument of History. We tell the story of Stary Sącz the way an old chronicler would – colourfully, yet faithful to the sources.
History in seven acts
Each era has its own colour – the same in the chapters, on the timeline and on the map.
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Introduction
The Land and the Name
Where Sącz lies, where its name comes from and why it is the oldest town of the region.
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until 1257
Prehistory and the Early Middle Ages
Hunters, hillforts on the Dunajec and the castellans of Grobla – before the town was born.
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1257–1292
The Age of Saint Kinga
A Hungarian princess and lady of the Sącz land: the town charter and the Poor Clares’ convent.
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1292–1500
The Late Middle Ages
Nowy Sącz takes the lead, but the Antiqua Civitas endures: Magdeburg law, the cult of Kinga, Hungarian trade.
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1500–1772
The Early Modern Period
The abbess’s town: guilds, fairs, convent walls, fires, the Swedish Deluge and Kinga’s beatification.
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1772–1918
The Austrian Partition and Galicia
Dissolution, the great fire of 1795, the railway, the Sokół and the seminary – under the imperial eagle.
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1918–1945
The Second Republic and World War II
Reborn Poland, then occupation and the destruction of the town’s Jewish community.
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1945 – today
Communist Poland and Today
A protected old town, the early-music festival, Kinga’s canonisation and the Monument of History.
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Milestones
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40,000–15,000 years ago
The first hunters in the BasinThe oldest scattered traces of people in the Sącz Basin date from the Upper Palaeolithic. Hunters passed this way long before anyone…
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2 Mar 1257
The Sącz land for KingaAt Korczyn Bolesław the Chaste grants his wife the land of Sącz in return for her dowry. From then on Kinga styles herself domina et…
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8 Nov 1292
The founding of Nowy SączWenceslas II issues a charter for a new town between the Dunajec and the Kamienica. The plan to move the townsfolk and the religious houses…
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1644
The great fireFire consumes the parish church, St Roch’s church and the wooden Franciscan friary. Rebuilding the parish church takes about five years.
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summer 1770 (2 Aug)
The Austrians occupy SączUnder the pretext of a sanitary cordon, Austria occupies southern Lesser Poland, moving its boundary posts as far as Mogilna.
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5 Sep 1939
War at the gatesThe Poles blow up the bridges on the Poprad, and German cyclist troops reach the town under fire from its defenders. A day later Nowy Sącz…
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16 Jun 1999
Kinga canonisedJohn Paul II proclaims Kinga a saint before more than 600,000 faithful. For the first time in over 700 years the Poor Clares leave their…
Set off
Monuments & map
The Poor Clares’ convent, the parish church, the cobbled market square and lesser-known places of memory – on the map.
Who ruled
Castellans, a duchess, abbesses, the imperial magistrate and mayors – who held the helm.
People
Kinga, Ada Sari, Fr Tischner, Bazielich and others whose fate was bound up with the town.
Gallery
Old postcards and modern photographs – each with its licence.