General Information about Poland

The Republic of Poland

• Area: 312 685 sq km
• Capital : Warszawa/ Warsaw
• Neighbouring states: Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia
• Official language: Polish
• Population: 38,6 million
• Time: Central European Time (GTM+1)
• Currency: zloty (1 Euro= 4,03 zloty , 1$= 3,31 zloty)

Territory

Poland lies in the central part of the European continent, the geometrical centre of which is near Warsaw. This is where the lines from Nordkyn in Norway to Matapan in Greece, and from Cabo da Roca in Portugal to the central Urals intersect. The boundary between the East and West European continental masses also runs through Poland. Poland's total surface area is 322,500 sq km (312,600 sq km of land, 1,200 sq km of inland waters, and 8,700 sq km of territorial waters). This makes it the ninth largest country in Europe, after Russia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Norway, and the 63rd largest in the world. Poland's territory accounts for 1.4 percent of Europe's total surface area, and for 0.23 percent of the world's land masses. Poland is 120 times bigger than Liechtenstein and 520 times bigger than Singapore. The Voivodeship of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) is exactly the size of Belgium.

Borders

Over the centuries, Poland's territory has changed many times, but it has always comprised the basins of the Warta and Vistula Rivers, and the lands between the Carpathians and the Baltic Sea. In the 16th-18th centuries the country's area was as much as 1 million sq km. Before the Partitions (late 18th century) it was about 733,000 sq km. Partitioned and annexed by Russia, Prussia and Austria, in 1795 Poland disappeared from the map of Europe for the next 123 years. On the restoration of independence in 1918 it covered 388,000 sq km. Today's territory of Poland was determined after the Second World War by the victorious powers, Great Britain, the USA, and the Soviet Union, as a result of the peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam. Poland lost some 20 percent of its prewar territory. Its borders were moved north, to the Baltic coastline, Varmia and Masuria; and west, to the River Oder and the Lusatian Neisse River. In the east, the new border now ran along the Bug River. Poland gained some 100,000 sq km in the north and west (Varmia and Masuria, the Pomeranian Lake District, Ziemia Lubuska (the Lubusz Region), Lower Silesia and part of Upper Silesia), at the same time losing about 78,000 sq km of its territories in the east and north-east (the Vilnian region, Polessie, Volhynia and Podolia). As a result of those dramatic shifts, the current territory of Poland is more or less the same as it was a thousand years ago. The country has a roughly circular shape with a characteristic narrow spit of land, the Hel Peninsula, jutting out 34 km into the Baltic Sea, with an average breadth of just 500 m. Poland's geometrical centre lies some 20 km north-east of Łódź. The maximum north-to-south and west-to-east distances are 649 km and 689 km respectively. The northernmost point is Cape Rozewie (54o50'N), the southernmost is Mt Opolonek in the Bieszczady Mountains (49o00'N); the easternmost is the River Bug near Strzyżów (24o09'E), and the westernmost is the River Oder near Cedynia (14o08'E). In summer days are longer in the north by about an hour than in the south; and shorter by an hour in winter. Poland lies in the Central European time zone, with East European time operating in summer. To the west, Poland has a border of 467 km with Germany, to the south with the Czech Republic (790 km) and Slovakia (541 km); to the east and north-east with Ukraine (529 km), Belarus (416 km), Lithuania (103 km) and Russia (210 km). The total length of Poland's land and sea borders is 3,496km.

National Anthem  | listen

During the formation of the Polish Legions, the present Polish national anthem was created. The "Anthem of the Polish Legions in Italy", written to the tune of a mazurka between 15 and 21 July 1797, became very popular with the legionnaires. It was penned by Józef Wybicki, a close friend of Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, created the Polish Legions which were to fight alongside Napoleon for Poland's independence. Beginning with the words, "Poland has not yet perished...", it was to counteract the rumour spread by the Prussians that in 1794, after the defeat at Maciejowice, Tadeusz Kościuszko was to have shouted, "Finis Poloniae!" ("This is the end of Poland").