Every design for Sochaczew

Did you know that Sochaczew enters the written record with the death of a duke? Bolesław III Wrymouth died at a Benedictine monastery here, and by the early thirteenth century the town was already a castellan's seat on the merchant roads from Kalisz to Ciechanów and from Warsaw to Poznań.

Ruiny Zamku Książąt Mazowieckich still crown the castle hill above the Bzura, a reminder that the dukes of Masovia once met here. The Sochaczew Statutes, the first code of law for the whole of Masovia, were passed in the town, and it went on to become a royal town of the Polish Crown, known for its craftsmen, its fairs and a wooden bridge over the Bzura crowded with merchant horses. Great fires and the Swedish invasion left it almost empty in the seventeenth century, and the Muzeum Ziemi Sochaczewskiej i Pola Bitwy nad Bzurą carries the story on to the battle that gives the museum its name. Kościół pw. Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny and the old railway water tower add their own chapters.

If you know the whistle of the Saturday steam train leaving the Muzeum Kolei Wąskotorowej w Sochaczewie, this map is for you – the river, the castle hill and the narrow-gauge line heading out of town.