Częstochowa is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 220,433 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of the Częstochowa Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not of Silesia, and before 1795, it belonged to the Kraków Voivodeship. Częstochowa is located in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. It is the largest economic, cultural and administrative hub in the northern part of the Silesian Voivodeship.
The city is known for the famous Pauline monastery of Jasna Góra, which is the home of the Black Madonna painting, a shrine to the Virgin Mary. Every year, millions of pilgrims from all over the world come to Częstochowa to see it. The city also was home to the Frankism movement in the late 18th and the 19th century.
The city has undertaken excavation of an ancient site of Lusatian culture, and has a museum devoted to this. The ruins of a medieval castle stand in Olsztyn, approximately 25 kilometres from the city centre.