Taking the historical context into the consideration, the territory of the Spiš See was limited to the north by the borders of the Kingdom of Poland and to the south by the Hnilec valley. On the north its territory was bordered by the High and Low Tatras and by the Branisko uplands to the east. At the end of the 12th century the territory was administered by the provosts acting at Spišská Kapitula who were subordinated to the Esztergom bishops from the jurisdictional point of view. In 1776 the Spiš territory merged with the Liptov and Orava Sees in order to be united under the jurisdiction of the newly-formed Spiš bishopric which in fact has originated at the time. Nevertheless, the Catholic faith in the 17th century experienced almost no support at all. Onthe beginning of the Reformation process until the first half of the 16th century all monasteries and convents had been ruined. Majority of the priests including their parishes apostatized from the Catholic faith to follow Protestants. With the exception of a few settlements almost all of them used to be led by the Lutherans. Nevertheless, the Recatolization process started in the early 17th century thanks to the immense assistance of the monastic orders such as the Jesuits and Piarists, as well as the highly dedicated Spiš provosts. One of the most significant Recatolization tools included conduct of the canonical visitations. These referred to the visits performed by the church authorities such as the bishop or archbishop within the territory of their jurisdiction - including chapters, parishes and monasteries. On performing the visitations not only the conditions of the particular parishes had been examined, but also the sacred and non-sacred buildings, including the articles of their inventories, as well as the human resources, such as the priests, teachers and other competent persons, their revenues and salaries, etc. On the other hand, the authorities were interested in lay persons and other residents in the parishes, their moral and denominational affiliation, etc. The eldest mentions on the canonical visitations in Spiš region refer to the 13th century, however, the oldest preserved records of visitations date back to the 17th century. Whether successful or not, several examinations had been conducted during the mentioned period by the Spiš provosts or archbishops from Esztergom. Nevertheless, the eldest visitation was concerned with Spišská Kapitula only. The visitation in 1626 was restrained by the protest of the Protestant residents who at the time were at majority. The consequent visitation was performed by the contemporary provost Ján Pálfalvay during the period between 1655 and 1656.The one refers to the eldest preserved visitation of the parishes within the Spiš territory in which a church or a chapter was dedicated to the Catholic Church. In 1655 this reffered to the 30 settlements in: Kežmarok, Spišský Štvrtok, Spišský Hrušov and its affiliated branch in Vítkovce, Domaňovce, Ordzoviany, Bijacovce, Pongrácovce, Žehra and its affiliated branch in Dúbrava, Harakovce, Korytné, Poľanovce, Letanovce and its affiliated branch in Jánovce, Spišské Tomášovce and its affiliated branch in Arnutovce, Lendak, Kacvín, Nižné Lapše, Vyšné Lapše, Tribš, Krempachy, Belá, Fridman and its affiliated branch in Nedeca, Spišská Stará Ves, Matiašovce, Lechnica and Veľká Lesná. In the following year Spišské Hanušovce were added to the list. In the conclusion of the visitation protocol, two older texts have been included: The Instructions for the Visitation of the Spiš Provost Matej Tarnóczy, dating back to the beginning of the 17th century and the so-called Puncta on the visitations, collected by the cardinal Báthory which date back to the 16th century. The presented publication not only offers the history of canonical visitations in Spiš territory, but also provides critical edition of aforementioned visitation form 1655 – 1656 in Latin language. As such is a fruitful source for further researches not only for history, but for other different scientific fields as well.