Here are some interesting facts about Poland which we think you should know:
- Population of Poland is 38 milions of people
- Biggest Polish cities are Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Lodz, Gdansk and Poznan
- Poland’s capital city is Warsaw and previous capitals were Gniezno and Krakow
- Geographically Poland is the very centre of Europe, it shares frontiers with seven countries: Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.
- Poland is ninth biggest country in Europe
- Polish currency is Polish Zloty (Polish Golden, PLN), 1 zloty is subdivided into 100 groszy
- Poland has three mountain ranges – Carpathian Mountains in the southern Poland (highest), Swietokrzyskie Mountains in the central Poland and Sudetes in South-Western part of country
- Highest point in Poland is Rysy (2499m) in Tatra Mountains (southern Poland)
- There is one desert in Poland – Błędów Desert. It is located in southern Poland in the Silesian Voivodeship
- There are four lake districts in Poland – biggest one is Masurian Lake District in north-east Poland, then there are Pomeranian and Kashubian Lake Districts in north and Greater Poland Lake District in central-west Poland
- The longest rivers are the Vistula (Polish: Wisła), the Warta, the Bug and the Oder (Polish: Odra) which forms part of Poland’s western border
- In Poland there’s the oldest, ancient forest in Europe – Białowieża Forest, UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Poland has beautiful, sandy beaches on baltic coast
- There are the “moving dunes” in Slowinski National Park, which are regarded as a curiosity of nature on a European scale
- Poland is one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world – with over 96% being Poles
- For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world
- In World War II Poland fielded the third biggest army among the European Allies, after the Soviet Union and United Kingdom, but before France. Poland never surrendered, even under German and Soviet occupation: Home Army, the largest underground force in Europe, and other resistance organizations in occupied Poland provided intelligence that enabled successful operations later in the war and led to uncovering the Nazi war crimes (i.e., death camps) to the Western Allies.
- Pope John Paul II, one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, was Pole
- We have the largest castle in the world by surface area, and the largest brick building in Europe: The Marienburg Castle in Malbork (Polish: Zamek w Malborku, German: Ordensburg Marienburg)
- Fall of the communism in 1989 started in Poland with “Solidarity” as first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact (led by Lech Walesa)
- German Enigma cipher machine was cracked by polish Cipher Bureau in 1932 (by 27 years old polish mathematician Marian Rejewski)
- Wolf’s Lair (German: Wolfsshanze) – Adolf Hitler’s first World War IIEastern Front military headquarters, was located in occupied Poland (in woods of Masurian District)