Opatów

Opatów stands on the Opatówka River in the Sandomierz region of Lesser Poland. Its Romanesque collegiate church of Saint Martin dates from the twelfth century. In the first half of the fourteenth century the bishop of Lubusz moved the town's centre to the hill near the church, creating what was known as Great Opatów.

After a Tatar attack in 1502 destroyed the town, Krzysztof Szydłowiecki acquired it in 1514 and rebuilt its defences and water supply. Opatów held regular markets and fairs and hosted assemblies of Lesser Polish nobles. Fire in 1551 and the Swedish invasion of 1655 brought further destruction. The town also had a substantial Jewish community, known in Yiddish as Apt, whose population was approximately 2,000 in 1765.