Buildings in the north-west corner of the Market church of St. James the Apostle in Krzepice
In the Middle Ages, Krzepice was a border town, guarding the northwestern corner of Lesser Poland. In the 12th century, a wooden stronghold was built here, then it was replaced by a wooden castle, which in the 14th century was rebuilt into a stone complex. Today, only parts of a moat is all that remains of the castle. In 1357, King Casimir III the Great erected a parish church. Krzepice was most probably incorporated in 1357, but there is speculation that it had taken place in the mid-13th century. In 1370, King Louis I of Poland granted Krzepice as a temporary feudal fee to Duke Władysław Opolczyk. After a few years, the town was directly reintegrated with Poland. It was a royal town of the Polish Crown, administratively located in the Lelów County in the Kraków Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province.
On March 15, 1552, King Sigismund II Augustus specified the boundaries of the town. In its center there was a main market square, with six streets, and with parish church of St. Jacob. Due to convenient location, near the border with Silesia (which at that time was part of Kingdom of Bohemia), Krzepice became a local trade center, with fairs, and three market squares. This corner of the Kingdom of Poland was located away from main military conflicts, and the town prospered, especially in the period known as Polish Golden Age. It changed during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1656), when both Krzepice and the ancient castle were destroyed by the Swedes. Ruins of the castle remained until 1927, when they were finally demolished. The town frequently burned (1450, 1527, 1656, 1867, 1881, 1903, 1904 1906), which was due to its wooden architecture. In 1870, Russian authorities of Congress Poland reduced Krzepice to the status of a village, as a reprisal for its inhabitants' participation in the January Uprising. In 1914, a dairy cooperative was founded in Krzepice.[2] Krzepice regained its town status in 1919, when already it was part of Kielce Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic.
World War II
On September 3, 1939, during the German invasion of Poland which started World War II, German troops committed a massacre of 30 Poles in Krzepice (see Nazi crimes against the Polish nation);[3] the town was then occupied by Germany until 1945. Krzepice had a sizeable Jewish community, 43% of the town's population, before World War II. In early 1940, the Germans set up an open type ghetto there with about 1,800 inmates, along with Judenrat and the Jewish police. The Jews were forced to perform slave labor until the liquidation of the ghetto in June and July 1942, when most of them were sent by train to Auschwitz extermination camp and murdered. Those who remained were deported to the ghetto in Sosnowiec. Only a handful survived the Holocaust; most subsequently left Poland. The stone-and-brick synagogue in Krzepice, built around 1822, still stands, although unused and in a dilapidated state. The historic Jewish Cemetery is close by.[4]
Main highway connections from the Krzepice include those with Wieluń (to the north-west) and Częstochowa (to the south-east) via National road 43. A bypass of the town was opened in 2009. Krzepice is linked by rail to Wieluń and Katowice, with a station, on a line from Herby Nowe to Wieluń, built in 1926.
