called
dworek, dating back to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The pictured house is one of the city's most precious buildings The area of Kielce has been inhabited since at least the 5th century BC. Until the 6th or 7th century, the banks of the Silnica were inhabited by
Celts. They were driven out by a
Lechitic tribe of
Vistulans who started hunting in the nearby huge forests and had settled most of the area now known as
Lesser Poland and present-day Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. The lands of Wiślanie were at first subdued by
Bohemia, however they soon came under the control of the
Piast dynasty and became a part of the emerging Polish state. The area of the
Holy Cross Mountains was almost unpopulated until the 11th century when the first hunters established permanent settlements at the outskirts of the mountains. They needed a place to trade furs and meat for grain and other necessary products, and so the market of Kielce was formed. In the early 12th century the new settlement became a property of the
Bishops of Kraków, who built a wooden church and a manor. In 1171 a stone church was erected by bishop Gedeon Gryf. During the times of
Wincenty Kadłubek a parochial school in Kielce was opened in 1229. By 1295 the town was granted
city rights. In the mid-13th century the town was destroyed by the
Mongol invasion of
Ögedei Khan, but it quickly recovered. Within the Polish Kingdom, Kielce was administratively located in the
Sandomierz Voivodeship in the
Lesser Poland Province. The area around Kielce was rich in minerals such as
copper ore,
lead ore, and
iron, as well as limestone. In the 15th century Kielce became a significant centre of metallurgy. There were also several glass factories and armourer shops in the town. In 1527 bishop Piotr Tomicki founded a bell for the church and between 1637 and 1642
Mannerist palace was erected near the market place by Bishop
Jakub Zadzik. It is one of the very few examples of French Renaissance architecture in Poland and the only example of a magnate's manor from the times of
Vasa dynasty to survive World War II. During
the Deluge the town was pillaged and burnt by the
Swedes. Only the palace and the church survived, but the town managed to recover under the rule of bishop
Andrzej Załuski. During the
Great Northern War it was the site of a battle between Swedish forces under
Charles XII and Polish and Saxon forces under the Polish-Lithuanian king
Augustus II. By 1761 Kielce had more than 4,000 inhabitants. In 1789 Kielce were
nationalized and the burgers were granted the right to elect their own representatives in
Sejm. The 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Polish
Crown Army was stationed in Kielce in 1789. Until the end of the century the city's economy entered a period of fast growth. A
brewery was founded as well as several brick factories, a horse breeder, hospital.
Foreign partitions of Poland , 1863 As a result of the
Third Partition of Poland the city was annexed by
Austria. During the
Austro-Polish War of 1809 it was captured by prince
Józef Poniatowski and joined with the Napoleon controlled
Duchy of Warsaw, but after the fall of
Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815 it was joined with
Russian-controlled Congress Poland. For a brief period when Kraków was an independent
city-state (
Republic of Kraków), Kielce became the capital of the
Kraków Voivodeship. Thanks to the efforts by
Stanisław Staszic Kielce became the centre of the newly established Old-Polish Industrial Zone (
Staropolski Okręg Przemysłowy). The town grew quickly as new mines, quarries and factories were constructed. In 1816 the first Polish technical university was founded in Kielce. However, after Staszic's death the Industrial Zone declined and in 1826 the school was moved to
Warsaw and became the
Warsaw University of Technology. In 1830 many of the inhabitants of Kielce took part in the
November Uprising against Russia. In 1844, priest began organising a local revolt to liberate Kielce from the Russian yoke, for which he was
sent to Siberia. In 1863 Kielce took part in the
January Uprising. As a reprisal for insubordination the tsarist authorities closed all Polish schools and turned Kielce into a military garrison city. The
Polish language was banned. Because of these actions many
gymnasium students took part in the
1905 Revolution and were joined by factory workers.
Sovereign Poland with the
Polish Legions in Kielce, in front of the
Governor's Palace, 1914 After the outbreak of
World War I, Kielce was the first Polish city to be liberated from Russian rule by the
Polish Legions under
Józef Piłsudski. After the war when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of Partitions, Kielce became the capital of Kielce Voivodeship. The plans to strengthen Polish heavy and war industries resulted in Kielce becoming one of the main nodes of the
Central Industrial Area (
Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy). The town housed several big factories, among them the munitions factory "Granat" and the food processing plant "Społem".
