Kraków Voivodeship (14th century – 1795)
14th century – 1795
The Kraków Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo Krakowskie, Latin: Palatinatus Cracoviensis) was a voivodeship (province) in the Kingdom of Poland from the 14th century to the partition of Poland in 1795 (see History of Poland during the Piast dynasty, Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569), and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Located in the southwestern corner of the country, it was part of the Lesser Poland region (together with two other voivodeships of Poland: Sandomierz Voivodeship, and Lublin Voivodeship) and the Lesser Poland Province.
History
Kraków Voivodeship emerged from the Duchy of Kraków, which was created as Seniorate Province in the Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty (1138). According to Zygmunt Gloger, it was one of the richest provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, with salt mines in Bochnia and Wieliczka, silver and lead mines in Olkusz, and very fertile soil around Proszowice. Its boundaries changed little for centuries. In 1457, the Duchy of Oświęcim was incorporated into the voivodeship, in 1564 – the Duchy of Zator (the Silesian County was created out of the two), and in 1790, the Duchy of Siewierz. Among cities and towns of contemporary Poland, which were part of Kraków Voivodeship, are Będzin, Biała, Bochnia, Brzesko, Częstochowa, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Jasło, Jaworzno, Jędrzejów, Krzepice, Kłobuck, Miechów, Nowy Sącz, Nowy Targ, Oświęcim, Sosnowiec, Szczekociny, Zakopane, Zator, Zawiercie, and Żywiec. In the first partition of Poland, in 1772 Habsburg monarchy annexed southern half of the voivodeship (south of the Vistula). In 1795, the third and final partition of Poland, Austria annexed the remaining part of the province, with the exception of its northwestern corner (around Częstochowa), which was seized by the Kingdom of Prussia, as New Silesia.
Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland gives a detailed description of Kraków Voivodeship:
Kraków Voivodeship covered Subcarpathian Lechia on the right bank of the Vistula, as well as land on the left bank of the river, between Kraków and Sieradz, where the Warta and the Pilica have their sources.
The public source identifies “Kraków Voivodeship (14th century – 1795)” as 14th century – 1795. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kraków, Voivodeship and 14th.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kraków Voivodeship (14th century – 1795)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.