1271 A province of twenty-four townsProvincia dvadsiatich štyroch miest

In 1271 King Stephen V gave the Spiš Saxons a charter of their own. Their towns were to form one self-governing province under a count whom the judges of the towns elected themselves, answering to the king rather than to any local lord — and the charter names Levoča the head town of it, civitas provincie capitalis, the province's capital city. At its widest the association counted twenty-four towns. This is the reason Levoča spent the Middle Ages arguing with its neighbours as an equal and never became anybody's subject village: it had its rights in writing, and the writing said it came first.Roku 1271 dal kráľ Štefan V. spišským Sasom vlastnú výsadnú listinu. Ich mestá mali tvoriť jednu samosprávnu provinciu na čele s grófom, ktorého si richtári miest volili sami, a zodpovedať sa kráľovi, nie miestnemu pánovi — a listina označuje Levoču za jej hlavné mesto, civitas provincie capitalis. V najväčšom rozsahu združovalo spoločenstvo dvadsaťštyri miest. Preto sa Levoča po celý stredovek hádala so susedmi ako rovný s rovným a nikdy sa nestala niečou poddanskou dedinou: svoje práva mala napísané a v tom písme stálo, že je prvá.