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Poland in 10 points
| 1. |
Capital: |
Warsaw |
| 2. |
Population: |
38,654 million |
| 3. |
Ethnic profile: |
Poland recognises 13 national or ethnic minorities |
| 4. |
Borders: |
Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia |
| 5. |
Main language: |
Polish. German and English are widely spoken in business |
| 6. |
Currency: |
Zloty |
| 7. |
Local delicacy: |
Zrazy zawijane (mushroom and beefsteak rolls), barsza (beetroot soup) and pigs' knuckles. Like Wales in Poland they drink a lot of tea. Their speciality is distilling a varitey of both pure and flavoured Vodka. |
| 8. |
Country profile: |
An almost square agricultural country in the heartland of Europe Poland is in the throes of drastic reinvention. Poland's flat central belt is flanked by forests, beaches and lakes in the North and mountains in the South, offering plenty of picture perfect scenery supplemented by the many elegant Gothic buildings and the spectacular Bears Cave in Klodzko and Paradise cave in Klelce. In Poland there are 26 national parks and 8 World Heritage sites.
Warsaw is the country's economic and political centre. Cracow - the country's third largest city, has been its cultural centre since the Middle Ages and was in 2000 Cultural City of Europe. Other Polish cities like Gdansk, Poznan, Lódz are of European importance, like the candidature of Wroclaw for EXPO 2010 underlines.
The Polish state is over 1,000 years old. In the XVIth century, under the Jagiellonian dynasty, Poland was one of the richest and most powerful states on the continent. On May 3, 1791 the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania ratified a constitution, being the first written constitution of Europe. Soon after Poland ceased to exist for 123 years, upon being partitioned by its neighbours Russia, Austria and Prussia. The country regained independence in 1918 for only 20 years. After which the country suffered two invasions and occupations, first of Nazi Germany and then Soviet Russia. In 1989 the first partially free elections in Poland's post-war history concluded the Solidarity movement's ten-year struggle for freedom and resulted in the defeat of Poland's communist rulers. In 1999 Poland joined NATO and began negotiating its full membership in the European Union.
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| 9. |
Culture: |
For centuries Polish culture has been an integral part of European culture. Among the greatest Polish contributors to European culture are: the astronomer Copernicus, the great composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin and the outstanding scientist Maria Curie-Sklodowska. During the last two decades the Nobel Prize for literature has been awarded to two Polish poets Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska. A long musical tradition is continued by such world-renowned composers as Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk Górecki. Films of Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Roman Polanski contributed highly to the world and European cinema. Polish art and theatre are well known thanks to works of Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor and Magdalena Abakanowicz. |
| 10. |
Curiosities: |
It was the Polish astronomer Copernicus who first suggested that it was the Earth that revolved around the sun, not the other way around. Pope John Paul II was Polish. |
Interesting links
Polish State Institutions
International Organisations about Poland
Scientific and academic institutions
Polish and foreign nongovernmental organisations
Cultural Institutions
Other sources of information about Poland and EU
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Wales |
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Wales lies on the mid-west coast of the United Kingdom. The geology of Wales has shaped the country's history with its mountainous terrain providing a natural fort against...
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