Church of Saint Matthias Siewierz was first mentioned in 1125, and was administered by the
Castellan of
Bytom. In 1177,
Casimir II of Poland granted Siewierz to
Mieszko IV Tanglefoot, duke of
Silesia and
Racibórz, together with whole
Duchy of Bytom. The town became a seat of a separate castellan by the beginning of the 13th century. During the
first Mongol invasion of Poland, in 1241, the
Mongols burned the town, and razed the fort to ground. In 1276, Siewierz received
city status. On 26 February 1289, in front of the town gates, the allied forces of
Władysław I the Elbow-high, then Duke of
Kujawy and
Mazovia, defeated the army of
Henry IV Probus, duke of
Wrocław and
Kraków. Together with most of Silesia in years 1327–35, Siewierz – as a part of the Bytom Duchy – was subjugated to the
Kingdom of Bohemia. In 1337, Duke
Vladislaus of Bytom sold Siewierz to
Casimir I, Duke of Cieszyn. In 1359 the duke of Cieszyn bought Siewierz from Duke
Bolko II the Small, for 2,500
marks. The king
Charles IV authorized the sale the same year. On 30 December 1443,
Zbigniew Oleśnicki, the
bishop of Kraków, bought Siewierz from
Wenceslaus I of Cieszyn, who was deeply in debts then. The sale was for 6,000
Prague groschen. The bishops of Kraków became
dukes of Siewierz, the duchy became
de facto a part of the
Polish Crown, and the town became the seat of the
bishops of Kraków. They also constructed a castle in Siewierz. Through these events, Siewierz again became part of
Lesser Poland, where it remains to this day. Polish
Baroque poet stayed in the town in the early 17th century. In 1790, near to the doom of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the
ecclesiastic duchy of Siewierz was incorporated directly into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1795, Siewierz was annexed by
Prussia in the
Third Partition of Poland, and included in the new province of
New Silesia. In 1800, the seat of the bishop moved away from the town. In 1807,
Napoleon recreated the
duchy of Siewierz as a principality (
Sievers), and granted it to
Jean Lannes, after Prussia was forced to cede all her acquisitions from the Second and Third
Partitions of Poland. After the defeat of Napoleon, Siewierz was included in
Congress Poland, under
Imperial Russian rule. The town declined continuously, due to the lacking of industry and communication. During the
January Uprising, in February 1863, Siewierz was captured by Polish insurgents after their victory in the
Battle of Sosnowiec nearby. In 1870, it lost its
city status as part of Tsarist anti-Polish repressions following the fall of the January Uprising. In 1918, Poland regained independence, and Siewierz became part of the
Second Polish Republic. During the German
invasion of Poland, which started
World War II in September 1939, Siewierz was invaded and captured by
Nazi Germany, and already on September 4, 1939, German troops committed a massacre of 10
Poles in the town, including one woman and several teenagers (see
Nazi crimes against the Polish nation). The town was then
occupied by Germany until 1945. In 1962 it regained its
city status. ==Sights==