Issues with Protecting Medieval Urban Layouts from Selected Example Towns in Lesser Poland

Nowadays the protection of historic urban layouts poses one of the greatest challenges in the field of cultural heritage protection. Even if this protection functions properly in large historic cities, it is sadly insufficient in smaller towns. The testimony to the latter claim is seen in deteriorating centres of small historic towns. Such degradation is a consequence of e.g. inappropriate investments disturbing their historic urban composition, which, in turn, demonstrates insufficient conservation protection. This article presents an analysis of selected medieval towns from Lesser Poland, with attention to both the state of preservation of their historic urban structure and the current form of its protection. Two towns (Nowy Targ, Skawina) are discussed in more detail.