Czchów

Czchów () is a town in Brzesko County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,288 inhabitants as of December 2021. It lies on the Dunajec river, and along National Road Nr. 75. In the years 1928-2000, Czchów was a village.

==History== The history of Czchów dates back to the time when this part of Poland probably belonged to Great Moravia. Some sources claim that the very name of the town is of Czech origin, as in the documents from the 13th century, it was spelled Czechou, Cechou, and Cehiov. According to Jan Długosz, among first residents of the settlements were Germans, captured by King Bolesław Chrobry during his wars with the Holy Roman Empire. In 1280, Princess Kinga of Poland met here with Prince of Kraków, Leszek Czarny to discuss a conflict among Piast princes. At that time the village of Czchów belonged to the Bishops of Kraków, and at the beginning of the 14th century, it became a royal possession. During the reign of King Casimir III the Great, Czchów was surrounded by a defensive wall, and on November 24, 1355, it received Magdeburg rights. On a surrounding hill the Czchów Castle was built, to protect a merchant route along the Dunajec river towards Kingdom of Hungary, and a custom house. The castle was based on an earlier, Romanesque watchtower.