The city is known for the famous Pauline monastery of Jasna Góra, which is the home of the Black Madonna painting, a shrine to the Virgin Mary.

The ruins of a medieval Royal Castle stand in Olsztyn, approximately 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the city centre (see also Trail of the Eagles' Nests).

A Lusatian culture cemetery from around 750–550 BC is located in the present-day district of Raków and it is now an Archaeological Reserve, a branch of the Częstochowa Museum.

It was first mentioned in historical documents from 1220, when Bishop of Kraków Iwo Odrowąż made a list of properties of the Mstów monastery.

In 1382 the Paulist monastery of Jasna Góra was founded by Vladislaus II of Opole – the Polish Piast prince of Upper Silesia.

[4] In the first half of the 17th century, kings of the House of Vasa turned the Jasna Góra Monastery into a modern Dutch-style fortress.

Unable to capture the fortified stronghold, they looted villages in the area, set Częstochowa on fire, and left towards Wieluń.

On 14–15 February 1792, a sejmik of the szlachta of northern part of Kraków Voivodeship (counties of Lelów and Książ Wielki) took place in Częstochowa.

Traditionally, local sejmiks were organized in Żarnowiec; the fact that it was moved to Częstochowa confirms the growing importance of the town.

In 1760, Jacob Frank, the leader of a Jewish sect mixing Kabbalah, Catholicism and Islam, was imprisoned for heresy in the monastery by the church.

On 2 April 1813 Jasna Góra was seized by the Russians (see War of the Sixth Coalition), after a two-week siege,[4] and the fortifications were razed that year.

In 1819, military architect Jan Bernhard planned and started the construction of Aleja Najświętszej Panny Marii—the Holy Virgin Mary Avenue, which is the main arterial road of the modern city.

[13] Częstochowa entered the 20th century as one of the leading industrial centres of Russian Poland (together with Warsaw, Łódź, and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie).

On 25 December 1904 a man named Wincenty Makowski tried to blow up a monument of Tsar Alexander II, which stood in front of the monastery.

Furthermore, German authorities closed down several factories, urging unemployed workers to migrate to Upper Silesia, where they replaced men drafted into the army.

Unlike the city of Częstochowa, since 26 April 1915 the Jasna Góra Monastery had been under the control and protection of Austria-Hungary, after the personal intervention of Emperor Franz Joseph I, who was a pious Roman Catholic.

In October 1917 the City Council of Częstochowa demanded permission to destroy the monument to Tsar Alexander II, to which General Governor of Warsaw Hans Hartwig von Beseler agreed.

Their arrival spurred widespread protests, as the city already had a desperate food situation and was obliged to house and feed the Ukrainians.

In the Polish Defensive War of 1939, Częstochowa was defended by the 7th Infantry Division, part of northern wing of Kraków Army.

[17] In order to terrorize the Polish population, on 9–11 November 1939 the Germans carried out mass arrests of dozens of Poles, including the mayor, vice-mayor, teachers, students, activists and local officials, but they were soon released.

[19] Arrested Poles were then either deported to the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück concentration camps or massacred in the nearby forests of Olsztyn and Apolonka.

Under German occupation Częstochowa administratively was a city-county (Stadkreis Tschenstochau), part of the Radom District of the General Government.

The Polish resistance movement was active in the city, and units of the Home Army and National Armed Forces (NSZ) operated in its area.

Due to the communist idea of fast industrialisation, the inefficient steel mill was significantly expanded and named after Bolesław Bierut.

This, combined with the growing tourist movement, led to yet another period of fast city growth, concluded in 1975 with the creation of a separate Częstochowa Voivodeship.

Pope John Paul II, prayed before the Black Madonna during his historic visit to his Polish homeland in 1979, several months after his election to the Chair of Peter.

Częstochowa is in one of the hottest summer regions in Poland; although its winters are not the most rigorous, they are colder than the more moderate climates of the west and the Baltic Sea.

[29] Throughout the centuries, many buildings have been erected, most of them now have the status of tourist attractions and historical monuments since Częstochowa was established already in the Middle Ages.

The neighborhoods of Częstochowa include: Błeszno, Częstochówka-Parkitka, Dźbów, Gnaszyn-Kawodrza, Grabówka, Kiedrzyn, Lisiniec, Mirów, Ostatni Grosz, Podjasnogórska, Północ, Raków, Stare Miasto, Stradom, Śródmieście, Trzech Wieszczów, Tysiąclecie, Wrzosowiak, Wyczerpy-Aniołów, and Zawodzie-Dąbie.

[92] Seats in the city council: Left Democratic Alliance (32.80%) 12, Law and Justice (26.04%) 10, Civic Coalition (15.98%) 5, Together for Częstochowa (Independents) (8.77%) 1.