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Kalisz is situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby town of Ostrów Wielkopolski.

Sometimes Kalisz is called "the oldest town of Poland" because the mention by Ptolemy of a town called Calisia that was situated on the Amber Trail. Although it is still not certain whether the exact spot where the city centre is located nowadays was inhabitated in 2nd century, there are many artifacts of the Roman times in the area, pointing to the fact that it must have been one of the stops of the Roman caravans heading for the Baltic Sea.

Zawodzie (district) is the oldest part of Kalisz.

Zawodzie is an archaeological site and a model of an IX-X century fortified settlement (gród) in Poland.

A typical gord was a group of wooden houses, built either in rows or in circles, surrounded by one or more rings of walls made of earth and wood, a palisade and/or moats. Some gords were ring-shaped, with a round, oval or occasionally polygonal fence or wall surrounding a hollow. Others, built on a natural hill or a man-made mound, were cone-shaped. Those with a natural defense on one side, such as a river or lake, were usually horseshoe-shaped.

Most gords were built in densely-populated areas, and situated in places which presented particular natural advantages. However, as Slavic tribes united into states, gords were also built for defense purposes in less populated border areas.

Those gords which served as a ruler's residence or lay on trade routes, quickly expanded. A suburbium (Polish: podgrodzie) formed near or below the gord. Its population served the residents of the gord and could shelter within the gord's walls in the event of danger. Eventually the suburbium would have its own fence or wall. In the High Middle Ages, the gord would normally evolve into a castle or citadel (kremlin); the suburbium– into a town.

Wikipedia