Second World War During the
Polish Defensive War of 1939, the main portion of the defenders of
Westerplatte as well as the armoured brigade of General
Stanisław Maczek were either from Kielce or from its close suburbs. During the
German occupation that lasted for most of the
Second World War, the city was an important centre of
resistance. There were several resistance groups active in the town, including
Armia Krajowa (AK) and
Gwardia Ludowa (GL). Following the invasion, the German
Einsatzgruppe II entered the city to commit various
atrocities against the population, and the occupiers established a special court in Kielce. In September–November 1939, the Germans also operated a temporary
Dulag transit camp for some 3,000
Polish prisoners of war. The POWs were held in poor conditions, there were cases of
dysentery and
typhoid fever, and 18 POWs were executed by the Germans. Among the victims were teachers, priests, and local political and social activists, including women. Arrested Poles were either imprisoned in the local prison, deported to
concentration camps or massacred, with a notable massacre of 63 people committed by the Germans on 12 June 1940 at a local stadium. Many Poles from the prison in Kielce were also murdered in the Brzask forest near
Skarżysko-Kamienna on 29 June 1940. At least five local
Polish boy scouts were killed by the Germans during the war. of World War II Notable acts of resistance included theft of 2 tons of TNT from the "Społem" factory run by the Nazis, which were then used by the partisans to make hand grenades. Also, the daring escape from jail in Kielce of a dozen or so AK members, organized in November 1942 by Stanisław Depczyński. Not to mention, a grenade attack by a unit of the GL on the Smoleński coffee shop, killing 6 Germans including a major in the
SS (February 1943), as well as the assassination of the noted
Gestapo informant Franz Wittek on 15 June 1944, by a unit under Second Lt. Kazimierz Smolak on the corner of Solna and Paderewski Streets. One of the attackers died during the attack and a further four lost their lives not long afterwards. This was not the first assassination attempt against Wittek. In 1942, Henryk Pawelec fired at him in the market square, but his pistol misfired. In February 1943, a unit under the command of Stanisław Fąfar shot at Wittek by the Seminarium building. Wittek, though wounded by 14 bullets, survived. Successful assassinations of local collaborators, including the shooting of Jan Bocian took place in broad daylight at a shop in Bodzentyńska Street. Similar was the attack on the factory of C. Wawrzyniak in March 1943, terrorizing and disarming the
volksdeutscher workers and destroying the machinery, as well as the attack on the
HASAG factory in May 1943 and the takeover of the Kielce Herbskie railway station. The underground
University of the Western Lands gave secret lectures in Kielce. From 1942 to 1944, the Germans operated a collection camp for
Soviet POWs, seen as potential collaborators. In 1944, during and following the
Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported thousands of Varsovians from the
Dulag 121 camp in
Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Kielce. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. On the eve of the Second World War there were about 18,000 Jews in the city. Between the onset of war and March 1940, the Jewish population of Kielce expanded to 25,400 (35% of all residents), with trains of dispossessed Jews arriving under the escort of German
Order Police battalions from the
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. Immediately after the German
occupation of Poland in September 1939, all Jews were ordered to wear a
Star of David on their outer garments. Jewish–owned factories in Kielce were confiscated by the
Gestapo, stores and shops along the main thoroughfares liquidated, and ransom fines introduced. The
forced labour and deportations to concentration camps culminated in mass extermination of Jews of Kielce during
the Holocaust in occupied Poland. In April 1941, the
Kielce Ghetto was formed, surrounded by high fences, barbed wire, and guards. The gentile Poles were ordered to vacate the area and the Jews were given one week to relocate. The ghetto was split in two, along Warszawska Street (Nowowarszawska) with the Silnica River
(pl) running through it. Meanwhile, expulsions elsewhere and deportations to Kielce continued until August 1942 at which time there were 27,000 prisoners crammed in the ghetto. Trains with Jewish families arrived from the entire
Kielce Voivodeship, and also from
Vienna,
Poznań, and
Łódź. During the
Cold War, many Jewish historians theorized that the pogrom became the cause of outward Jewish emigration from Poland immediately following the opening of the borders in 1947. Nevertheless, the true reasons behind the dramatic increase of Jewish emigration from Poland were far more complex. The new government of the
Communist Poland signed a repatriation agreement with the Soviet Union helping over 150,000 Holocaust survivors leave the Soviet Union legally. Poland was the only
Eastern Bloc country to allow free and unrestricted Jewish
Aliyah to the nascent
State of Israel, upon the conclusion of World War II. After the Kielce pogrom
Gen. Spychalski of PWP signed a legislative decree allowing the remaining survivors to leave Poland without visas or exit permits. Poland was the only
Eastern Bloc country to do so, at war's end. == Geography ==