Radom[a] is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of the capital, Warsaw.

[3] In the second half of the 13th century, Radom was granted a Środa Śląska town charter by Prince Bolesław V the Chaste, although no documents exist to confirm the exact date of this event.

Here, the King would host foreign envoys, from such countries as the Crimean Khanate, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Duchy of Bavaria.

On November 18, 1489, Johann von Tiefen, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, paid homage to King Jagiellon at Radom Castle.

In 1468, the complex of a Bernardine church and monastery was founded here by King Jagiellon, with support of the local starosta, Dominik z Kazanowa.

[6] In 1481, Radom became the residence of Prince Kazimierz, the son of King Jagiellon, who ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

During the reign of Alexander Jagiellon, the Nihil novi act was adopted by the Polish Sejm in a meeting at Radom Castle.

Radom was a royal city, county seat and castellany, administratively located in the Sandomierz Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province.

[8] It remained one of the most important urban centers of the Sandomierz Voivodeship, and was also the seat of the Treasure Tribunal in 1613–1764, which controlled taxation.

At first the invaders behaved correctly, as King Charles X Gustav still sought alliances within the Polish-Lithuanian nobility; the situation changed, however, in early 1656, when anti-Swedish uprisings broke out in southern Lesser Poland and quickly spread across the country.

In the 19th century, Radom was one of the leading centers of the new art of photography in partitioned Poland, alongside major cities of Warsaw, Gdańsk, Kraków and Wilno.

In 1906, notable Polish independence fighter Kazimierz Sosnkowski, future politician and general, escaped from Warsaw to Radom, pursued by the Russian Okhrana.

[14] In Radom, he continued his secret activities, and became the commander of the local Combat Organization, before he eventually had to escape again, this time to the Dąbrowa Basin.

In the late 1930s, due to the government project known as the Central Industrial Area, several new factories were built; by 1938, the population had grown to 80,000.

[16] The Germans immediately confiscated the food stored in warehouses in Radom and nearby settlements, and carried out requisitions in the city council.

[17] The occupiers established a special court in Radom,[18] and two temporary prisoner-of-war camps for captured Polish soldiers, one in the pre-war military barracks and one in the Tadeusz Kościuszko Park.

From October 1939 to January 1940, the Germans carried out several public executions of Polish civilians in various locations in Radom, killing 111 people.

[27] In March and May 1940, the Germans carried out massacres of 210 Poles, including teenagers, from Radom and nearby settlements in the city's Firlej district.

[29] In July, August and November 1940, the Germans carried out deportations of Poles from the local prison to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In 1942, the Germans discovered the activity, and then publicly hanged 50 Poles, including 26 employees of the arms factory, and a pregnant woman.

[36] Scouts from the Gray Ranks who worked at the local post office stole and destroyed anonymous letters to the Gestapo, thus possibly saving many lives.

[37] In 1944, following the Polish Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported thousands of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Radom.

[31] On January 16, 1945, the city was captured by the Red Army, and then restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

In 1954 and 1984, city limits were greatly expanded by including several settlements as new districts,[41] including Długojów Górny, Huta Józefowska, Janiszpol, Józefów, Kierzków, Kończyce, Krychnowice, Krzewień, Malczew, Mleczna, Nowa Wola Gołębiowska, Nowiny Malczewskie, Stara Wola Gołębiowska, Wincentów, Wólka Klwatecka.

Radom is an important railroad junction, where two lines meet: east–west connection from Lublin to Łódź, and north–south from Warsaw to Kielce, and Kraków.