Holy Cross Voivodeship

map

Coat of arms and logo

Basic data

Capital : Kielce

Voivode : Bożentyna Pałka-Koruba

Voivodeship Marshal : Adam Jarubas

Biggest town: Kielce

ISO 3166-2 : PL-26

Residents : 1,289,000 (March 31, 2011)

Population density : 110 inhabitants per km²

geography

Area : 11,691 km²

- of which country: 11,164 km²

- of which water: 526 km²

Expansion: North-South: up to 130 km
West-East: up to 150 km

The highest point: 612 m. ü. NN

Deepest point: ? m. ü. NN

Landscape structure

Forests: 27.2%

Waters: 4.5%

Agriculture: 62.3%

Other: 6%

Administrative division

Independent cities : 1

Counties : 13

- Municipalities : 73

- Cities : 29

The Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship ( Polish województwo świętokrzyskie ) is one of the 16 voivodeships into which the Republic of Poland is divided. The smallest region after the Opole Voivodeship was created during the territorial reform in 1999 from the Kielce Voivodeship and parts of the Tarnobrzeg , Radom and Częstochowa Voivodeships . The voivodship is named after the Holy Cross Mountains and the Holy Cross Monastery located there . The building materials industry, metal processing and agriculture are of economic importance.

coat of arms

Description : In the first field of the emblematic coat of arms in blue a gold patriarchal cross , in the second in red a gold-armored, crowned, silver eagle , the third divided four times by red and silver, in the fourth in blue eight gold, six-pointed stars , set 3: 3: 2.

The patriarchal cross refers to the eponymous Benedictine monastery Heiligkreuz . The eagle can be seen both in the coats of arms of Krakow and Sandomierz , whose historical sphere of influence included the voivodeship, and in the official Polish coat of arms . The division of the third field is represented by the Hungarian coat of arms , referring to Casimir III , who in 1355, in the presence of noblemen from Sandomir , regulated his succession to the throne with Ludwig I , King of Hungary and later King of Poland, which is why it became the coat of arms of the historic Sandomir Voivodeship belonged, like the eight, previously nine, stars in the fourth field.

Administrative division

The Świętokrzyskie voivodeship is divided into 13 powiaty (districts), with the capital of Kielce remaining independent. The city itself does not belong to the district of the same name.

Administrative division of the Heiligkreuz Voivodeship

Urban district

Kielce (199,475) (as of June 30, 2014)

Counties

Busko-Zdrój (74,095)
Jędrzejów (88,360)
Kazimierza Wielka (35,412)
Kielce (206,551)
Końskie (84,012)

Opatów (55,219)
Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (115,479)
Pińczów (41,036)
Sandomierz (80,634)

Skarżysko-Kamienna (78,805)
Starachowice (93,994)
Staszów (73,899)
Włoszczowa (46,652)

(Resident on June 30, 2012)

geography

Biggest cities

Kielce is the only major city in the Polish province of Świętokrzyskie. Here - in a central location - the most important traffic routes from Heiligkreuz converge.

city	Powiat	Residents June 30, 2012
Kielce	Kielce city	201.363
Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski	Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski	73.094
Starachowice	Starachowice	51,888
Skarżysko-Kamienna	Skarżysko-Kamienna	48.111
Sandomierz	Sandomierz	24,737
Końskie	Końskie	20,648
Suchedniów	Skarżysko-Kamienna	8,781

Rivers

Vistula (border river)
Kamienna
Nida

economy

Compared with the GDP of the EU expressed in purchasing power standards , the province reached 2,015 an index of 50 (EU-2 = 100). The unemployment rate in 2005 was 19%. By December 2009 it had dropped to 14.7 percent, which corresponds to 83,800 people.

With a value of 0.827, Świętokrzyskie comes 14th among the 16 Voivodeships of Poland in the Human Development Index .