History of Nowy Sacz

this part of the Kingdom of Poland. The town benefited during that time from its proximity on the trade route to Hungary due to privileges granted by King Władysław I the Elbow-high, and later his son, Kazimierz the Great, for supporting him during the Rebellion of wojt Albert in 1311-1312. In the 15th century it produced steel and woolen products, and nearly rivaled Kraków in visual arts. In 1329, Nowy Sącz signed a treaty with Kraków, upon which Kraków merchants, on their way to Hungary, had to stop at Nowy Sącz, while Nowy Sącz merchants, on their way to Gdańsk, were obliged to stay at Kraków. In the mid-14th century, King Kazimierz Wielki built here a royal castle and surrounded the town with a defensive wall. Nowy Sącz was the seat of a castellan and a starosta, becoming an important point in the system of defense of southern border of Poland. The town was further elevated when in 1448 Bishop Zbigniew Olesnicki promoted a local church to the status of a Collegiate.

Nowy Sącz prospered in the Polish Golden Age (16th century). It was an important center of the Protestant Reformation, local leader of the Polish Brethren, Stanislaw Farnowski, was very popular among local nobility. Good times ended in the 17th century. In 1611 a great fire destroyed much of the town, and during the Swedish invasion of Poland, the town was captured by the Swedes (late 1655), who burned and looted it. Nowy Sącz was a center of the rebellion against the invaders. The decline of the town continued in the 18th century, when Nowy Sącz suffered more destruction during the Great Northern War and the Bar Confederation, when the castle was burned.

In 1772, the town was annexed by the Habsburg Empire as part of Galicia, where it remained until November 1918. Nowy Sącz rose to a new prominence in the 19th century when the Austrian authorities built a