Muszyna

Poland, Poland

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Muszyna is a small spa town in southern Poland's Lesser Poland Voivodeship, nestled in the Poprad River valley near the Slovak border within the Beskid Sądecki Landscape Park, serving as the seat of Gmina Muszyna with around 5,000 residents.

First mentioned in 1209 along the ancient Hungarian trade route where King Andrew II permitted toll collection, it passed to Kraków bishops in 1288, was briefly annexed by King Władysław Łokietek amid church conflicts, and received Magdeburg rights in 1356 from Casimir the Great as a fortified border hub.

Ruins of the bishops' Gothic castle—built mid-14th century with a prominent tower, walls, and bergfried atop a limestone hill—overlook the market square shaped under royal privilege, while the State of Muszyna ecclesiastical latifundium endured until 1781 partitions, fostering its mineral springs and health resort legacy.