Kunów

Kunów is a town in Ostrowiec County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,153 inhabitants (2004). It lies in Lesser Poland, on the Kamienna river, northwest of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.

==History== thumb|left|Saint Ladislaus church on woodcut print by Józefa Kleczeńska from 1882 In the early Middle Ages Kunów belonged to the Archbishops of Kraków, who had a manor house here. In 1241 the village was raided by the Mongols (see First Mongol invasion of Poland), and in 1247 it was destroyed by the army of Prince Konrad I of Masovia. In 1365 King Casimir III the Great granted it town rights, and at that time Kunów was the seat of a parish whose area was . The town belonged to Sandomierz Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province. In the 15th century powerful Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki spent a lot of time in Kunów, which already had a wooden church of St. Władysław. In 1502 the town was completely burned by the Crimean Tatars, and as a result it temporarily lost its Magdeburg rights, regaining the privileges on August 29, 1535. In 1578 Kunów had 65 different artisans, and was famous for its white and red marble, used in construction of several palaces (such as the complex of Łazienki Park in Warsaw). By 1616 the town had 130 houses, a parish school and two churches, however after the catastrophic Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1660), the number of houses was reduced to 63, with a population of 530.