Położone przy trasie E77 Chęciny przyciągają wzrok przejeżdżających wznoszącymi się nad miastem majestatycznymi ruinami zamku, na którym po zmroku przechadza się Biała Dama. Sama gmina Chęciny zaskoczy cię ukrytymi w lasach rezerwatami na obszarze Geoparku Świętokrzyskiego oraz miejscami o niebanalnej historii.
Zamek na straży Chęcin
History in the shadow of a fortress
The present location of the town is connected with a castle built on a hill. As early as 1318, the treasures of Gniezno Cathedral were deposited there. Before 1325, the servile settlements located near Zamkowa Góra were granted town rights and the name of the nearby village - Chęciny. Knightly conventions were held here with the participation of the king. In 1363. Casimir the Great established a castle starosty there and granted the town the village of Polichno, completed the construction of a parish church initiated by the Lokietek, and in 1368 founded a Franciscan monastery.
The castle was regarded as the most powerful Polish fortress in the 14th century. It was governed by a governor and defended by 150 soldiers. Casimir the Great designated it as the seat of the royal widows. His second wife Adelaide and his sister Elisabeth resided here. From the end of the 14th century it was used as a prison, including the imprisonment of Władysław Jagiełło's brother, Andrew Wingold, for rebelling against him. Teutonic Knights were also imprisoned here after the victory at Grunwald (even the Teutonic Master, Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg). In the 16th century, Queen Bona deposited her ‘Neapolitan sums’ in the castle (30,000 ducats) before she took them to Italy.
Chęciny experienced its greatest heyday from the 15th century onwards as the seat of the district authorities and a nationally renowned copper and lead ore mining centre. At the time of its greatest boom, during the reign of the reeve Jan Plaza of Mstyczów, there were 33 mines in the Chęciny area. From the 16th century, rock mining also began to develop. Local ‘marbles’ were used to decorate palaces in Kielce, the Wawel Castle in Kraków, the
Warsaw Castle, numerous churches and city squares.
In the second half of the 16th century, Chęciny was a medium-sized town. It had its own hospital, bathhouse, annual fair, 9 guild organisations of craftsmen and nearly 2,000 inhabitants. The size of the town and its crafts attracted numerous visitors. Foreigners were eager to settle here.
The town's development was interrupted by the Swedish Wars in the 17th century. Attempts to restore its splendour by Stanisław August Poniatowski and Stanisław Staszic were unsuccessful. However, since the mid-19th century it has slowly regained its importance as a commercial centre.
HISTORIC CHĘCINY TODAY
2 Czerwca Square (the Large Market Square) - together with a grid of narrow medieval streets it forms a historic urban layout. The square is surrounded by two-storey houses with gates and passageways to the farm buildings in the back yard. The most impressive building is the Town Hall, the current seat of the Town and Municipal Council, built in 1837. On the western side of the square, the classicist stone building with a sign above the gate catches the eye.
Castle- built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries on a hill (360 m above sea level) as an upland-type fortress. In the oldest part between the two cylindrical towers there was a courtyard with a residential building. A chapel with a treasury above it was adjacent to the eastern tower. In 1576 the courtyard was enclosed in 1576 the courtyard was enclosed with galleries, the tower was added with bricks and the castle was extended by a large courtyard with a rectangular tower.
Post-Franciscan church and monastery- founded by Casimir the Great in 1368. During the Reformation it housed a Calvinist congregation. The entire building is maintained in the Gothic style despite numerous alterations.
Niemczówka- a Renaissance tenement house built in 1570. It belonged to Valente and Anna of the Niemcz-Września family, as evidenced by a stone cartouche framing the entrance to one of the rooms. Today, there is a tourist and historical information centre in Niemczówka.
The Old Synagogue
Jewish Cultural Memorial Centre was established in the former synagogue building as a result of many years' efforts by the Chęciny Municipality and the City of Chęciny to restore the 17th-century synagogue, a testimony to the rich, four-century culture and traditions of the Jews living in the Chęciny area.
Chęciny in the Swietokrzyski Geopark area
Chęciny is the most rich in earth treasures in the Swietokrzyski Geopark area, which has been included in the UNESCO world list of geoparks. Charming quarries, mountains ragged by miners with views for 1,000 likes, or caves created by nature itself. Chęciny and its surroundings hide many geological secrets.
Jaskinia Raj
Miedzianka Mountain
Zelejowa
Stokówka
Jaskinia Piekło
