The County seat is situated on the Prosna River on the Kalisz High Plain. It is the historical capital of Eastern Wielkopolska and the see of Kalisz diocese.

The starosta of Kalisz Castle had a beautiful daughter Dorotka, whom he loved very much. He wanted Dorotka to marry a good and wise man whom she truly loved. None of the eligible candidates, however, were to the girl's taste.

Dorotka did not wear elegant dresses or hoods although she did like elegantly adorned shoes. The starosta saw to his daughter's requests and every month a shoemaker named Marcin would come to the castle at his behest. Marcin managed to sew wonderful patterns into women's slippers using gold and silver threads that no master craftsman in town could match.

One day, the king sent the starosta on a long and perilous journey. Several months passed and the starosta had not returned. Kalisz was going through a period of famine and pestilence. People were dying in the streets like flies. Only Marcin, heedless of the "pestilential air" raging through the city, wandered to the castle every month, as he had always done, to sew new shoes for Dorotka. The two fell in love during these meetings and began to spend more and more time together. This, however, did not escape the attention of the castle guard.

An ambush was set for the shoemaker and, when he tried to escape, he fell from the castle walls and died instantly. The starosta returned to the castle soon after the death of Marcin. He was so angry with his daughter that he had her immured into one of the castle towers where she starved to death.
Bad and immoral girls have been call Dorotkas ever since she died locked in the tower. Sometimes the tower itself is referred to as Dorotka.