In theWarmian-MasurianVoivodeship there is a number of settlements which used to be towns and currently have the status of villages. Most of them were dispossessed of their urban rights in 1945, due to depopulation and a significant degree of war destruction. These villages generally preserved an urban layout, despite the loss of a large part of the buildings. Their gradual recovery and renewal of other urban features resulted in the restoration of an urban status by some of them. This study analyses the current demographic, economic, functional and morphological situation of all towns which were degraded either temporarily or permanently, as well as the largest rural settlements. The aim of the study is to compare them, and to determine whether (and which) formally rural settlements meet the modern criteria for restoring (or granting for the first time) urban status. Part of them was chosen as de facto urban centres with realistic chances of obtaining civic rights.