page_title: Kalisz
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Kalisz / History / Middle Ages
context_page_description: Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 100,246 inhabitants making it the second-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of Greater Poland, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce.
  Kalisz is an important regional industrial and commercial centre with many notable factories. The city is also a centre for traditional folk art. The town was also the site of the former 'Calisia' piano factory, until it went out of business in 2007. The building was transformed into the Calisia One Hotel which opened in 2019.
context_section_description: Archaeological excavations have uncovered early mediaeval settlement from the Piast dynasty period, c. 9th-12th centuries. Modern Kalisz was most likely founded in the 9th century as a provincial capital castellany and a minor fort.  In 1106 Bolesław III Wrymouth captured the town and made it a part of his feudal domain. Between 1253 and 1260 the town was incorporated according to the German town law called the Środa Śląska Law (after Środa Śląska in Silesia), a local variation of the Magdeburg Law, and soon started to grow. One of the richest towns of Greater Poland, during the feudal fragmentation of Poland it formed a separate duchy ruled by a local branch of the Piast dynasty.  After Poland was reunited, the town became a notable centre of weaving and wood products, as well as one of the cultural centres of Greater Poland. There are also records of Khalyzian settlements from 1139.
  In 1282 the city laws were confirmed by Przemysł II of Poland, and in 1314 it was made the capital of the Kalisz Voivodeship by king Władysław I the Elbow-high. Located roughly in the centre of Poland (as its borders stood in that era), Kalisz was a notable centre of trade. Because of its strategic location, King Casimir III the Great signed a peace treaty with the Teutonic Order there in 1343. As a royal city, Kalisz managed to defend many of its initial privileges, and in 1426 a new town hall was built. The Polish king Mieszko III the Old was buried in Kalisz.
caption: Mediaeval seal of the city of Kalisz
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