10 Architectural Gems of Kielce & Surroundings

_dworzec_pks_ag.jpg, default, Kielce Bus Station, 2020, photo: Wojciech Habdas / AG

The boulder fields of Poland’s Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Voivodeship are a source of fascination for geologists and lovers of spectacular landscapes alike. However, Kielce and its surroundings have much more than that to offer – including valuable and unique buildings representing architectural styles from the distant past up to the contemporary times.

The Wooden Architecture Route

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The Church of St. Stephen in Mnichów, photo: Jarosław Kubalski / AG

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The Wooden Architecture Route, located in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, is slightly over 200 km long. Devised by the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Regional Tourist Organisation, it comprises a few dozen architectural objects, built ages ago, which represent the highest quality of old-time carpentry and wood construction. The attractions to be seen on the route include Poland’s oldest wooden church in Zborówek, built in 1459, and a baroque, 18th-century church in Mnichów; the route follows the trail of 17th-century temples and 19th-century wooden chapels. The Świętokrzyskie Wooden Architecture Route joins other similar routes running through the neighbouring voivodeships: Silesian, Subcarpathian and Lesser Poland.

The Defence Architecture Route

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The Szydłów Castle, photo: Janusz Gniadek / PAP

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The area of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship was already quite well-developed in the early years of Poland’s existence as a state – it’s here that the first settlements of the Slavic peoples grew. No wonder, then, that from the Middle Ages on, defence buildings were raised around the entire region to protect the land’s inhabitants. The Defence Architecture Route, created to follow these objects, leads through castles and hillforts – preserved either in their original state or as ruins – as well as through palaces, courts and churches raised for the purpose of defence. The most famous ones include the castle ruins in Chęciny, the ruins of the Krzyżtopór (Crossaxe) castle, the Kurozwęki castle and the Cistercian abbey in Jędrzejów, which also possesses features of a defence object. The 500 km long route also comprises Szydłów – a well-preserved mediaeval settlement developed as a defensive fort.

Palace of the Kraków Bishops in Kielce

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Palace of the Kraków Bishops in Kielce, photo: Michał Walczak / PAP

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This is one of the most beautiful early baroque residences preserved up to this day. Raised in the first half of the 17th century, the palace was designed by Italian architects, who created a vast palace complex for the Crown Deputy Chancellor and bishop of Kraków Jakub Zadzik on Kielce’s Castle Hill. The edifice, equipped with four towers and arcaded loggias, is located behind a large plaza on one side and surrounded with a multi-level decorative Italian garden on the other.

Despite its stormy history and several consecutive extensions, the main corpus of the palace (often called a ‘castle’ due to its defence form) has retained plenty of its original 17th-century structural elements up to this day. The same pertains to the original décor of the façade and the interior, e.g. the baroque stonework details, sgraffito decorations, the polychromes, mouldings, portals and hearthstones. Today, the palace is home to the National Museum.

Sandomierz

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The Sandomierz Royal Castle (currently a Regional Museum), photo: Wojciech Pacewicz / Forum

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From among Sandomierz’s numerous landmarks, it’s difficult to choose just one that would be most noteworthy. The most valuable ones include the gothic cathedral, whose oldest walls date back to the 14th century and which was endowed with a new façade and interior decorations after a baroque reconstruction in the 17th century. The town, scenically located on the River Wisła’s bankside, also boasts the 13th-century Church of St James with Romanesque elements; the not-much-younger Brama Opatowska (Opatowska Gate); the Sandomierz Royal Castle, which served as the residence of Polish kings from the 14th century; the Town Hall in the centre of the Old Town Square, whose origins date back to the gothic period; and numerous historic townhouses, the oldest of which originate from the 17th century. The charm of this historic settlement derives not only from the abundance of valuable architectural landmarks, but also from the preserved urban layout, which endows the town with a unique atmosphere – allowing one to imagine the character of the urban sprawl from several ages ago.

Testifying to the atmospheric quality of Sandomierz is how often the town has inspired artists, such as the writers who have chosen it as the background for the plot of their works or for important reflections. The small corridor between walls called ‘Needle’s Eye’ was Wiesław Myśliwski’s starting point for reflecting on the human fate, history and humanity.

Collegiate Basilica of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wiślica

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Collegiate Basilica of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wiślica, photo: Dawid Lasociński / Forum

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According to a legend, this settlement was established on the River Nida bankside in the second half of the 9th century by Wiślimir, the Prince of the Vistulans, who made it his capital. It’s known for certain that 100 years later Wiślica was the region’s important urban centre, further gaining significance throughout the following centuries. The fort was surrounded by walls with four gateways, and the subsequent Polish kings build their castles and churches there. The Swedish deluge put an end to Wiślica’s magnificence, which brough destruction to the majority of the town.

It’s Kazimierz Wielki who funded the Wiślica castle (not preserved) and the gothic temple in the place of an old, small Romanesque church. The basilica now constitutes not only a reminder of Wiślica’s past greatness, but it’s also one of Poland’s most valuable mediaeval architectural landmarks. Wiślica’s mid-14th-century collegiate church was built with stone, and the interior still boasts a multitude of valuable architectural details, sculptures and frescoes.

