Stąporków is a town with 6,200 inhabitants in

Końskie County __NOTOC__ Końskie County ( pl, powiat konecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government ...

Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship The Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, also known as the Świętokrzyskie Province, and the Holy Cross Voivodeship ( pl, województwo świętokrzyskie ) is a voivodeship (province) of Poland situated in southeastern part of the country, in the histo ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The town belongs to the historic province of

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...

History

The town's name is probably derived from the name of the owner, Stąpor. In the past, it also used to be called Stomporków. The history of Stąporków dates back to the mid-16th century, and is associated with early ironworks, which was part of the

Old-Polish Industrial Region {{unreferenced, date=March 2017 Staropolski Okręg Przemysłowy (Old Polish Industrial Region) is an industrial region in northern part of Lesser Poland. It is the oldest and in terms of area covered, largest of Polish industrial regions. Most of th ...

. It was a private village, administratively located in the Żarnów County in the

Sandomierz Voivodeship Sandomierz Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo Sandomierskie, la, Palatinatus Sandomirensis) 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 ...

in the

Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = ProwincjaMalopolska.png , image_map ...

. In 1738–1739 a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

was built here by Polish Crown Chancellor Jan Małachowski. In 1781, Count

Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden (23 March 1752 – 3 July 1815) was a German pioneer in mining and metallurgy. He was born in Hamelin in the Electorate of Hanover and died in Schloss Buchwald in Prussian Silesia. Life Reden came from the no ...

, a German pioneer in mining and metallurgy, visited Stąporków. At that time, the village's furnace produced a

hundredweight The hundredweight (abbreviation: cwt), formerly also known as the centum weight or quintal, is a British imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass. Its value differs between the US and British imperial systems. The two values are distingu ...

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...

per week, more than similar plants in Upper Silesia. In 1838 the Małachowski family expanded and modernized the plant. An old blast furnace was replaced by two modern ones. Between 1876 and 1895, new upgrades and expansions of the plant took place. Despite the widespread destruction and requisition of equipment during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the plant operated until 1938, and the buildings survived until 1945, when they were destroyed during heavy fighting. During the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

(

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

), on April 4, 1940, German gendarmes committed a massacre of the family of Marian Gut, an 18-year-old soldier of the local Polish resistance. In the massacre, his parents, 12-year-old brother and 2-year-old sister were murdered and the family's house was burned down. There is a memorial at the site. After World War II, the local industry was reopened, and

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

mining was initiated. The iron foundry in 1961 employed 1,100 people, and Stąporków population increased from 700 in 1946 to 3,472 in 1961. In 1967 Stąporków received municipal rights, and in the late 1960s, a Health Centre, a Gymnasium, and a sports hall were built.

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Końskie County Sandomierz Voivodeship Radom Governorate Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939) Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939) Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland Sites of World War II massacres of Poles