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 THE ORIGINS OF CRACOW happened that the Grand Duke Ladislaus failed in his struggles to assert this authority over the others; nor did his successors fare any better. A whole century passed in these continuous contests for primacy. Finally, the Piasts of Silesia established a predominance which was a serious danger for the national development of Poland. At Cracow we hear, as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, of a municipal organisation under the guidance of the mayors. The existence of numerous churches and religious houses seems to show that the town had a large number of inhabitants. General culture is increasing: Polish students attend foreign universities, particularly that of Bologna; schools connected with monasteries and parishes are growing in number. But these germs of an independent civilization were soon to be destroyed, A terrible tempest of Mongolian invasion broke from the East; it swept like an avalanche over the country, changing it into a desert; Cracow, in that unfortunate year 1241, was turned into a heap of ruins; only the castle on the Wawel and the gateway buildings with the fortified church of St. Andrew remained intact. The bloody battle of Lignica (Liegnitz), where Henry the Pious, Duke of Silesia, was slain, marks the end of the Romanesque period.