Silesian County

Silesian County was created at the General Sejm in Warsaw, in 1564, when King Sigismund II Augustus merged territories of the Duchy of Zator and the Duchy of Oświęcim, incorporating them into the Kraków Voivodeship of the Polish Crown.

[1] The kings retained both ducal titles, and names of both duchies remained in common use.

kilometers, and initially consisted of four royal towns (Wadowice, Kęty, Oświęcim and Zator) and one private (Żywiec).

The town was in the centre of a small German language island that consisted of several other villages.

The rest of the County was inhabited by the vast majority of Polish Roman Catholics, although at the turn of the 17th century the county had the highest share of Protestants in the Kraków Voivodeship: 29% of the total number of churches were Protestant (mostly Reformed), they were present in 34 parishes and their number was estimated at 10 – 15 thousand.