In the hereby article the author discusses the subject of modern changes within a selection of small towns located within the borders of the Krakow Metropolitan Area and their effects on the space of towns. After the year 1989, small towns have found themselves on the cusp of intensive functional, social and spatial changes that influence their image. These changes have provided new possibilities for development and created numerous opportunities on the one hand, while having become the source of many threats able to influence an urban organism on multiple layers on the other. Over a quarter of a century after that moment, we can observe the influence that these changes have had on the spatial structure, image and identity of cities, which are elements that are particularly vulnerable to changes. Within the Krakow Metropolitan Area we can identify towns, which have started to be viewed as “more attractive” after the year 1989 and, from a perspective of 25 years of functional and spatial transformation, have registered numerous changes, as well as those which have remained on the sidelines. In the case of intensively changing cities, the reason for this can be found both in their particular conditions (the preservation of the cultural heritage of small towns and their surroundings, location within environmentally valuable areas, landscape qualities, good accessibility to transport in relation to Krakow, etc.), as well as in the direct efforts of the residents and authorities of towns (obtaining aid funds, for instance from the EU, the awareness of a town’s potential, its qualities and value, as well as using that potential in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, or quite the contrary, in a manner that leads to the unification of the identity of a venue). Modern changes affect both the image of central areas of towns, the reception of their external areas, as well as the composition of a small town as a whole. The goal of the paper is to point out which factors have influenced and still influence the changes of the image of the small towns of the Krakow Metropolitan Area in addition to how they do so, as well as the spatial effect of these changes. The research method that has been chosen was based on determining and comparing the qualities of localities that have the character of a small town (cultural qualities: tangible and intangible, natural qualities, landscape qualities, both within a town and in its surroundings) with the functions that are played by a town and the degree of the intensity of those functions. The scope of the study included 14 localities. The information that was gathered was compared with the degree of the preservation of a locality’s small-town character. This served as the basis for the formulation of conclusions that allowed determining which qualities affect the image of a small town with the highest intensity, as well as in regards to the type of influence that current changes have on the image of a town.