Portal:Poland/Selected picture
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Feast of Trumpets by Aleksander Gierymski
Credit: Aleksander GierymskiFeast of Trumpets is an 1884 painting by Aleksander Gierymski, held by the National Museum in Warsaw, which depicts Ashkenazi Jewish men on the bank of the Vistula in the same city, performing tashlikh. It is an atonement ritual performed on Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year, in which one's sins are symbolically cast into naturally-flowing water. Prior to the Holocaust, Poland was home to about three million Jews and a long-time important center of Jewish religious and cultural life.
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Credit: USHMM
Jews captured by SS and SD troops during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are forced to leave their shelter and march to the Umschlagplatz for deportation. The SD trooper pictured second from the right is Josef Blösche, who was identified by Polish authorities using this photograph. Blösche was tried for war crimes in Erfurt, East Germany, in 1969, sentenced to death and executed in July of that year.
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Credit: Unknown
Long thought to depict an actual Polish cavalry charge in Sochaczew during the Battle of the Bzura in 1939, one of the last major military actions conducted on horseback, this photograph is now believed to have been taken during the filming of Hans Bertram's German propaganda movie Kampfgeschwader Lützow in 1940.
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The only known photograph of Frédéric Chopin is believed to have been taken in 1849, during the degenerative stages of his tuberculosis, shortly before his death. Chopin, a Polish-French pianist and composer of the Romantic era, is widely regarded as one of the most famous, influential, admired and prolific composers for the piano. Traditional Polish music was an important source of his inspiration and is reflected in his polonaises, mazurkas and other works.
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Credit: Paweł Kuźniar
Mały Szyszak (Czech: Malý Šišák, German: Kleine Sturmhaube, literally: Small Helmet) is a mountain in Poland, close to the border with the Czech Republic. It is situated right above the village of Przesieka, in the central, Silesian, part of the Giant Mountains, known in Polish as Karkonosze. Its peak is at 1,436 m above sea level.
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Credit: Marcin Białek
Coffin in a brick-lined burial vault beneath a 17th century Baroque Carmelite church in Wola Gułowska, a small village in the Lublin Voivodeship.
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God the Father – Become! by Stanisław Wyspiański
Credit: Stanisław Wyspiański (stained glass), Jan Mehlich (photograph)God the Father – Become! is the title of a stained glass window, designed by Stanisław Wyspiański, in St. Francis's Church in Kraków. The medieval Franciscan church was consumed by the great fire of 1850 and then rebuilt in Neo-Gothic style. Decoration of the interior was commissioned to Wyspiański, an Art Nouveau playwright, painter and designer, and a leading artist of the Young Poland movement, who defined the church's character with his floral frescoes and impressive stained glass windows.
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Yak-18 is a Soviet-made two-seat military trainer aircraft designed by Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev. This plane bears the white-and-red Air Force checkerboard, a national marking indicating that it belongs to the Polish Air Force. Yak-18 planes were used in Poland for military training purposes throughout the 1950s. This photograph was taken at the International Air Picnic in Góraszka near Warsaw.
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Former Polish polar station on Spitsbergen
Credit: Krzysztof Maria RóżańskiA former Polish Arctic research station at Skottehytta on the Petuniabukta Bay on the Spitsbergen, Norway. The station was run by the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
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Credit: Kosiarz-PL
Medieval fortified granaries in Grudziądz as seen from across the Vistula River. Founded by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century, Grudziądz (German: Graudenz) became part of Poland by the terms of the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466. The town was once an important inland port for Poland's grain exports via the Vistula and the Baltic Sea.
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Credit: WarX
The coat of arms of the Trzaska nobility clan shows a golden crescent between two broken silver swords in a blue field. According to a legend, the arms were granted by the 11th-century King Boleslaus the Brave to one of his knights who had fought so valiantly that he broke two swords during a single battle. In fact, Polish heraldry developed long after Boleslaus's reign. The earliest historical sources to mention the Trzaska coat of arms date back to the 14th century.
