Area around Sandomierz constituted the north-western border of the area between the Vistula and the eastern border of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, which until the mid-10th century was functioning outside the scope of interest of the forming early state structures. Situation changed at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. These areas became an important part of the territorial scope of the early Piast monarchy, allowing for strategic control of the directions of political and economic expansion between Wielkopolska and the Kraków Land, the Baltic coast and the south and Latin Europe and Rus. Sandomierz then grew to the rank of one of the main centers of the state - sedes regni principales, enabling further expansion. In the 11th and 12th centuries it was the centre of the early Piast province, in the 12th century the centre of the castellany and the seat of one of the archdeaconries of the Kraków diocese, and in the 12th and 13th centuries the capital of the district principality