Bobowa

Bobowa (, Bobov) is a small town in Gorlice County, southern Poland. Administratively part of the Lesser Polish Voivodeship, it is situated west of Gorlice and south-east of the regional capital Kraków. It was formerly a village, but was granted town status on 1 January 2009. Bobowa is also located on a railway line running from Tarnów to the border with Slovakia at Leluchów. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 3,101.

==History== thumb|left|St. Sophia Church It is not known when the village of Bobowa appeared on the map of Poland. It probably was a Slavic gord, destroyed in 1240 (see Mongol invasion of Poland). Bobowa received Magdeburg rights town charter in 1339. By 1346, the town already had a parish church, and Bobowa at that time belonged to the Gryfita family (Gryf coat of arms). In the 1460 register Liber beneficiorum by Jan Długosz, one can find the information of Bobowa’s stone parish church, as well as two smaller, wooden churches. The town still belonged to the Gryfita family, and according to Długosz, it had three owners – Mikołaj, Jan and Gietko Gryfita. Furthermore, Bobowa had a court and wójt, who in 1467 was a man named Jan Lempart.