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Majestic seal of King Vladislaus II
Credit: Central Archives of Historical RecordsThe majestic seal of King Vladislaus II (Władysław II Jagiełło, Jogaila) showing the king seated on a throne, holding an orb and a scepter. He is surrounded by coats of arms, supported by angels, of the territories of his realm: the White Eagle of Poland; the Pursuer of Lithuania; the aurochs' head of the Kalisz Voivodeship; the stripes and stars of the Sandomierz Voivodeship; the demi-lion and demi-eagle of the Kuyavia, Łęczyca and Sieradz voivodeships; the king's head of the Dobrzyń Territory; and the lion rampant of Red Ruthenia.
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Foundation plaque of Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki
Credit: Jan MehlichA relief depicting Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki as the founder of a dormitory for Jagiellonian University students, offering the building to Baby Jesus. Oleśnicki, bishop of Kraków and Poland's first cardinal, was an influential statesman, acting as a regent during King Vladislaus III's reign. The plaque is now in the Collegium Maius, the oldest building of Kraków's Jagiellonian University, itself the second oldest in Central Europe.
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Statue of Duke Leszek the White
Credit: Krzysztof MizeraStatue of Duke Leszek the White in the village of Marcinkowo. Leszek was a duke of Kraków and, formally, sovereign of all Poland. In 1227 in Gąsawa, he convened with other Polish dukes, including Vladislaus Spindleshanks of Greater Poland, Henry the Bearded of Lower Silesia and Conrad of Masovia. Participants of the summit were attacked, probably on the orders of Duke Swantopolk II of Pomerania, in the morning of 24 November 1227. Leszek, who was then having a bath, attempted to escape, naked, on horseback, but he was captured and killed by the assassins in a nearby forest.
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A panorama of the High Tatra Mountains on the Polish–Slovak border, as seen from Żabi Szczyt Niżni (Slovak: Nižný Žabi štít, literally "Lower Frog Peak"). The High Tatras, with eleven peaks over 2,500 m above sea level, are the only alpine range in Poland. They are home to many rare and endemic animal and plant species, as well as large predators, such as the brown bear, wolf, lynx, marten and fox. The area is protected within two national parks: Tatrzański Park Narodowy in Poland and Tatranský národný park in Slovakia.
See a version with labeled peaks.
See a version with labeled peaks.
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West portal of the Frombork Cathedral
Credit: Jan MehlichWest portal of the Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady, or Unsere Frau in German, which gave name to its town, known as Frauenburg in German and Frombork in Polish. Frombork was founded by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century on the shore of the Vistula Lagoon. Its best known citizen was Nicolaus Copernicus who held the office of a canon of the Frombork cathedral chapter. In 2005, Polish archeologists found his remains beneath the cathedral's floor.
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Tourist trail signs
Credit: Marcin SzalaTourist trail signs on the snow-covered Brona Pass in the Żywiec Beskids, a mountain range which is part of the Carpathian Mountains. Two of the signs point the way to Babia Góra, which, at 1,725 metres above sea level, is the Żywiec Beskids' highest peak. The mountain, whose name translates as "Old Wives' Mountain", was once believed to be a site of witches' sabbaths.
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Ruins of the Olsztyn Castle
Credit: Marcin SzalaRuins of old fortifications blend with natural limestone outcrops in what remains of the Olsztyn Castle near Częstochowa. Located in the Polish Jura Chain, which stretches from Częstochowa in the north to Kraków in the south, Olsztyn is part of a system of medieval castles known as the Eagle Nests Trail. Like many other strongholds along that trail, the Olsztyn Castle was built by King Casimir the Great in the 14th century and destroyed during the Swedish occupation in the 17th.
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Holy Trinity Church in Świdnica
Credit: WisniowyDetail of a half-timbered wall of the Holy Trinity Church in Świdnica. It is one of the Churches of Peace constructed after the Peace of Westphalia allowed Lutherans to build three churches in the Catholic parts of Silesia. They were to be built outside city walls, without steeples and church bells, and made only of wood, loam and straw. The three churches were erected in Glogau (Głogów), Jauer (Jawor) and Schweidnitz (Świdnica), the latter of which two have survived to this day.
