Frank J. Boron American Language School



	The town of Stary Sacz is located in the Malopolska (Little Poland) Province of Southern Poland. The 10,000 resident town is a fifteen minute bus ride to the bustling city of Nowy Sacz and a two hour drive south of the provincial capitol Krakow (and the Jana Pawel II Krakow-Balice International Airport). The Polish word stary is translated to "Old" in English and nowy is translated as "New." Stary Sacz is the older of the two cities, founded in 1257. Traces of settlements date to the Neolithic periods. It was a very strategic area, between the Dunajec and Poprad Rivers and a fortified stronghold was built. Eventually settlements grew into a town with the first references in history dating to 1224. In 1257, Boleslaus the Chaste gave the lands in an around the Sacz area to his hungarian wife, Princess Kinga. He gave her the lands because he used her wedding dowry to revive the Duchy of Krakow. Kinga changed the layout of Stary Sacz and incorporated a large central market square as well as founding a convent for the Poor Clare Nuns in 1280. Construction began on a church for the Holy Trinity and St. Clare (the convent) and then on another church for St. Stanislaus (Franciscan friars).
The town grew to become populous and rich throughout the next decade until the death of Kinga. After she died the residents faced economic problems and was close to liquidation when in 1292 the Bohemian ruler Vaclav II issued an edict to move the town to where the Kamienica and Dunajec Rivers met. The Franciscan friars moved to a new monestary in 1297 and a new cloisters was planned for the sisters of Poor Clare. The original Sacz was from then on known as Stary Sacz and the new Sacz known as Nowy Sacz. The new convent was never built and the sisters happily remained in their original home.		(click on Medieval Beskid)	Although Stary Sacz nowhere near the economic strength of Nowy Sacz, the town had a different strength, religion. The sisters of Poor St. Clare established quite a cult of the
Today Stary Sacz
RECOMMENDED BOOKS: These books provide beautiful photographs of Stary Sacz and Nowy Sacz as well as descriptions The Song of Stary Sacz photographed and written by Sylwester Adamczyk and Adam Bujak Nowy Sacz by Roman Kalyniuk and Zbigniew Muzyk