Area: 75 km2
Population: approx. 10 400
Chairman of the Municipal Council: Bogusław Musiolik
Wójt (Provost): Jacek Pastuszka
Consists of the villages of Suszec, Radostowice, Mizerów, Kryry, Kobielice, Rudziczka.
Municipal Council's address:
43-267 Suszec, ul. Lipowa 1
Phone (032) 212-40-79, 212-44-57
gmina@suszec.pl
www.suszec.pl

The largest industrial unit in the Municipality is Krupiński Coal Mine providing employment for 2700 people. All the villages have water and gas systems while Suszec and Radostowice have also sewage systems with two separate sewage-treatment plants. The telecommunications network covers all of the villages, except for a part of Rudziczka. The north-east area is covered by Pszczyna Forest. There are approx. 540 enterprises registered, 78 out of 980 farms are of more then 10 hectares. Each community has a modern primary school; junior high schools operate in Kryry, Radostowice, and Suszec.
The 18th century emblem of Suszec's self-government constitutes the arms of the Municipality. The local government issue a monthly Nowiny Suszeckiej Gminy [Suszec Municipal News]. A historical monograph was published about each village (Orlik, Zygmunt. Gmina Suszec, szkice z dziejów [The municipality of Suszec, an outline of its history]. Suszec 1994.)

Village Communities:

Suszec
Area: 37 km2
Population: approx. 4 130
Originally a village of more than twenty so-called hamlet farms, Suszec was founded in the 13th c. by the German colonization law. A parish was established at the same time. Throughout the whole feudal period the village belonged to the rulers of Pszczyna. In the 18th and 19th c. a distillery and brewery were built where coal was used as a source of energy. Until the mid 19th c. a big sheep farm existed in the southern part of the village, while the hamlet of Sikowiec was the site of a large brickyard which produced the brick to erect all of the oldest buildings in the area.
When the railway track Pszczyna - Żory was built in 1938 and Krupiński Coal Mine was opened on the northern outskirts of the village, Suszec's importance in the region grew even more. The Mine employs hundreds of people but at the same time causes damage owing to mining subsidence. In the south, next to the forest, an attractive recreation area called Gwaruś is located over Pond Godziek. Just across the village, in so-called Podlesie live the Szendera family who have an interesting collection of old farming tools. There is a Municipal Centre of Culture in Suszec. The parish church with its presbytery, the 18th c. brewery, and numerous wayside shrines and crucifixes are the places of interest in the village.

Kryry
Area: 13 km2
Population: approx. 1320
A village of two-row compact building development.
Founded at the turn of the 13th c. during the colonization of the region of Pszczyna, Kryry consisted at the beginning of 24 hamlet farms, a free reeve's grange, and an inn. A leg of the trade route Kraków - Pszczyna - Racibóż - Wrocław (Breslau) run through the village where a toll-house was situated next to the inn. The 3-kilometre-long remains of that route are still called Wielo Dróga (Big Road) by the local people. In the early 19th c. the villagers built a school and a church, but the parish was founded a hundred years later. A new, spacious school building housing a primary and junior high school was erected in 1994. As early as in the 19th c. the village was famous for the number of readers. The habit was encouraged by Wawrzyniec Sinka, the local bibliophile and a bookbinder. Thanks to him the Garus brothers opened a Polish library in the village, one of the first village libraries in Upper Silesian. A couple of years before, in the early 1870s, Karol Miarka helped the local farmers to open a co-operative shop Konsum, which was the first of this kind in the region and one of the first in Silesia. Being successful for many years, the shop was closed by the Prussian authorities on a charge of being "a dangerous site of Polish nationalism". In the mid 19th century, after the peasantry had been affranchised, a model grange of Heinrichshof was built by the Duke of Pszczyna on his fields in Kryry. Now deteriorated, it is taken on lease. The parish church, some of the grange buildings and wayside shrines and crucifixes are worth seeing.

Mizerów
Area: 7.5 km2
Population: approx. 1 330
A village of two-row building development.
Mizerów was originally a part of Kryry yet a knights' fee and some peasant farms separated in the 16th c. and formed the village of Mizerów. In the 18th c. the village was bought by the Duke who built a new brick manor house making it the seat of his Northern Demesne Administration. The village of Mizerów witnessed the final episodes of many villeins' rebellions and their dangerous uprising of 1811. The estate had a brewery and a big distillery operating until 1945. After the War 3 of the land was parceled out amongst the local peasants while the buildings and the remaining land constituted a State Farm, which is now leased. The local primary school is located in a spacious modern building. Mizerów is one of the four village communities which do not have its own parish church. The number of houses and citizens doubled within the last forty years.
Some of manor buildings and two-centuries-old offices of Dukes Demesne Administration are recorded in the Register of Polish Monuments.

Radostowice
Area: 4.4 km2
Population: approx. 1 460
A village of spread building development.
The village was founded in the 14th c. In 1938 a railway track Pszczyna - Żory and a station were built in the northern part. Radostowice has had a school since 1886, a new spacious school building was erected in 1990 and a primary and a junior high school are located there. A church was built and a parish founded in 1985.

Kobielice

Area: 9 km2
Population: approx. 1 130
A village of spread building development.

Most probably Kobielice was founded in the 15th c. on the site of a former hamlet. So-called croft and cottage farms constituted the majority in the village thus the impoverished villagers sought extra income working in the surrounding Duke's forests, or, from the 19thc. on, in the coal mines and factories of Upper Silesia.
The first school opened in 1869, now the primary school is located in a spacious modern building erected a few year ago. The church was built in 1885 - 1886 and a parish was founded three years later. An Evangelical school was run for a short period of time (1901 - 1939), now its building, situated near the border with Radostowice, houses the village health care center.

Rudziczka
Area: 4.6 km2
Population: approx. 990
Rudziczka is the youngest and smallest village in the Municipality. It was founded in the late 16th c. when the Barons of Pszczyna decided to develop their network of servile granges For the first two ages of its existence apart from the grange there were only a few villeins' farms in the village since the sandy soil seems to be the poorest arable land in the region. A few more croft farms appeared in the local knight's fee during the colonization run by Frederick II in the late 18th c. It was only in 1907 when a school was established in the village. Now, there is a spacious modern primary school. A parish was founded in 1983 when the construction of the church was completed. The Napieralski family were the last owners of the manor. Adam Napieralski (1861 - 1892) was an editor and an eminent Polish nationalist at the turn of 19th c. The manor house, now owned by Kurpiński Coal Mine needs renovation. The village of Rudziczka is a very tidy one, however, it is situated in the area of extensive mining subsidence and thus the buildings are vulnerable to damage.