WÄ…chock
Wąchock is a Polish city in the powiat Starachowicki the Holy Cross Voivodeship and also the seat of city and rural community. It is located five kilometers west of the county town Starachowice the river Kamienna and has about 2,800 inhabitants.
In addition to its tourist appeal, it is known in Poland because of the jokes about its inhabitants, comparable to the East Frisian jokes in Germany.
History
First mentioned was the place in the year 1179. Around the same time a Cistercian Monastery ( Monastery Wąchock ) was founded. 1454 received the monastic settlement near the city rights. In the following years, the monastery operated as a promoter of local mining. Since the 15th century, iron was smelted. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 and initially become Austro 1807-1815 part of the Duchy of Warsaw, Wąchock was Russian. The monastery was dissolved in 1818, the city rights were lost in 1870. In the January Uprising in 1863 a large group of rebels to Marian Langiewicz in Wąchock gathered. In 1885, the connection to the railway network. In the time of the German occupation in World War II, a numerical great partisan movement in the surrounding forests was active.
In the years 1975-1998 Wąchock belonged to the Province of Kielce. 1994 again received city rights.
Attractions
- Complex of the former Cistercian abbey: Late Romanesque St. Florian's Church from the 13th century, the Interior of the late Baroque period buildings from the 16th and 17th century, this convent, palace of the abbot and two old monastery gates (second in the 19th Century rebuilt as a pharmacy)
- Monument to the " mayor of Wąchock ", one of the central figures of the jokes about the city
- Ruins of old metal factory in the first half of the 19th century Palace of the owners in 1850, three workshops, the remains of a lock on the river Kamienna. The factory was then a part founded by Stanisław Staszic industrial complex. Since about 1890 to 1945 factory owned by a German family of Schoenberg.
Gmina
For urban and rural community Wąchock include the five Soltysships Marcinków, Parszów, Rataje, Węglów and Wielka Wies.