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.
Masovian Voivodeship
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Masovian Voivodeship or Mazovia Province, is the largest and most populous of the sixteen Polish provinces, or voivodeships, created in 1999. It occupies 35,579 square kilometres of east-central Poland, and has 5,324,500 inhabitants. Its principal cities are Warsaw in the centre of the Warsaw metropolitan area, Radom in the south, Płock in the west, Siedlce in the east, the capital of the voivodeship is the national capital, Warsaw. The province was created on January 1,1999, out of the former Warsaw, Płock, Ciechanów, Ostrołęka, Siedlce and Radom Voivodeships, the provinces name recalls the traditional name of the region, Mazowsze, with which it is roughly coterminous. Masovian Voivodeship is divided into 42 counties,5 city counties and 37 land counties and these are subdivided into 314 gminas, which include 85 urban gminas. The counties, shown on the map, are described in the table below. The voivodeship contains 85 cities and towns and these are listed below in descending order of population, Protected areas in Masovian Voivodeship include one National Park and nine Landscape Parks. Together with Płock and Rawa Voivodeships, it formed the province of Masovia, Masovian Voivodeship was one of the voivodeships of Congress Poland. It was formed from Warsaw Department, and transformed into Masovia Governorate, there are three main road routes that pass through the voivodship, Cork–Berlin–Poznań–Warszawa–Minsk–Moscow–Omsk, Prague–Wrocław–Warsaw–Białystok–Helsinki and Pskov–Gdańsk–Warsaw–Kraków–Budapest. Currently there are small stretches of autostrada in the area. However, the A2 autostrada, upon its completion, will be the first autostrada to connect the region, the autostrada will pass directly through the voivodship from east to west connecting it with Belarus and Germany. The railroad system is based on Koleje Mazowieckie and PKP Intercity, the main international airport in the region is Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. Masovian Voivodeship is the wealthiest province in Poland and it produces 22% of Polish GDP, and GDP per capita is 160% of country average. Second Polish Republics Warsaw Voivodeship Official website Things to do in Warsaw
3.
Vehicle registration plates of Poland
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Polish vehicle registration plates indicate the region of registration of the vehicle encoded in the number plate. According to Polish law, the plate is tied to the vehicle. There is no possibility for the owner to keep the number for use on a different car. The licence plates are issued by the powiat of the vehicle owners registered address of residence, if it is owned by a legal person, the place of registration is determined by the address of its seat. Vehicles leased under operating leases and many de facto finance leases will be registered at the seat of the lessor, when a vehicle changes hands, the new owner must apply for new vehicle registration document bearing his or her name and registered address. The new owner may obtain a new licence plate although it is not necessary when new owners residence address lies in the area as the previous owners. In such a situation the licence plates are carried over to the new owner. If the car has a pre- May 1,2006 plate, the plaque cannot be replaced if destroyed. The change of the set is required. The change in system shown below in 2001 is related to the reduction in the year of the number of voivodeships in Poland from 49 to 16. The pre-2001 licence plates can be used indefinitely, but since they are obsolete they have to be replaced in case of change of vehicles ownership. In the pre-2001 model, there were not sufficient letters in the Polish alphabet for each of the old voivodeships to have a single letter, only the standard latin alphabet were used, the specific Polish characters with diacritics were excluded in order to make the plates fully internationally readable. Therefore, two letters had to be used to indicate the vehicles origin, since the change, the first letter denotes the new voivodeship. One additional letter is used in cities with rights of powiat, two additional letters are used in any other powiat. It is not necessary for EU citizens to re-register the vehicles they have brought them, which are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to not been changed to reflect the law. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy, if the vehicle uses only one licence plate the excessive sticker must be attached to the registration papers. Each powiat uses a two or three letter code, with the first letter denoting the powiats voivodeship
4.
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
5.
Military air base
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A military air base is an aerodrome used by a military force for the operation of military aircraft. An air base typically has some similar to a civilian airport—for example air traffic control. Some military aerodromes have passenger facilities, for example RAF Brize Norton in England has a used by passengers for the Royal Air Forces flights by TriStar to the Falkland Islands. Some air bases have revetments, hardened aircraft shelters, or even underground hangars, combat aircraft require storage of aircraft ordnance. An air base may be defended by anti-aircraft weapons and force protection troops, road air bases are highways constructed to double as auxiliary air bases in the event of war. Nations known to utilize this strategy are India, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Turkey, Poland and Pakistan. In the case of Finnish road air bases, the space needed for landing aircraft is reduced by means of an arrestor wire, similar to that used on some aircraft carriers. An aircraft carrier is a type of ship which serves as a seaborne air base. They are now a key part of the military, allowing for military aircraft to be staged much nearer the theatre of conflict, aircraft carriers were vital to the United States during World War II and to the United Kingdom in the 1982 Falklands War. They retain modern roles as well as several acres of territory an nation can move about at will. Aircraft carriers are used in disaster relief. Royal Air Force station List of Royal Canadian Air Force stations List of United States Air Force installations List of Soviet Air Force bases Naming of military air bases
6.
Pilica (river)
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Pilica is a river in central Poland, the longest left tributary of the Vistula river, with a length of 319 kilometres and the basin area of 9,273 km2. It flows through the Polish Jura, after which it enters Central Polish Plains, Pilica flows into the Vistula near the village of Ostrowek, in a geographical region of Central Vistula Valley. In 1974, a dam was built near Sulejow, resulting in the creation of man-made reservoir Sulejow Lake, the first open-air river museum in Poland, the Open-air museum of Pilica river, is located on the waterway and the Blue Springs nature reserve lies next to the river. It begins in Zarzecze near Szczekociny and ends on a mouth of the Pilica River, rivers of Poland Special Protection Areas in Poland Natura 2000 in Poland
Poland
