Send Gift Baskets to Siedlce, Poland

The city, part of Lesser Poland, was founded before the 15th century and was first mentioned as Siedlecz in 1448. Daniel Siedlecki, a local nobleman, built a church and a new village of the same name nearby in 1503. King Sigismund the Old granted Magdeburg rights to the town in 1547. As an urban center, Siedlce was formed by merging two neighboring villages. Administratively, it was located in the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown, in the Lublin Voivodeship. Throughout the 16th century until the mid-17th century, Siedlce prospered, with its population rapidly growing and several artisans opening shops.

During the Swedish invasion, Cossacks, Tatars, Muscovites, Swedes, and Transylvanians destroyed Siedlce and most of Lesser Poland’s towns and cities (1655-1660). Following these conflicts, the town was given to the Czartoryski family by Joanna Olędzka, who married Prince Michał Jerzy Czartoryski. The siedlce burned again in 1692, and Kazimierz Czartoryski, the son of Micha Jerzy, used the destruction to plan a modern market square and its surroundings. A new parish church was built in the first half of the 18th century. Following the marriage of Aleksandra Czartoryska to Hetman Micha Kazimierz Ogiski in 1775, the town was passed over to the Ogiski family. In those days, Siedlce was one of the most important cultural centers in the country. Artists and writers such as Franciszek Karpiski and Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz visited the Ogiski Palace. There were two times when Stanislaw August Poniatowski visited the palace, in 1783 and 1793. Aleksandra Ogiska made many improvements to Siedlce. Among them was constructing a new town hall, now regarded as one of the city’s symbols.