1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship
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It is situated in mid-northern Poland, on the boundary between the two historic regions from which it takes its name, Kuyavia and Pomerania. Its two chief cities, serving as the joint capitals, are Bydgoszcz and Toruń. The Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998 and it consisted of territory from the former Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Włocławek Voivodeships. The area now known as Kuyavia-Pomerania was previously divided between the region of Kuyavia and the Polish fiefdom of Royal Prussia, of the two principal cities of todays Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeship, one was historically located in Kuyavia, whilst the other was an important town of Royal Prussia. The functions of capital are split between Bydgoszcz and Toruń. The Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is bordered by five other voivodeships, the voivodeship contains 52 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population, Transportation infrastructure is of importance to the voivodeships economy. Kuyavia-Pomerania is a node in the Polish transportation system. Railway lines from the South and East pass through Bydgoszcz to connect to the ports on the Baltic Sea. In addition to this, Bydgoszcz is home to the rolling stock manufacturer PESA SA, Polands largest and most modern producer of railway, all major towns of the province have municipal transportation companies operating buses, whilst Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Grudziądz also have extensive tram systems. The Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeships government is headed by the voivode who is appointed by the Polish Prime Minister. The voivode is then assisted in performing his duties by the voivodeships marshal, the current voivode of Kuyavia-Pomerania is Ewa Monika Mes, and the present marshal is Piotr Całbecki. The Sejmik of Kuyavia-Pomerania consists of 33 members, the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is divided into 23 counties,4 city counties and 19 land counties. These are further divided into 144 gminas, the counties are listed in the following table. Protected areas in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship include the nine Landscape Parks listed below
3.
Gniezno
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Gniezno is a city in central-western Poland, some 50 kilometres east of Poznań, with some 70,000 inhabitants. One of the Piast dynastys chief cities, it was mentioned in 10th-century sources, including the Dagome Iudex, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Gniezno is the primate of Poland, making it the countrys ecclesiastical capital. It has belonged since 1999 to the Greater Poland Voivodeship, and is the seat of Gniezno County. There are archaeological traces of settlement since the late Paleolithic. Early Slavonic settlements on the Lech Hill and the Maiden Hill are dated to the 8th century, at the beginning of the 10th century this was the site of several places sacred to the Slavic religion. The ducal stronghold was founded just before AD940 on the Lech Hill, according to the Polish version of legends, Three brothers Lech, Czech and Rus were exploring the wilderness to find a place to settle. Suddenly they saw a hill with an old oak and an eagle on top. Lech said, This white eagle I will adopt as an emblem of my people, and around this oak I will build my stronghold, the other brothers went further on to find a place for their people. Czech went to the South and Rus went to the East and it is here that the Congress of Gniezno took place in the year 1000 AD, during which Bolesław I the Brave, Duke of Poland, received Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. The 10th-century Gniezno Cathedral witnessed royal coronations of Bolesław I in 1024, the cities of Gniezno and nearby Poznań were captured, plundered and destroyed in 1038 by the Bohemian duke Bretislav I, which pushed the next Polish rulers to move the Polish capital to Kraków. The archiepiscopal cathedral was reconstructed by the ruler, Bolesław II the Generous. In the next centuries Gniezno evolved as a seat of the eastern part of Greater Poland. Gniezno was again the site in 1295 and 1300. The city was destroyed again by the Teutonic Knights invasion in 1331, Gniezno was hit by heavy fires in 1515,1613, was destroyed during the Swedish invasion wars of the 17th–18th centuries and by a plague in 1708–1710. All this caused depopulation and economic decline, but the city was revived during the 18th century to become the Gniezno Voivodeship in 1768. Gniezno was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1793 Second Partition of Poland, but because of Kościuszkos defeat at the Battle of Maciejowice he gave up his plan to winter in Bydgoszcz and moved through Toruń and retreated to central Poland. Thus, the Prussians retook it on 7 December 1794, during the Napoleonic Wars there was an uprising against Prussian rule. Gniezno was subsequently governed within Kreis Gnesen of the Grand Duchy of Posen, following the Greater Poland Uprising and the Treaty of Versailles Gniezno became part of the Second Polish Republic
4.
