Kazimierz Dolny — the Renaissance on the Vistula and loess ravines all around.

Kazimierz Dolny is a small Renaissance town of about 3,500 people on the high bank of the Vistula, some 50 km west of Lublin. It received its town charter in 1325 from Casimir the Great — before that there was a settlement here called Wietrzna Góra, belonging to Bolesław the Chaste. The charter followed Magdeburg law. This is the first "Kazimierz" in Poland — distinct from Kraków's Kazimierz, though both were granted by Casimir the Great.

The town's golden age was the 16th and the first half of the 17th century, when Kazimierz was one of the largest grain ports of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Wheat from Lesser Poland and the Ruthenian lands was floated from here to Gdańsk, and from there exported to Holland, England and Germany. The profits of that trade paid for the splendid Renaissance buildings — the market-square houses, the churches and the granaries. To this day the centre is one of the best-preserved ensembles of Renaissance town architecture in Poland.

Its greatness was ended by the Swedish wars of the 17th century — the Deluge (1655–1660), with destruction, fires and plague. A second decline came with the Partitions and the loss of the town's position on the trade routes (the Vistula lost its commercial role and no railway was built). Kazimierz was left aside and stagnated — and paradoxically that saved its architecture. What was not destroyed by war was not rebuilt by the modern age either. The original fabric of the 16th-century town survives.

From the end of the 19th century Polish painters discovered Kazimierz, seeking out its authentic atmosphere, its wooden buildings and the light over the Vistula. Władysław Ślewiński, Tadeusz Pruszkowski (who founded the Artists' Colony in 1923), and later Jan Cybis and Jacek Malczewski. The tradition continues — between the wars and under communism Kazimierz was a favourite place for Polish artists. Every summer there are open-air workshops, festivals and exhibitions here. The status of a "town of artists" has become part of Kazimierz's identity.

Getting there: from Warsaw about 2 hours by car (about 150 km, S17 + DK74), from Lublin about 1 hour (about 50 km). There is no direct train (Kazimierz has no station) — the nearest is Puławy (about 12 km), then bus or taxi. The nearest airport is Lublin-Świdnik (about 70 km). It is best to spend a weekend here — the town is small (seeing it takes 2–3 hours), but the atmosphere makes you want to stay longer.