Bytča is recorded with town privileges in 1378 — the right to hold markets and to manage its own small affairs. It is worth being exact about what that did and did not mean. A free royal town answered to the king and to nobody in between; Bytča answered to whoever held the estate, and that difference shows in the plan of the place to this day, because the town grew around the lord's gate rather than around a town hall of its own. Craftsmen settled, the market ran, and this became the natural centre of its stretch of the valley — but the centre belonged to somebody.Roku 1378 sa Bytča spomína s mestskými výsadami — s právom trhu a s právom spravovať si svoje drobné veci. Oplatí sa presne povedať, čo to znamenalo a čo nie. Slobodné kráľovské mesto sa zodpovedalo kráľovi a nikomu medzi tým; Bytča sa zodpovedala tomu, kto držal panstvo — a ten rozdiel vidno na pôdoryse mesta dodnes, lebo rástlo okolo panskej brány, nie okolo vlastnej radnice. Usadili sa remeselníci, fungoval trh a z Bytče sa stalo prirodzené stredisko tohto úseku doliny. To stredisko však niekomu patrilo.
