Every design for Radom

Did you grow up hearing planes over Radom every other summer? The Radom Air Show, the largest in the country, is only one of the things that tie people to this city on the Mleczna, south of Warsaw.

What makes Radom unusual is how much of Polish history passed through it. It was a royal city and the seat of the Crown Treasure Tribunal; the Sejm met here and adopted the Nihil novi statute; and in June 1976 the city was at the centre of protests against the communist government. It also gave its name to a pistol, made by the Łucznik Arms Factory, which still produces firearms for the Polish Armed Forces. Through it all, Radom kept its medieval street layout, and the Kościół pw. Świętego Wacława, the oldest surviving church in the city, the Mury miejskie and the Muzeum im. Jacka Malczewskiego hold its memory.

Today the city also hosts the Radom Jazz Festival and the International Gombrowicz Theatre Festival. But for someone from here, Radom is mostly a feeling of return: the Mleczna valley, the old town, the walk home.