Description : Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, often referred to as Ostrowiec, is a town in Poland, in the historical region of Lesser Poland, with approximately 70,000 residents. The town is one of historic centers of Polish industry and metallurgy, and was part of the Old-Polish Industrial Region, the oldest industrial basin of the country. The oldest testimonies of human habitation date back to the Stone Age (ca 4000 BC). At that time, there were nomadic tribes belonging to, among others, the Lengyel and Globular Amphora cultures. They came here from Danube river region. The earliest documents about Ostrowiec village, that gave beginning to the contemporary Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski come from 14th century. At that time the village was called Ostrow, and was located on the right bank of the Kamienna. In the early 16th century, a local nobleman Kacper Maciejewski tried to establish here a town, but failed to do so. In 1564 town charter was granted to the settlement of Denków (also called Wielki Michów), which is now one of the Ostrowiec districts. Denków was a private town, administratively located in the Sandomierz County in the Sandomierz Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown. The city itself, at that time part of Sandomierz Voivodeship, was built from scratch in 1597 by Jakub Gawroński of Rawa coat of arms on the left bank of the Kamienna river, situated in the Vistula river basin. It received town privileges in 1613. It became a property of Janusz Ostrogski, a statesman and one of the richest magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Later it belonged to many Polish aristocratic families: Tarnowski family, Czartoryski family, Lubomirski family, Radziwiłł family, Zasławski family, Sanguszko family, Wielopolski family, Dobrzański family, Łubieński family.
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