High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Kielce ( listen) (Russian: Kel'tse, Kelets (Latinized)) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants (June 2009). It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Voivodeship) since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship (1919-1939, 1945-1998). The city is located in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), at the banks of Silnica river, in northern part of the historical Polish province of Lesser Poland. Once an important centre of limestone mining, Kielce is now a centre of trade and commerce.