In the early Middle Ages the Piotrkow region was included in the province of
Leczyca owned by the Piast dynasty. Ca. 1264 it became part of a separate
principality. The foundation of the city and its development were connected
with its geographical position and an advantageous arrangement of the roads
linking the provinces of Poland in the Piast times. At first a market town and
a place of the princes' tribunals (in the 13th and 15th centuries), Piotrkow
became an administrative centre (the capital of the district since 1418), and
in the later centuries it also became an important political centre in Poland.
The first
