Kielce ( [kee-ELT-sa]; , Keltz) is a city in south central Poland with 199,475 inhabitants (June 2014). It is also the capital city of the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Voivodeship) since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939, 1945–1998). The city is located in the middle of the Swietokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), at the banks of Silnica river, in northern part of the historical Polish province of Lesser Poland. Kielce was once an important centre of limestone mining.