Every design for Kielce

Kielce stands in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, the Holy Cross Mountains, on the banks of the little Silnica, and for centuries it belonged to the bishops of Kraków.

There is a legend people here grow up with. Mieszko, son of the king, lost his companions while hunting, fell asleep in a forest clearing and dreamed of bandits; when he woke he found a spring, and beside it the white tusks of some animal, perhaps a wild boar. He promised to build a town and a church on the spot, and the tusks, kieł in Polish, gave Kielce its name. Most linguists prefer a plainer origin, sprouting plants in the wetland, but the legend is the one everyone remembers.

The real history is no less rich: limestone quarries, copper, lead and iron, the first Polish public technical college founded here, and the Pałac Biskupów Krakowskich and the Bazylika Katedralna Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny at the centre of it all. Today it is the city of trade fairs, Kielecki mayonnaise and the handball club Iskra Kielce. If you came from here, you carry the hills with you.