It is an important railway and industrial center, known especially for its iron and steel plant and iron-smelting works. Other industries include iron-ore mining, food processing, sawmilling, and the manufacture of chemicals and textiles.
Iron ore is mined in the vicinity.
Czestochowa is a celebrated religious center, and a world-famous place of pilgrimage. In 1655, when Charles X of Sweden overran Poland, the prior and a handful of soldiers defended the monastery and its relic for 40 days until the Swedes abandoned the siege. Fired by what they thought to be a miracle, the Polish people rose to successful resistance. The event figures prominently in Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel The Deluge. The monastery was again defended against the Swedes in 1702.