Siedlce

Siedlce, city, Mazowieckie województwo (province), east-central Poland. It is an economic centre for the eastern section of the province, with food processing, textile milling, and toy production. It lies on the Warsaw-Moscow road and rail line.

Siedlce was first chronicled in 1448 as a settlement on the crossroads of several trade routes and received municipal rights in 1547, though it did not prosper until the mid-18th century. At that time the town’s owners, the wealthy Ogiński family, built a Neoclassical palace there. Siedlce passed to Austria in 1795 and was returned to Poland in 1918. During World War II, Nazi concentration camps were located there. Pop. (2011) 76,333.