High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Before the postal system was established, correspondence was delivered by messengers. In the Middle Ages, such services were available only to the privileged classes - monarchs, rich merchants and some of the organised communities, like large towns, universities or monasteries. Royal couriers would use the "podwoda" - horses and carts provided at fixed points on the route for replacement. The Polish postal service was created on October 18, 1558, when king Zygmunt August established a permanent postal route from Krakow to Venice (later also to Vilnius) in order to manage new affairs in Italy, which arose after the death of Queen Bona, his mother. The king commissioned the supervision of the postal service to Prosper Prowana, a courtier of Italian descent. For many years the service was financed from the royal treasury, and it was not until 1647 that king W?adys?aw IV introduced the post tax ("podatek podwodowy"). Unfortunately, as Poland engaged in a series of devastating conflicts in the 17th century, the development of the postal service had been brought to a halt until the reign of King Stanis?aw August Poniatowski.

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