The Wąchock Cistercian Abbey

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The Wąchock Cistercian Abbey, photo: Piotr Polak / PAP

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Gedeon (Gedko), the 12th-century bishop of Kraków, was a significant figure who attempted to influence the actions of monarchs: he took part in the successful attempt to overthrow Prince Mieszko the Old. He also had the power to fund or support the Church’s investments. He contributed to the development of cloisters in Jędrzejów, Miechów and Sulejów, and in 1171, he funded the collegiate church in Kielce. Eight years later, he brought the Cistercians to Wąchock. It’s for them that the abbey on the River Kamienna bankside was raised. Extended throughout the centuries, the abbey has retained some of the masses built at the beginning of its existence. Amongst them is the monastery’s wing with an invaluable Romanesque chapterhouse, early gothic refectory and a Romanesque church built with two-coloured dimension stone.

Blast Furnace Plant in Samsonów (ruins of the Józef smelter)

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Blast Furnace Plant in Samsonów (ruins of the Józef smelter), photo: Michał Walczak / PAP

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The Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship is famous not only for its valuable architectural heritage buildings, but also for its industrial relics. Industry was already developing in this region in the prehistoric times – striped flint mines were in use here as early as in 3900 to 1600 B.C. (in 2019, the Krzemionki region of prehistoric flint mining was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List). An ironworks (the so-called Świętokrzyskie Bloomeries) existed here in the region in year 1 B.C., and plenty of natural raw materials were mined and processed here.

There are numerous extraordinarily valuable objects amongst the relics of historical industry preserved in the area, and some of them hold architectural value as well. Curious instances of architecture include the ruins of old smelter Józef in Samsonów, created in the first half of the 19th century at the initiative of Stanisław Staszic himself. Although the smelter functioned for a short time – it was consumed by a fire in 1866 and wasn’t rebuilt afterwards – the ruins of a huge furnace and the factory building still stand preserved. They form an extraordinary architectural structure, resembling the remnants of a palace rather than those of an industrial building. Here, one can still observe the play of mass proportions as well as many details.

Świętokrzyski Shtetl, Chmielnik

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The Synagogue in Chmielnik, photo: MOs810 / Wikimedia.org

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The educational-museum centre known as the ‘Świętokrzyski Shtetl’ was opened in Chmielnik in 2013. The facility, located in a renovated synagogue, aims to cultivate the memory of the Jewish people who once inhabited the region – but it’s also a place of cultural and social activity. At the moment of the outbreak of World War Two, Jews comprised 80% of Chmielnik’s population; they mostly engaged in manufacturing and trade, sat on the city council, and had their own cultural institutions and organisations.

In 2008, the authorities of the town, now with a population of less than 4, 000 inhabitants, decided to renovate the ruined synagogue, turning it into a cultural centre and museum devoted to sharing the Jewish history of Chmielnik. The refurbished synagogue includes a theatre and a conference room, but also a prayer room and a multimedia exhibition – whose highlight is a full-scale glass reconstruction of a decorative bimah that once found itself in the temple. The exhibition in the Chmielnik synagogue (including the extraordinary glass bimah) was designed by Nizio Design studio, which is also responsible for the permanent expositions in the Warsaw Rising Museum and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

University of Warsaw’s European Centre for Geological Education in Chęciny

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European Centre for Geological Education in Chęciny, designed by W X C A studio, 2015, photo: Daniel Ciesielski / W X C A

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Europejskie Centrum Edukacji Geologicznej w Chęcinach, projekt: pracownia W X C A, 2015, fot. Daniel Ciesielski  / W X C A

The aim of establishing University of Warsaw’s European Centre for Geological Education in Chęciny (ECEG) was to create a modern scientific facility and thus help to integrate researchers from the entire world in a place particularly valuable and interesting for geologists. However, the University of Warsaw also wanted the object to be characterised by unconventional architecture, effectively inscribed into the landscape. In a 2012 competition, the jury distinguished a project by Marek Budzyński and one by studio WXCA. The execution of the first one turned out to be too difficult and costly, so the building raised according to the vision of the Warsaw-based WXCA team was officially opened in 2015.

At the bottom of a quarry, the architects built a complex of four pavilions with green roofs and elevations covered with local stone. Due to breaking the building up into four smaller masses, the centre merges with the landscape. It’s been successfully inscribed into the surroundings, completing rather than disturbing the rocky landscape of the quarry. Architects also point to another aspect of the project. As they observe in their own description:

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The emergent landscape, transformed by human intervention, invites one to reflect on the meaning of natural resources, their exploitation and the way we manage them. The juxtaposition of a raw, rocky bluff with steady, geometric forms of monolithic, stony objects and the spectacular cut out of the main building’s patio constitutes a direct reference to the history of the place where the minerals of Chęciny – these underground treasures – were mined.

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Trans. AP

Kielce Bus Station

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Kielce Bus Station, 2020, photo: Wojciech Habdas / AG

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Designed in the late 1970s and put into operation in 1984, the PKS bus station in Kielce (or Kielce Transportation Centre) has been one of the most extraordinary Polish buildings ever since it was raised. The perfectly devised transportation system, enabling both buses and pedestrians to move about efficiently, was given a spaceship-like form by the architects and engineers under the direction of Edward Modrzejewski. Although the building has somewhat gone to rack and ruin throughout the years, losing its original charm, the townspeople of Kielce stood up and defended it a decade ago, when a developer wanted to tear it down.

In 2017, the spaceship-like mass came into the possession of the local authorities, who organised a tender for the stations’ modernisation project, intending to maintain both the form and the function of the object. The competition was won by the Kamiński Bojarowicz Architects studio, and their project was carried out. In August 2020, the PKS station in Kielce, now the Transportation Centre, began a new life, once again becoming the symbol of the city – a well-liked, characteristic object, as well as a modern bus station.

Originally written in Polish, translated by Anna Potoczny, Jul 2021

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