Mszana Dolna was first mentioned in 1365. It received its
Magdeburg rights some time in the late 14th or early 15th century, and since its inhabitants were mostly German
Walddeutsche, the town was called
Kinsbark (or
Königsberg). Kinsbark lost its town privileges some time in the mid-15th century, and the former town, which had changed its name into
Mieścisko, was in 1464 merged with the village of
Mszany. The village was completely burned in the
Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1660). Mszana administratively belonged to the
Kraków Voivodeship in the
Lesser Poland Province until the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, when it was annexed by the
Habsburg Empire, and made part of its newly formed province of
Galicia. In 1918, Mszana returned to
Poland, as the country regained independence. In early September 1939, during the German-Soviet
invasion of Poland at the start of
World War II, the
10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade of General
Stanisław Maczek fought here against the advancing
Wehrmacht. During the war, Mszana lost one-third of its population, including its Jewish residents, of whom 881 were murdered by the Germans on 19 August 1942. After the unsuccessful Polish
Warsaw Uprising, in October 1944, the Germans deported 4,700
Poles (mainly old people, ill people and women with children) from the
Dulag 121 camp in
Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Mszana Dolna. In 1952 Mszana Dolna regained its town rights. Currently, it is an important tourist center, with hotels, restaurants and several tourist trails marked with different colors, leading into the mountains. == Nearby municipalities ==