Olkusz County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (

powiat A ''powiat'' (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (Local administrative unit, LAU-1 ormerly Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS-4 ...

) in

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). Its capital and largest city is Kraków. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a h ...

, southern

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 came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the

Polish local government reforms The administrative division of Poland since 1999 has been based on three levels of subdivision. The territory of Poland is divided into ''voivodeships'' (provinces); these are further divided into ''powiats'' (counties or districts), and these i ...

passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is

Olkusz Olkusz ( ''Elkish'') is a town in southern Poland with 36,607 inhabitants (2014). Situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Katowice Voivodeship (1975–1998), it is the capital of Olkusz County. Olkusz is known for its ...

, which lies north-west of the regional capital

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. The county also contains the towns of

Bukowno Bukowno is a town in Olkusz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. Before 1975 it belonged to the Kraków Voivodeship (1945–1975), Kraków Voivodeship and in 1975-1998 to the Katowice Voivodeship. Bukowno is located in western part of Less ...

, lying west of Olkusz, and Wolbrom, north-east of Olkusz. The county covers an area of . As of 2008 its total population is 113,910, out of which the population of Olkusz is 37,552, that of Bukowno is 10,695, that of Wolbrom is 9,075, and the rural population is 56,964.

Neighbouring counties

Olkusz County is bordered by

Zawiercie County __NOTOC__ Zawiercie County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. ...

to the north,

Miechów County __NOTOC__ Miechów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on 1 January 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 19 ...

to the east,

Kraków County __NOTOC__ Kraków County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 199 ...

to the south-east,

Chrzanów County __NOTOC__ Chrzanów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1 ...

to the south-west, and the city of

Dąbrowa Górnicza Dąbrowa Górnicza () is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, southern Poland, near Katowice and Sosnowiec. It is located in eastern part of the Silesian Voivodeship, on the Czarna Przemsza and Biała Przemsza rivers (tributaries of the Vistula Rive ...

and

Będzin County __NOTOC__ Będzin County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on 1 January 1999 as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its ...

to the west.

Administrative division

The county is subdivided into six

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 ...

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

Industry

ZGH Boleslaw is a leading miner and producer of

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

products in eastern Europe. The history of zinc mining in the area dates to the 12th century when

Casimir II the Just Casimir II the Just (; 28 October 1138 – 5 May 1194) was a Lesser Polish Duke of Wiślica from 1166 to 1173, and of Sandomierz after 1173. He became ruler over the Polish Seniorate Province at Kraków and thereby High Duke of Poland in 1177; a ...

set up a mining settlement in the old area of Olkusz. The company has modernized its plants, and earned an

ISO 9001 The ISO 9000 family is a set of international standards for quality management systems. It was developed in March 1987 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to help organizations ensure that they meet ...

certificate. ZGH Boleslaw
Manufacturing Today, 06/10/2008

References

External links

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