In the first half of the 16th century, the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland Maciej Drzewicki built here a rectangular-shaped castle, surrounded by a moat.

The town of Drzewica dates back to the 13th century, when prince Konrad I of Masovia granted the area to the Drzewicki (Ciołek coat of arms) family.

The family owned Drzewica for 500 years, and its properties stretched from the Pilica to the Holy Cross Mountains.

Drzewica, which belonged to Opoczno County of Lesser Poland’s Sandomierz Voivodeship, prospered in the early 16th century, when its owner Maciej Drzewicki (1467 – 1535) was a personal secretary of King John I Albert.

In the autumn of 1941, Jews were forced to live in a ghetto and the severe overcrowding (eight to ten people on average shared each room) there led to epidemics of both typhus and typhoid.

The Jews were rounded up and marched to Opoczno where, a few days later, they were sent to the Treblinka killing camp where they were immediately murdered by gas.