Bydgoszcz
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Bydgoszcz /ˈbɪdɡɒʃtʃ/ is a city in northern Poland, on the Brda and Vistula rivers. With a city population of 358,614, and an urban agglomeration with more than 470,000 inhabitants and it has been the seat of Bydgoszcz County and the co-capital, with Toruń, of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. Prior to this, between 1947 and 1998, it was the capital of the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship, and before that, Bydgoszcz is part of the metroplex Bydgoszcz-Toruń, which totals over 850,000 inhabitants. Bydgoszcz is the seat of Casimir the Great University, University of Technology and Life Sciences, Bydgoszcz hosts the Pomeranian Philharmonic concert hall, the Opera Nova opera house, and the Bydgoszcz Ignacy Jan Paderewski Airport. There are also a number of other Polish place-names which make use of the goszcz suffix, the name Byd-gost contains archaic elements of the Proto-Slavonic root byd which existed as a variant of the verb to raise, and the common Slavic root Goszcz. Some people identify the name of the town as Budorgis, a name from the 2nd century which is listed next to the village Calisia on the amber route, during the early Slavic times a fishing settlement called Bydgozcya, became a stronghold on the Vistula trade routes. In the 13th century it was the site of a castellany, the city was occupied by the Teutonic Knights in 1331, and incorporated into the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. The city was relinquished by the Knights in 1343 with their signing of the Treaty of Kalisz along with Dobrzyń, king Casimir III of Poland, granted Bydgoszcz city rights on 19 April 1346. The city increasingly saw an influx of Jews after that date, in 1555, however, due to pressure by the clergy, the Jews were expelled and came back only with the annexion to Prussia in 1772. In the 15th and 16th centuries Bydgoszcz was a significant site for wheat trading, during 1629, near the end of the Polish-Swedish War of 1626–29, the town was conquered by Swedish troops led by king Gustav II Adolph of Sweden personally. During the events of war the town suffered demolitions, the town was conquered a second and third time by Sweden in 1656 and 1657 during the Second Northern War. On the latter occasion the castle was destroyed completely and has since remained a ruin. After the war only 94 houses were inhabited,103 stood empty and 35 were burned down, also the suburbs had been damaged considerably. In 1772, in the First Partition of Poland, Bydgoszcz was acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia, renamed Bromberg, at the time, the town was seriously depressed and semi-derelict. In 1807, after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the signing of the Treaty of Tilsit, with Napoleons defeat at the Battle of Nations in 1815, the town was returned to Prussia as part of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen. In 1871 the Province of Posen, along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, in the mid-19th century, the arrival of the Prussian Eastern Railway contributed greatly to the development of Bromberg. The first stretch, from Schneidemühl to Bromberg, was opened in July 1851, the city grew from 12,900 in 1852 to 57,700 in 1910 – of whom 84 percent were Germans and 16 percent Poles. After World War I, despite Brombergs German majority, it was assigned to the recreated Polish state by the 1919 Versailles Treaty, now officially Bydgoszcz again, the city belonged to the Poznań Voivodeship
5.
Biskupin
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The archaeological open-air museum Biskupin is an archaeological site and a life-size model of an Iron Age fortified settlement in Poland. When first discovered it was thought to be evidence of Slavic settlement. The excavation and the reconstruction of the settlement has played an instrumental part in Polish historical consciousness. The Museum is situated on a peninsula in Lake Biskupin. It is a division of the National Museum of Archaeology in Warsaw, the site is one of Polands official national Historic Monuments, as designated September 16,1994, and tracked by the National Heritage Board of Poland. In 1933 Polish archaeologists discovered remains of a Bronze Age fort/settlement in Wielkopolska, the site was excavated from 1934 onwards by the team from Poznań University, led by archaeologists Józef Kostrzewski and Zdzisław Rajewski. The first report was published in 1936, by the beginning of 1939, ca.2,500 m2 had been excavated. The site soon became part of Polish national consciousness, the symbol of achievements of the Slavonic forebears in prehistoric times and it was called the Polish Pompeii or Polish Herculaneum. The existence of a fortress,70 km from the German border, was used to show that the prehistoric Poles had held their own against foreign invaders and plunderers as early as the Iron Age. Biskupin came to feature in paintings and popular novels, when the Germans occupied Poland in the autumn of 1939, Biskupin was renamed Urstädt. In 1940, excavations were resumed by the SS-Ahnenerbe until 1942, when Germans were forced to retreat they flooded the site hoping to destroy it, but—ironically—it led to very good preservation of the ancient timbers. Excavations were resumed by Polish archaeologists after the war and continued until 1974, there are two settlement periods at Biskupin, which was located in the middle of a lake but is now situated on a peninsula, that follow each other without hiatus. Both settlements were laid out on a grid with eleven streets that are three metres wide. They consisted of two chambers and an open entrance-area and these houses were designed to accommodate 10–12 persons. An open hearth was located in the centre of the biggest room, there are no larger houses that could indicate social stratification. Because of the damp, boggy ground the streets were covered with wooden planks, the settlement was surrounded by a tall wooden wall, or palisade, set on a rampart made up of both wood and earth. The rampart was constructed of oak trunks that form boxes filled with earth, the rampart is more than 450 metres long and accompanied by a wooden breakwater in the lake. 6,000 to 8,000 cubic metres of wood was used in the construction of the rampart, the settlement at Biskupin belongs to the Hallstatt C and D periods
6.
Voivodeships of Poland
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A województwo is the highest-level administrative subdivision of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term województwo has been in use since the 14th century, the word województwo is also rendered as voivodeship or a variant spelling. The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999 and these replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975. Todays voivodeships are mostly named after historical and geographical regions, while prior to 1998 generally took their names from the cities on which they were centered. The new units range in area from under 10,000 km2 to over 35,000 km2, voivodeships are further divided into powiats and gminas, see Administrative divisions of Poland. Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode, the sejmik and the marshal. In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivodes offices are in a different city from those of the executive, Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below. The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the representative of the central government. The voivodes offices collectively are known as the urząd wojewódzki, the sejmik is elected every four years, at the same time as the local authorities at powiat and gmina level. It passes bylaws, including the development strategies and budget. It also elects the marszałek and other members of the executive, the marshals offices are collectively known as the urząd marszałkowski. According to 2014 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably, Administrative division of Poland between 1979 and 1998 included 49 voivodeships upheld after the establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 for another decade. This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of government reform acts of 1973–1975. In place of the administrative division, a new two-level administrative division was introduced. The three smallest voivodeships – Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź – had the status of municipal voivodeship. After World War II, the new division of the country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 voivodeships. The voivodeships in the east that had not been annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. The newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the new voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław and Olsztyn, two cities were granted voivodeship status, Warsaw and Łódź
Poland
