Portal:Poland

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Welcome to the Poland Portal — Witaj w Portalu o Polsce

Cityscape of Kraków, Poland's former capital

Poland is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic to the southwest, Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, Lithuania to the northeast, and the Baltic Sea and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the north. It is an ancient nation whose history as a state began near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century when it united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements in the late 18th century, Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. It regained independence as the Second Polish Republic in the aftermath of World War I only to lose it again when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. The nation lost over six million citizens in the war, following which it emerged as the communist Polish People's Republic under strong Soviet influence within the Eastern Bloc. A westward border shift followed by forced population transfers after the war turned a once multiethnic country into a mostly homogeneous nation state. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union called Solidarity (Solidarność) that over time became a political force which by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A shock therapy program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country completed, Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, but has experienced a constitutional crisis and democratic backsliding since 2015.

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Constitution of 3 May 1791 by Jan Matejko

Constitution of 3 May 1791 is a large Romantic oil painting by Jan Matejko. It was painted in 1891 to commemorate the centenary of the Polish Constitution of 1791, a milestone in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the high point of the Polish Enlightenment. Set in the late afternoon of 3 May 1791, the canvas shows a procession from Warsaw's Royal Castle, where the Constitution has just been adopted by the Great Sejm, to St. John's Collegiate Church. While the procession was a historical event, Matejko took many artistic liberties, such as including persons who were not in fact present or had died earlier, because he intended the painting to be a synthesis of the final years of the Commonwealth. Like many works by the same artist, the picture presents a grand scene populated with numerous historic figures, including King Stanislaus Augustus; Marshals of the Great Sejm, Stanisław Małachowski and Kazimierz Nestor Sapieha; and co-authors of the Constitution such as Hugo Kołłątaj and Ignacy Potocki. Altogether, some twenty individuals have been identified by modern historians. Originally displayed in Lviv, the work now hangs at the Royal Castle of Warsaw. (Full article...)

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Zbigniew Oleśnicki (cardinal)

Credit: Jan Mehlich

A relief depicting Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki as the founder of a dormitory for Jagiellonian University students, offering the building to Baby Jesus. Oleśnicki, bishop of Kraków and Poland's first cardinal, was an influential statesman, acting as a regent during King Vladislaus III's reign. The plaque is now in the Collegium Maius, the oldest building of Kraków's Jagiellonian University, itself the second oldest in Central Europe.

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... that Zakopane Style architecture (example pictured) became so popular that designs it inspired were built in Warsaw, Łódź, and even in Saldutiškis, Lithuania?
... that the Darżlubie Forest is the second largest site of Nazi mass killings of Poles and Jews in Pomerania?
... that deputy minister Roman Romkowski, charged along with Director-general Anatol Fejgin and Col. Józef Różański of the Polish Ministry of Public Security, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1957?
... that the Hel Fortified Area was the last place in Poland to surrender to the invading Wehrmacht in 1939, and during World War II it was used as a Kriegsmarine base?

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Jan Zamoyski

Jan Zamoyski (1542–1605) was a Polish magnate who served as both grand chancellor and grand hetman of the Crown. As such, he commanded both civilian and military power in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and is considered one of the most prominent statesmen in Polish history. He was also one of the richest people in his country; lands either owned or leased by him covered more than 17,000 km² (6,600 sq mi) with 23 towns and 816 villages. In 1589 he established the Zamoyski Family Fee Tail, which existed until 1944. His principal seat and most prized creation was Zamość, a fortified town he founded. Designed as a Renaissance ideal city, it was home to Zamojski Academy, Poland's third oldest university. Despite his wealth and power, in politics Zamoyski led the faction of lesser and middle nobility in support of the "enforcement of laws" movement, which earned him the moniker "Polish Gracchus". He also supported the idea of royal elections open to all Polish nobles and advised the first elective kings, Henry and Stephen, but fell out with Sigismund III. In war – against Muscovy, the Ottomans and Sweden – he employed tactics based on sieges, flanking maneuvers, fortification, artillery, and the principle of conserving his forces. (Full article...)

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Bydgoszcz granaries

Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland, straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda. It is the eighth-largest city in Poland and the co-capital, with Toruń, of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. Bydgoszcz is an architecturally rich city, with gothic, neo-gothic, neo-baroque, neoclassicist, modernist and Art Nouveau styles present, for which it has earned the nickname "Little Berlin". The notable granaries on Mill Island and along the riverside belong to one of the most recognized timber-framed landmarks in Poland. (Full article...)

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Poland now

Recent events

On 21 May, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek (pictured), a composer best known for writing film scores, died at the age of 71.
On 10 May, an unusually spectacular aurora borealis was observed in large parts of Poland due to an intense solar storm.
On 8 April, local elections were held throughout Poland, with run-off votes in some municipalities held on 21 April.
On 9 January, police entered the Presidential Palace in Warsaw to arrest former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński (Law and Justice party) and his former deputy, both of whom had been sentenced to two year's jail for abuse of power. On 23 January, they were both were pardoned by the President Andrzej Duda.