Bałtów is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

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 ...

, in southeastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. 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 Bałtów. It lies approximately northeast 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 ...

and 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 ...

History

The village dates back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and the rule of the

Piast dynasty The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented List of Polish monarchs, Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I of Poland, Mieszko I (–992). The Poland during the Piast dynasty, Piasts' royal rule in Pol ...

in Poland. Bałtów's first church, dedicated to Saint Andrew, probably existed in the 11th century. The 15th-century Polish chronicler

Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...

mentioned the Bałtów in his chronicles. In the

early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

Bałtów was a private village 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 ...

of the

Polish Crown The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (; ) was a political and legal concept formed in the 14th century in the Kingdom of Poland, assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state. Under this idea, the state was no longer seen as the pa ...

. The village often changed owners, including politicians

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 ...

and

Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki Prince Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki (. ; 4 January 1778–10 May 1846) was an important Polish people, Polish politician, freemason and diplomat of the first half of the 19th century. He served as the minister (government), minister of the ...

. For a short period it was a town, getting

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

before 1751 and losing them before 1790.Robert Krzysztofik, ''Lokacje miejskie na obszarze Polski. Dokumentacja geograficzno-historyczna'', Katowice 2007, pp. 18-19 Bałtów ceased to be a private village in 1864.

Places of interest

* Large dinopark (called JuraPark) * Drucki-Lubecki Palace from the 19th century * Church of Our Lady of Sorrows dated to 1697 * Watermill from the 19th century * A 19th-century cemetery with the chapel of the Drucki-Lubecki family * Wooden chapel of St. John of Nepomuk File:Baltow church 20060916 1435.jpg, Church of Our Lady of Sorrows File:Baltow 20060916 1414.jpg, Drucki-Lubecki Palace File:Baltow - Mlyn wodny (2).JPG, Watermill from the 19th century File:Iguanodon - Deinonych - JuraPark Baltow.JPG, JuraPark

References

External links

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Villages in Ostrowiec County {{Ostrowiec-geo-stub