Wadowice (Polish: (listen); German: Frauenstadt – Wadowitz) is a town in southern Poland, 50 kilometres (31 miles) southwest of Kraków with 17,455 inhabitants (2022), situated on the Skawa river, confluence of Vistula, in the eastern part of Silesian Foothills (Pogórze Śląskie). Wadowice is known for being the birthplace of Karol Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul II and Godwin von Brumowski, Austria-Hungary’s best flying ace with 35 credited and an additional 8 possible wins in the air. The first permanent settlement in the area of today's Wadowice was founded in the late 10th century or early 11th century. According to a local legend, the town was founded by a certain Wad or Wład, a short form for the Slavic name of Ladislaus (Polish: 'Władysław'). The town was first mentioned as Wadowicze in St. Peter penny register in the years 1325–1327. In 1327 it is also mentioned (under the same name) in a fief registry sent from prince John I Scholastyk of Oświęcim to Bohemian king John I, Count of Luxemburg. At this time it was a trading settlement belonging to the Dukes of Silesia of the Piast Dynasty, and according to some historians it was already a municipality. In 1430 a great fire destroyed the town. It was soon rebuilt and granted city rights, along with a city charter and a self-government, based on the then-popular Kulm law. The privileges, granted by Prince Kazimierz I of Oświęcim led to a period of fast reconstruction and growth. More information...
According to PR-model, wadowice.pl is ranked 399,339th in multilingual Wikipedia, in particular this website is ranked 19,168th in Polish Wikipedia.
The website is placed before rockmusicdaily.com and after aneros.co.jp in the BestRef global ranking of the most important sources of Wikipedia.