Henryk Sienkiewicz Street in Kielce () is the main commercial and historic "artery" of the city of Kielce, Poland. It was built in the middle of the 19th century. It was originally called ulica Konstantego (Constantine Street), then Postal Street and in 1919 it received its present name. Shops and department stores are located there as well as historic buildings and monuments. It is approximately 1270 meters long and runs from the railway station situated next to the Independence square to the Moniuszko Square. History The early street began at the end of the 17th century. At that time, Kielce had about 1500 permanent inhabitants. In 1789 there were only six brick houses – four of them were situated right by the main square and the other two on Mała street. The city had 252 houses then. The coming Sienkiewicza street ran between the “bishops’ town” and the residences of citizens. It wasn't covered with any paving, as a result mud was an everyday occurrence there. In the easterly direction, the road disappeared in fields, while it led to the swampy bank of the Silnica River to the west. In 1821 Marian Potocki, an official land surveyor of the Polish Kingdom, created a spatial planning of Kielce. The plan considered in its conception the leading role of Kielce as an administrative, educational and service center. The city attempted to become modernized without radical redevelopment of the downtown by the growth of areas of settlement, and adjustment of currently existing streets while building new ones. According to Potocki's plan, Sienkiewicza street had its beginning next to the Leonarda square, while the other end led to nowhere. It didn't end at the designed square at the junction of Leśna and Kapitulna streets but it went all the way to Silnica and continued onwards in a westerly direction. Probably, the plan was to merge Sienkiewicza with the centre of mining and ferrous metallurgy. (Czarnów, Górki Szczukowskie, Karczówka) In 1823, the present Sienkiewicz Street, on the initiative of Marian Potocki, was named Constantine Street after the Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia, the chief executive officer of the Polish Kingdom army. He was the most important personage in the Polish Kingdom and in fact (after the death of general Józef Zajączek) also the tsarist governor. Konstanty street was cobbled in order to enable water transport in case of fire and quicker and also because