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A bagpiper from the Żywiec Beskid Mountains
Credit: Jan MehlichPrzemysław Ficek, the leading member of the folk band Fickowo Pokusa, plays the bagpipes during the 43rd Beskidy Mountain Folk Week of Culture, a festival promoting the culture and lifestyle of the Gorals, or mountain folk, of the Beskid Mountains along Poland's southern border. Ficek represents an ethnic group known as górale żywieccy, living in the Żywiec Beskids around the town of Żywiec.
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A nocturnal view of the Juliusz Słowacki Theater in Kraków. It was designed by Jan Zawiejski in an eclectic style reminscent of the Palais Garnier in Paris, but incorporates typically Cracovian motifs such as the mascarons which adorn the attic. The theater, named after Romanticist poet Juliusz Słowacki, was the site of premiere productions of Stanisław Wyspiański's dramas. Among its actors were Helena Modjeska and Ludwik Solski.
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With a gold-anodized aluminum dome 98 meters tall and a tower 141.5 meters tall, the Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń is Poland's largest church and one of the largest churches in the world. Its campanile also features Poland's largest bell. The shrine was built in the village of Licheń Stary near Konin between 1994 and 2004, founded entirely by pilgrims' donations. The church is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows whose 18th-century icon is displayed in the basilica's main altar.
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Credit: Krzysztof Mizera
Man Crossing the River is a sculpture of a naked man holding a pole and two arrows, and balancing on a wire stretched across the Brda River in Bydgoszcz. The sculpture was created by Jerzy Kędziora and unveiled on 1 May 2004, the day when Poland joined the European Union. It has been designed so that its center of mass is below the wire, which prevents the 50-kilogram statue from flipping.
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Credit: Bartosz Dworski
February twilight over one of the Milicz Ponds, a bird reserve within the Barycz Valley Landscape Park. The park is a protected area established in 1996 on the Barycz River in south-western Poland.
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A roadside shrine
Credit: UtoplecA roadside shrine in the village of Brenna in the Silesian Beskid Mountains in southern Poland. Roadside shrines dotting the Polish countryside are a popular expression of rural religiosity in this predominantly Roman Catholic country.
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Devil's Stone on the Stone Lake
Credit: Rafał KonkolewskiDevil's Stone (Diabelski Kamień) lies on the shore of the Stone Lake (Jezioro Kamienne) near the village of Strzepcz in the Kashubian Lakeland. The multitude of lakes and erratics in this region has been left by an ice sheet which retreated from what is now northern Poland at the end of the last glacial period about 11,500 years ago. Devil's Stone, like other boulders in this area, has played a role in local folk legends and beliefs.
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Credit: Jan Mehlich
The Royal Archcathedral Basilica of Saints Wenceslaus and Stanislaus on the Wawel Hill in Kraków is the spiritual heart of Poland. It was the site of royal coronations in the 14th–18th centuries and its crypts have been a burial place for Polish kings and queens, bishops of Kraków, saints, national heroes and greatest poets. The church is an amalgam of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles, and its golden-domed Sigismund's Chapel is considered a gem of Renaissance architecture.
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The Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 outside the Gdańsk Shipyard consists of three anchors, each hanging from a concrete cross 42 meters tall. It commemorates 42 workers killed during the 1970 protests against price hikes. The monument, marking the spot where the first three men fell, was erected thanks to the 1980 Gdańsk Agreement between Solidarity and communist authorities.
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Credit: Marcin Szala
A group of granite outcrops up to eight meters tall, known as Śląskie Kamienie (Silesian Rocks) in Polish or Dívči Kameny (Girl's Rocks) in Czech, on top of a peak rising 1,413 meters above sea level in the Giant Mountains, or Karkonosze. According to local folklore, the peak was the place of death of a young shepherdess, hence the Czech name of the rocks.
