[2] Kielce was once an important centre of limestone mining, and the vicinity is famous for its natural resources like copper, lead, uranium, and iron, which, over the centuries, were exploited on a large scale.

According to a local legend, Mieszko II Lambert, son of Boleslaus I of Poland, during hunting, stopped to rest and refresh and fall asleep.

One states that the town was named after its founder who belonged to the noble family of Kiełcz, while another claims that it stems from the Celts who may have lived in the area in previous centuries.

[5] The most probable etymology traces the origins of the name to an Old Polish noun kielce (plural form of kielec 'sprout') and refers to plants sprouting in the wetlands where the settlement was located.

They were driven out by a Lechitic tribe of Vistulans who started hunting in the nearby huge forests and had settled most of the area now known as Lesser Poland and present-day Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship.

Thanks to the efforts by Stanisław Staszic Kielce became the centre of the newly established Old-Polish Industrial Zone (Staropolski Okręg Przemysłowy).

In 1844, priest Piotr Ściegienny [pl] began organising a local revolt to liberate Kielce from the Russian yoke, for which he was sent to Siberia.

During the Polish Defensive War of 1939, the main portion of the defenders of Westerplatte as well as the armoured brigade of General Stanisław Maczek were either from Kielce or from its close suburbs.

Following the invasion, the German Einsatzgruppe II entered the city to commit various atrocities against the population,[10] and the occupiers established a special court in Kielce.

[16] Notable acts of resistance included theft of 2 tons of TNT from the "Społem" factory run by the Nazis, which were then used by the partisans to make hand grenades.

Successful assassinations of local collaborators, including the shooting of Jan Bocian took place in broad daylight at a shop in Bodzentyńska Street.

A small town of Pińczów located some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Kielce became the capital of the so-called Pinczów Republic, a piece of Polish land controlled by the partisans.

The "Jodla" Świętokrzyskie Mountains Home Army fought against the Germans long before Operation Tempest inflicted heavy casualties on the occupying forces and later took part in the final liberation of their towns and cities in January 1945.

Between the onset of war and March 1940, the Jewish population of Kielce expanded to 25,400 (35% of all residents),[22] with trains of dispossessed Jews arriving under the escort of German Order Police battalions from the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany.

[23] Immediately after the German occupation of Poland in September 1939, all Jews were ordered to wear a Star of David on their outer garments.

The forced labour and deportations to concentration camps culminated in mass extermination of Jews of Kielce during the Holocaust in occupied Poland.

After the extermination action only 2,000 Jews were left in Kielce, lodged in the labour camp at Stolarska and Jasna Streets (pl) within the small ghetto.

[22] On 4 July 1946 the local Jewish gathering of some 200 Holocaust survivors from the Planty 7 Street refugee centre of the Zionist Union became the target of the Kielce pogrom in which 37 (40) Jews (17–21 of whom remain unidentified) and 2 ethnic Poles were killed, including 11 fatally shot with military rifles and 11 more stabbed with bayonets, indicating direct involvement of loyal to Moscow Polish communist troops.

[30] The new government of the Communist Poland signed a repatriation agreement with the Soviet Union helping over 150,000 Holocaust survivors leave the Gulag camps legally.

[31] Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free and unrestricted Jewish Aliyah to the nascent State of Israel, upon the conclusion of World War II.

[32] After the Kielce pogrom Gen. Spychalski of PWP signed a legislative decree allowing the remaining survivors to leave Poland without visas or exit permits.

It experiences four distinct seasons and has a warm summer subtype humid continental climate (Dfb), typical of this part of Europe.

The city receives 1720 to 1829 hours of sunshine annually, depending on the source,[38][39] with a notably sunny spring and summer, and a cloudy late autumn and winter.

Winter conditions are highly dependent on the source region of the air mass that dominates during a particular month, resulting in tremendous variability from one year to the next.

For example, in January 2006, the city experienced typically continental winter weather, resulting in an average daytime high of −3.7 °C (25 °F), recording a nighttime low of −30 °C (−22 °F)[41] on the 24th.

The very next year, in January 2007, the weather was predominantly of the Atlantic type, resulting in an average high of 5.7 °C (42 °F) and occasional days above 10 °C (50 °F),[42] more typical of coastal locations in Western Europe.

Heavy snowfall is rare, and significant snow accumulations typically occur gradually, a few centimeters at a time over a protracted cold spell.

Sharp nighttime frosts can occur as early as September and as late as May, though on calm, clear days, it often warms up rapidly to approximately 20 °C (68 °F), especially in April.

It is not able to accommodate large passenger planes, because its runway is only 1,200 m. Its reconstruction is seen as not viable and in June 2006 the decision was made about the location of a new airport near the village of the Obice Morawica, able to handle regular airlines.

Part of the project, envisages installation of 24 electronic boards for bus departure times and 20 stationary ticket vending machines.