Spycimierz

Poland, Poland

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Spycimierz is a village in central Poland's Łódź Voivodeship, in Poddębice County within Uniejów Gmina, located along the Warta River valley about 4 km south of Uniejów on an ancient trade route from Moravia through Sieradz to Pomerania.

Dating to pre-Piast times with an early 10th-century stronghold on Smulska Góra later relocated here, it emerged as a key Piast center by the 12th century, mentioned in the 1136 Gniezno Bull as ducal property where Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth imprisoned Archbishop Martin around 1106, featuring a ring-shaped gord with wooden-earth fortifications guarding river crossings.

Burnt by Teutonic Knights in 1331 and exchanged by Casimir the Great in 1347 to Gniezno Archbishop Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki—who missed its town potential in favor of Uniejów—it declined into a rural settlement but gained fame for Poland's oldest sundial noted by Jan Długosz and unique Corpus Christi flower carpets, a UNESCO-recognized tradition laid annually on streets before the church.