Średniowieczne dzieje miasta Mrzygłód. Przyczynek do kolonizacji północnej Małopolski w późnym średniowieczu
Medieval history of the town of Mrzygłód. Contribution to the colonisation of northern Lesser Poland in the late Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: Mrzygłód was founded in cruda radice on the border between the Krakow voivodship and the Siewierz territory, in the area with no settlements. In 1373 there was a mention of the parish church in Mrzygłód. The origins of the parish should be linked to the formation of the town. There are reasons to ascribe the foundation of the town to Casimir the Great and to date it back to the 1350s or the 1360s. There is no evidence pointing to the Pilecki family as the founders of the town, although they are confirmed as the owners of the town since the 15th century. It is likely that they took possession of the existing settlements as a result of a royal decree at the beginning of the 15th or the end of the 14th century. The formation of the town was probably preceded by the foundation of a village called Stary Mrzygłód (Old Mrzygłód) based on the German law. Scanty sources mentioned about Mrzygłód, collected for the period until the second half of the 16th century, point to the very poor development thereof. It was a town only from the legal perspective. From the economic point of view, Mrzygłód was rather a village settlement and the inhabitants made a living mainly due to farming. The foundation process, however, allowed for colonisation of the area that was previously not touched by settlers. The colonisation of the frontier areas on the upper Warta River follows the Polish modernisation and urbanisation programme introduced and run by Władysław Łokietek and Casimir the Great.

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