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Credit: Jan Mehlich
The Marble Hall of the Silesian Voivodeship office building in Katowice. Before World War II, the building housed the Silesian Sejm, a local legislature of the autonomous Silesian Voivodeship. The interior, designed by Albert Speer under German occupation, is one of few surviving examples of Nazi architecture in Poland.
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Credit: Jan Mehlich
The Silesia City Center in Katowice is among the largest shopping malls in Poland, complete with a multiplex, an entertainment center, banks, restaurants and a tropical garden. Opened in 2005 on the site of a defunct hard coal mine, it provides an example of modern urban renewal. Buildings at the base of a preserved shaft tower (right) have been converted into an art gallery and a chapel dedicated to Saint Barbara, the patroness of miners.
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Illustration by Daniel Mróz
Credit: Daniel MrózA 1957 illustration by Daniel Mróz for Sławomir Mrożek's short story collection entitled Słoń ("Elephant"). Mróz, with his surrealist or grotesque line art drawings, is best known as an illustrator for science fiction books by Stanisław Lem and works by Mrożek, who is famous for his satirical stories and absurdist dramas.
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Dorota Rabczewska, better known by her stage name Doda, is a former athlete who began her musical career in 2000 as a vocalist in the pop rock band Virgin and rose to stardom four years later when she took part in The Bar reality TV show. Doda has been dubbed "Polish Britney Spears" and, as a Mensa member and Playboy cover girl, "the world's most beautiful genius".
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Credit: Wisniowy
Łukasz Sówka broadsides round a bend in a speedway race. In Poland, speedway is one of the most popular spectator sports and its top domestic division, Ekstraliga żużlowa, has the highest average attendances for any competition in the country. Speedway involves driving a motorcycle with only one gear and no brakes on an oval dirt track.
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Credit: Marcin Białek
A bust of Henryk Sienkiewicz, an epic writer and journalist, stands near his home village of Wola Okrzejska. Sienkiewicz, known for his grand historical novels, including Quo Vadis and The Trilogy, as well as short stories about modern social issues, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905.
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A ZHP brownie
Credit: Krzysztof MizeraA zuchenka, or Polish brownie, wearing a uniform of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association (ZHP). Founded in 1916, ZHP is Poland's largest scouting organization. Zuchy (cub scouts) and zuchenki are ZHP members that are 6–10 years old.
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Reënactment of the Battle of Berlin
Credit: Cezary pThe Battle of Berlin reënacted in 2008 at the Modlin Fortress north of Warsaw. The historical Battle of Berlin, which took place between 16 April and 2 May 1945, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II. Polish First Army fought in Berlin as part of the 1st Belorussian Front of the Soviet Army.
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Credit: Krzysztof Mizera
Prayer of Saint Adalbert, one of 18 scenes in bas-relief, telling the story of Adalbert's life and martyrdom, that decorate the Romanesque bronze Gniezno Doors, the main entrance to the Gniezno Cathedral, which houses relics of the saint. Adalbert (Vojtěch) was a bishop of Prague and a missionary to Hungary, Poland, and Prussia where he was slain in AD 997.
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Credit: Bruno Girin
The STS Dar Młodzieży ("Gift of the Youth") is a sail training ship used by the Gdynia Maritime University. She was built at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in 1982 to replace the STS Dar Pomorza ("Gift of Pomerania"), which dates back to 1927 and now serves as a museum ship. The new frigate circumnavigated the world in 1987–1988 and regularly participates in the Tall Ships' Races.
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Credit: K. Pęcherski
Józef Piłsudski as photographed between 1910 and 1920. Piłsudski was a leader of the Polish Socialist Party early in his political career. During World War I, he created the Polish Legions which fought alongside the Central Powers and later went on to become a national hero largely responsible for Poland's reëmergence as an independent nation in 1918.
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Credit: National Photo Co.
Siegmund "Zishe" Breitbart, shown here pulling a heavy weight using only his teeth, was a Polish-Jewish strongman and circus performer who was known as the "Strongest Man in the World" during the 1920s. He was widely popular in both Europe and the U.S., but died at the age of 32 after an accident during a performance.
