The Gothic style arrived in Poland in the first half of the 13th century with the arrival of members of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. The first elements of the new style are evident in the foundation of the Dominican Trinity church in Kraków (1226–1250), built by Bishop Iwo Odrowąż. Another of the earliest manifestations of the Gothic in Poland was the rebuilding of the Wrocław Cathedral which started in 1244. The earliest building was completely covered in Poland, built in Gothic style chapel is considered St. Hedwig in Trzebnica (1268–1269) in the monastery of Cistercian.
In the north and west of the country, there are some scarce Romanesque predecessors (see here). Most Gothic buildings in Poland are made of brick, and belong to the Baltic Brick Gothic, especially in northern Poland (see Significant Brick Gothic buildings in Poland). Nonetheless, not all Gothic buildings in Poland are made of brick. For example, the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków is mostly stone-built. Poland also has some Gothic fieldstone churches, mostly of relatively small size. The centers of Polish Gothic are Kraków, Gdańsk, Toruń and Wrocław.
The reign of the king Casimir the Great was the time of the greatest flowering of gothic architecture in Poland. For the second time a similar development took place in the late Gothic phase, during the reign of Casimir the Jagiellonian.