Poland [antikvár]

Poland lies at the geometrie centre of Europe. In the north it is washed by the waves of the Baltic Sea, while in the south it is also limited by a natural boundary in the form of the Western Carpathians. which extend from the Bieszczady Mountains, via the Tatras and Beskids. as far as the Sudetic Mountains and the picturesque Karkonosze. In the east. Poland ends at the River Bug. while in the west it is the Oder and Nysa tuzycka that form the border. Though very largely a land of plains, an average altitude of 174 m a.s.l. conceals the fact that this is a far from monotonous landscape.The Polish coast tends to be a fiat one of wide sandy beaches, though occasionai cliffs rise up here and there. as at Gdynia Orlowo. There are also extensive coastal dunes, for example in the teba area.As we move south from the Baltic we encounter a zone of extensive lakelands. including the Pomeranian Lakeland and the Mazurian Lake District. The landscape here is predominantly post-glacial, with a wealth of what are Poland's largest and deepest lakes set amongst morainic élévations covered in forest. Perhaps the least diverse countryside. though no less charming for that, is the plainland heart of Poland. formed by the Mazowsze (Mazovia), Wielkopolska and Silesian régions.Still further south. the land rises steadily: first in a belt formed by the Lublin, MaJopoIska and Silesian Uplands. An interesting area within the second of these is that of the Kraków-Wielun Upland with its characteristic limestone rocks, a wealth of caves and picturesque gorges. A major tourist attraction here is the Trail of the Eagles' Nests (Szlak Orlich Gniazd) with its ruins of Mediaeval Castles and fortresses.The mountains proper arise just a little further to the south. In the south-eastern corner, the gentleness of the Bieszczady Mountain peaks belies the nature of what is a heavily-forested and truly wild land. Moving west along the southern border we reach the Tatras, Poland's youngest and highest mountains, having passed through the Pieniny Range, with itsfamous gorge of the Dunajec. Still further to the west the highlands continue with the Silesian Beskids. The Sudetic Mountains begin at the so-called Moravian Gate. The most interesting range within t hem are the Karkonosze Mountains. where the rock formations take on the strängest of shapes.The country's biggest river, the Vistula, flows from south to north. It is one of the last big rivers in Europe to remain very largely unregulated.The name Poland itself relates back to the Polanie tribe. a people inhabiting what is now Wielkopolska in the Early Middle Ages.The year 966 saw Poland's conversion to Christianity with the baptism of Mieszko I, regarded as the first leader of Poland. He was succeeded by his son Bolesfaw the Brave, who was able to found a strong and stable state with its capital in Gniezno. His death was followed by a collapse of authority made worse by the division of the country into districts from 1138 on - a conséquence of provisions in the last will and testament of BolesJaw III "Wrymouth". The reunification of the country had to wait until 1320, a year which marked a highpoint in the 27-year reign of Wfadysfaw I ("the Short").In the mid 14th Century the Polish throne was occupied by King Kazimierz III ("the Great"). who was able to strengthen the country in terms of its internal security and its economic prowess. It was he who founded Poland's first university (later known as the Jagiellonian) in Krakow, and he who has gone down in history as the ruler who "found Poland in wood and left her in brick". At the same time, however, the growing strength of the Order of the Teutonic Knights left Poland cut off from its access to the Baltic. while threatening the very existence of Lithuania. This state of affairs led to the Polish-Lithuanian Union of 1385 and the subsequent rule of the Jagiellonian Dynasty. This made a promising start when a united army under WJadysJaw Jagiello defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410.