Ogrodzieniec is a town in Zawiercie County, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, with 4,282 inhabitants (2019). It is noted for the extensive ruins of a medieval castle. Ogrodzieniec is a part of Lesser Poland. Ogrodzieniec lies among the hills of Lesser Poland Upland, on the outskirts of Zagłębie Dąbrowskie. The town has an area of 28 km2, and is located approximately 400 meters above sea level. In the south and west, Ogrodzieniec is surrounded by forests. History The origins of the town date back to the 11th century. It was a forest settlement, with a wooden castle built along the border of Lesser Poland and Silesia. In 1241, during the first Mongol invasion of Poland, the village and the castle were burned, and afterwards, a new, stone castle was built. Ogrodzieniec received its Magdeburg rights town charter in 1386. It was a local trade center, with merchants and artisans, many of them Jewish. Furthermore, enormous forests attracted noble hunters, including Polish kings. In 1346, Ogrodzieniec Roman Catholic parish church was first mentioned. In the mid-16th century, it was turned into a Calvinist prayer house, and remained so until circa 1630, when it was returned to the Catholics. In the first half of the 18th century, a new, stone church was built, but it was not completed until 1787. Ogrodzieniec was a private town of Polish nobility, including the Pilecki, Firlej, Warszycki and Jakliński families, and was administratively located in the Lelów County in the Kraków Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown. After the Third Partition of Poland, in 1795, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, and included within the newly formed province of New Silesia. In 1807 it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw. After its dissolution, since 1815, it belonged to Russian-controlled Congress Poland. After the unsuccessful Polish January Uprising, Ogrodzieniec, like many other locations of Lesser Poland, lost its town charter (1870). In 1888, Ogrodzieniec had 162 houses (most of them wooden), with app. 1,000 inhabitants. After World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of Ogrodzieniec. In the Second Polish Republic, Ogrodzieniec belonged to the Kielce Voivodeship. In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, German troops massacred a group of Polish boy scouts from Ogrodzieniec in Tucznawa, and also carried out executions of Poles in Ogrodzieniec (see