__NOTOC__ Sandomierz County ( pl, powiat sandomierski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (

powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powiat ...

) in

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 his ...

, south-central

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 populou ...

. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Prov ...

, which lies east of the regional capital

Kielce Kielce (, yi, קעלץ, Keltz) is a city in southern 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 ban ...

. The county also contains the towns of Koprzywnica, lying south-west of Sandomierz, and

Zawichost Zawichost is a small town (ca. 1,800 inhabitants ) in Sandomierz County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland. It is located by the Vistula River in Lesser Poland, near Sandomierz. It is first mentioned in historical documents from around 1148. I ...

, north-east of Sandomierz. The county covers an area of . As of 2019 its total population is 77,352, out of which the population of Sandomierz is 23,494, that of Koprzywnica is 2,470, that of Zawichost is 1,771, and the rural population is 49,617.

Neighbouring counties

Sandomierz County is bordered by Kraśnik County to the north-east, Stalowa Wola County to the east, the city of Tarnobrzeg and Tarnobrzeg County to the south, and Staszów County and Opatów County to the west.

Administrative division

The county is subdivided into nine

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

s (one urban, two urban-rural and six rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.

History of the area

The recorded history of the Sandomierz County area dates back to the mid-14th century, when King

Kazimierz Wielki Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He ...

(reigned 1333–1370) reformed the territorial structure of Poland. Since Sandomierz had already been one of the most important cities of the kingdom, and the seat of a

castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant ...

, the castellany was replaced by a county. Until the first partition of Poland in 1772 Sandomierz County had the area of 6290 sq. kilometers. Stretched along both banks of the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

, in 1667 it included such towns, as Opatow, Polaniec, Staszow, Wachock,

Rudnik nad Sanem Rudnik nad Sanem (until 1997 ''Rudnik'', yi, רודניק ''Ridnik'') is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, with a population of 6,765 (02.06.2009). The town is located next to the river San, hence the "nad Sanem" (on ...

, Nowa Slupia,

Mielec Mielec ( yi, מעליץ-Melitz) is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 wa ...

and Ozarow. Sandomierz County also formed part of the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

, of Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian 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. I ...

(as part of the Radom Governorate), and of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

(as part of the Kielce Voivodeship (1919–39)).

References

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