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Transfer of the Capital

When: 1596
Where: Warsaw
Part of: Move of Polish Capital to Warsaw

Sigismund III Vasa moved the Polish capital and royal court from Kraków to Warsaw in 1596.

The king transferred his court to Warsaw, citing its central location between Poland and Lithuania. This decision elevated Warsaw's status, making it the capital of the Commonwealth and the Polish Crown, a role it held until 1795.

Sources

Warsaw Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-06
Sigismund III Vasa Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.