Ćmielów is a town in

Ostrowiec County __NOTOC__ Ostrowiec 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 ...

, Poland, seat of

Gmina Ćmielów __NOTOC__ Gmina Ćmielów is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Ostrowiec County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Ćmielów, which lies approximately south-east of Ostrowiec Świętokr ...

. As of December 2021, it has 2,954 inhabitants. It is known for one of Poland's oldest porcelain factories dating back to 1790. The town history dates back to 14th century. It has several tourist attractions, in addition to its old porcelain factory, including ruins of a 16th-century castle and a church from the same period. Ćmielów belongs to

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 ...

, and lies on the Kamienna river in the Sandomierz Upland, 10 kilometers east of

Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (), often referred to as Ostrowiec, is a city in southeastern Poland, in the historical region of Lesser Poland, with 66,258 residents (as of 2021). The town is one of the historic centers of Polish industry and metallurgy ...

, along local road nr. 755.

History

Village

First mention of the village comes from the 14th century. In 1388, brothers Marcin and Mikołaj from Baruchów sold the village and the castle to knight Gniewosz of Dalewice. In 1425 Ćmielów was bought by Jan of Podłodów, then the village was acquired by the noble Szydłowiecki family. At that time what today is Ćmielów was divided into two villages - Ćmielów itself, located in the vicinity of the castle, and nearby Szydłów. Both villages were merged in 1505, when in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

, King

Aleksander Jagiellon Alexander Jagiellon (; ; 5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1492 and King of Poland from 1501 until his death in 1506. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV and a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty. Alexander was el ...

granted town charter to the town of Ćmielów.

Town

The new town remained in the hands of the Szydłowiecki family, which turned it into one of their residences.

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Krzysztof Szydłowiecki Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1467–1532) was a Polish noble (szlachcic), magnate, and Count of Szydłowiec. He was courtier since 1496, Podstoli of Kraków, Treasurer and Marshal of the Court of Prince Zygmunt since 1505, Podkomorzy of Kr ...

invested in the castle, making it a Renaissance palace (1519-1531). In 1606, Ćmielów passed into the hands of the

Ostrogski family The House of Ostrogski (; ; ) was one of the more prominent families in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The family spanned from the 14th century Ruthenian noble Daniil Ostrogski ...

. Prosperity of the town came to an end during the

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense, it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, comprising the Pol ...

. On April 12, 1657, Swedish and Transylvanian armies met here, and the castle was the temporary residence of

George II Rakoczi George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorg ...

. United armies of the two powers destroyed most of Lesser Poland, together with Ćmielów. In the 18th century the town belonged to several families (

Lubomirski family The House of Lubomirski is a Polish princely family. The Lubomirski family's coat of arms is the Drużyna coat of arms, which is similar to the Szreniawa coat of arms but without a cross. Origin and the coat of arms The Lubomirski f ...

, Małachowski family, Pusłowski family), and in 1896 - to Prince Aleksander Drucki-Lubecki. Some time in the 18th century Ćmielów emerged as a center of

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

. In 1750, King

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...

issued a privilege to local artisans, allowing them to sell their products across the country. The privilege was confirmed in 1768, and either in 1804 or 1809, Count

Jacek Małachowski Jacek Małachowski (; 25 August 1737 – 27 March 1821) was a Polish nobleman, politician and administrator as well as Polish chancellor. He was the son of Jan Małachowski, also a Polish chancellor. One of his four brothers was Count Stanis ...

opened here a porcelain factory. In 1795, 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 ...

, Ćmielów 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 ...

. After the Polish victory in 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, it became part of 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 the duchy's 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 ...

. Following other towns of northern Lesser Poland, Ćmielów lost its town charter in 1869, as a punishment for 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 1915 it received a rail station, along a route from

Skarżysko-Kamienna Skarżysko-Kamienna () is a city in northern Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in south-central Poland by Kamienna (river), Kamienna river, to the north of Świętokrzyskie Mountains; one of the voivodship's major cities. Prior to 1928, it bore the name ...

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 ...

World War II

When the Germans occupied Ćmielów in September 1939, they began immediately to rob and starve the Jewish community. In June 1942, the Nazi Germans set up a Jewish ghetto in Ćmielów for about 1,500–2,000

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

, including all of Ćmielów's 500 Jews. Conditions worsened through hunger, overcrowding, and a

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

epidemic. In late October, 1942, some younger Jews were sent to labor camps, other Jews were murdered in the town, and some 900 Jews were sent to

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...

where they were immediately murdered by gassing. "Ćmielów – Historia,"
Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich ''Wirtualny Sztetl'' (

Museum of the History of the Polish Jews POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews () is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word ''Polin'' in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" and relates to a legend about the arrival of the firs ...

). Accessed July 6, 2011. Few of the Jewish community survived; after the war 16 Jews registered in the town but none stayed.

Modern town

Ćmielów regained its town charter in 1962.

Sights

Among points of interest are the ruins of the castle, parish church (first built in the late 14th century), roadside chapel (1850s), and the St. Florian figure. There is also the Living Porcelain Museum () in relation to the rich local tradition of porcelain production.

References

External sources

Official website
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Ostrowiec County Holocaust locations in Poland