Old towns & squares

Salt Square in Wiślica

Wiślica, today one of the smallest towns in Poland, was for centuries a significant hub on the merchant route running “from Prague to Kyivan Rus”. The heart of medieval trade was not the market square, however, but the Salt Square — a vast marketplace where merchants had to display their goods to pass through the town without paying a high toll. The name still recalls that merchant past.

A town that returned to the map

Wiślica received its town charter in 1326, lost it in 1870 and regained it on 1 January 2018. With 503 residents it then became the least populated town in Poland — a title it lost a year later to Opatowiec, with 338 inhabitants. History, however, is concentrated here within a few square metres.

What you will see by the square

Today Plac Solny is a tidy garden square behind the collegiate church. Next to it stands a modern Archaeological Museum, behind which rises the collegiate church, and beside them a stone pillar shrine of Christ's Passion from the 17th century. Behind the square spreads the revitalised site of a medieval stronghold, excavated by archaeologists. A few hundred metres away wait the Długosz House and the collegiate church itself.

In practice

Wiślica lies in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 12.5 km from Busko-Zdrój with its spa park and the Marconi sanatorium. Extend your trip to the church of St Stanisław in Nowy Korczyn (about 11 km) or the Fairy-Tale Centre in Pacanów (about 27 km). The square itself can be viewed free of charge at any time; leave extra time for the museum and the church.