Ulica Starowarszawskie Przedmieście i jej sąsiedztwo

In Kielce, in the eastern part of IX Wieków Kielc Street, which joins Warszawska and Piotrkowska Streets, there was Starowarszawskie Przedmieście Street. The first mention of this street dates back to 1789 when it appeared in the Records of the Kielce Estate of the Crocow Bishops. The oldest cartographic source of the street is the Map of Western Galicia by Antoni Mayer von Heldensfeld from 1801-1804. The Street developed into one of the city gates on the north-west route to Końskie, Piotrków and Warsaw (currently Piotrkowska Street) and in the valley of the old Silnica River which flew into a pond on the Dąbrówka River. The pond existed there from the 15th century and was initially called Rdzawski Pond and then, in the 19th century – Koński Pond. The first buildings appeared along a dirt-track going in the north-east direction (later called Starowarszawskie Przedmieście Street), which most probably function as a city ring road. The road by Łukawski Pond changed into a small square. The first houses were built there at the beginning of the 18th century. In the Records of 1789, 28 owners were mentioned in connection to Przedmieście Warszawskie Street. Following a regulation enforced by Austrians after the 3rd partitioning of Poland, a street from the Main Square to the district of Szydłówek (currently Warszawska Street) was constructed. In Przedmieście Warszawskie Street, Austrians built a stone bridge later called the Austrian Bridge. In 1823 (as seen on a regulation plan of Kielce by Potocki) the later Starowarszawskie Przedmieście Street ran from south-east to north-west, from a square by the Austrian Bridge to a dirt-track to the Szydłówek district. In 1833–1834, a first-class road from Warsaw to Krakow passing through Kielce was constructed. Later it was called Dąbrowska and then Nowowarszawska Street (currently Warszawska Street). As a result of those changes, in the 1930s the city had two roads to Warsaw – the older one called Starowarszawska (at present Piotrkowska) and the more modern – Nowowarszawska (currently Warszawska). The buildings situated by the streets were referred to as suburbs and were called Staro and Nowowarszawskie respectively. After 1837, the course of the street in its eastern part was changed, moving it from the northern to the southern banks of the Silnica River and then joined with a new road to Warsaw. The course of the river was shortened and joined with the course of a stream flowing from Polna Street. In 1888, a new network of streets north of Starowarszawskie Przedmieście Street was proposed sand presented on a new regulation plan of the city. There were, among other, Targowa and Nowy Świat Streets. In 1902, the construction of a synagogue in a square of the Jewish Community in Kielce commenced. The architectural design was prepared by Stanisław Szpakowski. At the end of the 19th century, fields north of the street were transformed into building plots bought by Jews, petty clerks and railway men. After World War I and

Adamczyk Ulica Starowarszawskie Przedmieście i jej sąsiedztwo 53

regaining independence, streets in this area were designed. In order to have as many plots as possible, two more streets were designed between Targowa and Nowy Świat, namely Dąbrowska and Szydłowska Streets. During the German occupation, in April 1941, a ghetto was established in Kielce including Starowarszawskie Przedmieście Street. Jews from other districts were forced to move and Poles who lived in the ghetto were transferred to other parts of the city. People in the ghetto were dying of hunger, epidemic of typhoid or were killed. After the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1942, following an order of German administration, Poles and people displaced from the Third Reich were moved into ruined houses of the former ghetto. After World War II, at the beginning of the 1960s, all buildings in Starowarszawskie Przedmieście Street were demolished in order to build a new two-lane street called IX Wieków.