ABSTRACT
The establishment of new towns or the restructuring of already existing towns was connected with defining legal conditions for urban development, the most important of which was the granting of town rights and the legal regulation of duties towards the territorial ruler. From the mid thirteenth century neighbouring duchies started to follow the example of Silesia. Nevertheless it was not until the fourteenth century that regional urbanization developed. The plans of the oldest towns in Silesia and Lesser Poland have been a subject of scholarly debate for many years. In some towns there appeared additional parallel and crosswise streets, which led to the creation of complex plans with as many as five rows of streets added at right-angles to one another. Politically and financially it was much more profitable to set up a new town near an old one. Rapid socio-economic development caused the change in the town plan.
