About 1038 the Czech prince Brzetysław attacked Silesia, which belonged to the Kingdom of Poland in those days. Prince Brzetysław’s troops began to threaten even Cracow. At the same time the Polish king Mieczysław II died and the country was devoid of its ruler.

The youngest son of the dead king, Kazimierz, stayed in the Chegney monastery             in the south of France and he was not going to leave it. However, when the Cracow governor came to him, presenting an extremely difficult situation of the country and asking him , in the name of the nation, to come back to Poland and take the Polish throne, the young king was persuaded and, accompanied by a group of knights, returned through Germany and Silesia to take up ruling as a new Polish king called Kazimierz Odnowiciel ( Restorer).
So Kazimierz went through desolate and poor Silesia. Finally, having crossed the Brynica River, which was called Brana in those days, he noticed lots of deer and wild horses grazing on a vast clearing. Thus, he ordered his troops: ‘ StrzelaC, strzelaC!’ (‘Fire, fire!’), but he could not pronounce this word correctly because of long years which he had spent in France. All knights, squires and escorting him servants (who were called ‘czeladź’ then) understood the order as: ‘ Czeladź- strzelaC!’ ( ‘Servants- fire!’) And they started shooting and killed a lot of animals for the rest of their journey.
That was the origin of the name of the town Czeladź, which was founded here soon. It should be added that in the Middle Ages the name of the town was written in different ways. Thus, according to the old reports, it was called: Chelad (1225), Celezc (1238), Celaz (1242), Celad (1243), Czheladiz (1257), Zelezt (1250), Czedlez (1328), Czelacz (1468) and Czelącz (1529).

Contemporary linguists still derive the name of the town Czeladź from ‘czeladź’ – servants who worked for the owner of these lands.

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