Klimontów is a
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
in
Sandomierz County
__NOTOC__
Sandomierz County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms pa ...
,
Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship
Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship ( ), also known as Holy Cross Voivodeship, is a voivodeship (province) in southeastern Poland, in the historical region of Lesser Poland. The province's capital and largest city is Kielce. The voivodeship takes its ...
, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the
gmina
The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...
(administrative district) called
Gmina Klimontów
__NOTOC__
Gmina Klimontów is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Sandomierz County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Klimontów, Sandomierz County, Klimontów, which lies approximately w ...
. It lies on the
European route E371
The E 371 is part of the United Nations international E-road network. Approximately long, it runs from Radom, Poland south to Prešov, Slovakia.Lesser Polish Way
The Lesser Poland Way is one of the Polish routes of the Way of St. James, a medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It runs from Sandomierz to Kraków through the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the Świętokrzyskie Voivod ...
, approximately west of
Sandomierz
Sandomierz (pronounced: ; , ) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (), situated on the Vistula River near its confluence with the San, in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy ...
and south-east of the regional capital
Kielce
Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...
.
The village has a population of 2,000. Klimontów belongs to historic
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name ''Małopolska'' (; ), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate cult ...
.
History
The origins of Klimontów date back to the 13th century, when it was founded as village by
Klement of Ruszcza. On January 2, 1604, thanks to efforts of
Jan Zbigniew Ossolinski, it got a town charter. Administratively, it was located in the
Sandomierz Voivodeship
Sandomierz Voivodeship (, ) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Poland region and the Lesser Poland Province. Originally Sandomier ...
in the
Lesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1613 the town was granted a permission to organize 3
fair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...
s a year, and two years later, the construction of a
Dominican abbey was completed. In 1643-1646, a
collegiate church
In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...
was built, with financial support of
Jerzy Ossolinski
Jerzy is the Polish version of the masculine given name George. The most common nickname for Jerzy is Jurek (), which may also be used as an official first name. Occasionally the nickname Jerzyk may be used, which means "swift" in Polish.
Peop ...
. By 1663, Klimontów had 24 houses and 530 inhabitants, including 129
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
.
Following the
Third Partition of Poland
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...
, in 1795, it was annexed by
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. It was regained by Poles following the
Austro-Polish War
The Austro-Polish War or Polish-Austrian War was a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 (a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and allied states). In this war, Polish forces of ...
of 1809 and included within the short-lived
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...
, and after its dissolution in 1815, it became part of
Russian-controlled Congress Poland
Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...
. In 1827, the population was 1,314. Like several other locations in northern Lesser Poland, Klimontów lost its town charter after the
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
, in 1870. During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, in 1914 and 1915, there were bloody battles in the region between Austrian and Russian troops. Fallen Austrian soldiers were buried at a local parish cemetery. Following the war, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of the settlement. It had 6,000 inhabitants in 1921, but in 1939 it dropped to 4,500.
Following the joint German-Soviet
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
, which started
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in September 1939, Klimontów was
occupied by Germany. From 1941 to 1944, the occupiers operated a
forced labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
camp in the settlement. The
Polish resistance movement was active in the town, and on March 4, 1943, the
Jędrusie
Jędrusie (literally ''Little Andrews'') was a Polish underground guerrilla group during World War II, created in 1941.
History
Its origins go back to October 1939 in Tarnobrzeg, when a group of Polish Boy Scouts and gymnasium students j ...
organization seized the German warehouses located in the abbey. After the German atrocities and extermination of the Jewish population, the number of inhabitants fell to 2,200 by 1946.
On January 1, 2020, town rights were restored.
Sights
Among points of interest there are:
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
collegiate church of St. Joseph (1643-1646), St. Jack church (1617-1620), Dominican abbey (1620-1623), neo-classicistic synagogue (1851), and Roman Catholic cemetery (1843).
Culture
Klimontów was the birthplace of poet
Bruno Jasieński. Since 2002 the
Brunonalia festival, named after Jasieński, is held every summer in Klimontów.
References
See also
*
Lesser Polish Way
The Lesser Poland Way is one of the Polish routes of the Way of St. James, a medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It runs from Sandomierz to Kraków through the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the Świętokrzyskie Voivod ...
{{Gmina Klimontów
Cities and towns in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship
Sandomierz County
13th-century establishments in Poland
Populated places established in the 13th century