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Credit: Marcin Białek
Baroque town houses along the Long Market (Polish: Długi Targ, German: Langer Markt) in Gdańsk, formerly inhabited by the city's patriciate. Partly visible on the left is the Artus Court, once a meeting place for wealthy burghers, now housing a historical museum.
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Credit: DerHexer
The Malbork Castle, known in German as Marienburg, was built on the Nogat River in the Vistula Delta by the Teutonic Knights in 1406. It is the largest brick Gothic castle in the world.
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President Ryszard Kaczorowski lying in state
Credit: Cezary PiwowarskiA body misidentified as that of Ryszard Kaczorowski lies in state in the Belvedere Palace of Warsaw. The Battle of Monte Cassino veteran and Poland's last president-in-exile died with dozens of other Polish statesmen in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash in Russia. Exhumations in 2012 revealed that his remains had been mistakenly swapped with those of another casualty.
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An arcade in the cloister of the Baranów Sandomierski Castle, a Mannerist fortified palace in southeastern Poland.
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Sheet music for the Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, a solo piano piece written by Frédéric Chopin in 1842. This work is one of Chopin's most admired compositions and has long been a favorite of the classical piano repertoire. The piece, which is very difficult, requires exceptional pianistic skills and great virtuosity to be interpreted. A typical performance of the polonaise lasts seven minutes.
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A photochrom, dated to ca. 1890–1900, of St. Alexander's Church in Warsaw. The church was destroyed during World War II and then rebuilt on a smaller scale.
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Polish Post mailbox
Credit: Diego DelsoA typical mailbox operated by Poczta Polska, the public post service of Poland.
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Glass roof of the Warsaw Polytechnic
Credit: Marcin BiałekThe glass roof of the main auditorium of the Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska). The university's Neo-Renaissance Main Building was erected in 1901.
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Credit: P.R.Schreyner
Baroque interior of the main refectory of a Cistercian abbey in Lubiąż (German: Leubus), Lower Silesia. The abbey, dating back to the 12th century, is one of the world's largest Christian architectural complexes.
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Old Greek Catholic cemetery in Stare Brusno
Credit: CyfranekVegetation overgrows an old Greek Catholic cemetery in an abandoned village of Stare Brusno (Ukrainian: Старе Брусно) on the Polish-Ukrainian border. The hamlet was burnt and its inhabitants expelled in the ethnic cleansing of Poland's Ukrainian population shortly after the end of World War II.
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Watchtowers and a barbed wire fence line a road leading to a round mausoleum commemorating more than 79,000 people, mostly Jews, killed at the Nazi German Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin. Built in 1941 in German-occupied Poland, Majdanek remains the best-preserved of Nazi concentration and extermination camps.
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A panorama of the snow-covered Tatra Mountains on the Polish–Slovak border, as seen from Kozi Wierch (literally "Goat Peak"). The Tatras, with eleven peaks over 2,500 m above sea level, are the only alpine range in Poland. They are home to many rare and endemic animal and plant species, as well as large predators, such as the brown bear, wolf, lynx, marten and fox. The area is protected within two national parks: Tatrzański Park Narodowy in Poland and Tatranský národný park in Slovakia.
See a version with labeled peaks.
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Credit: Łukasz Golowanow
ORP Grom is an Orkan-class fast attack craft originally contracted by East Germany and laid down in 1989. After German reunification, the unfinished hull was bought by Poland, where it was completed in 1995. The ship now serves with the 31st Rocket Warships Squadron, 3rd Ship Flotilla of the Polish Navy.
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A young bay bolete
Credit: Kosiarz-PLA young bay bolete growing in the Wda Landscape Park in north-central Poland. Considered a poor relation to the king bolete (cep), it is nonetheless a choice edible mushroom that is popular with mushroom hunters in Poland and elsewhere. In Russia it is known as the "Polish mushroom".
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Lady with an Ermine is an oil-on-wood painting by Leonardo da Vinci from ca. 1490. One of only four female portraits by Leonardo, its subject is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, a 16-year-old mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. The painting was acquired in 1798 by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a Polish aristocrat, and now belongs to the National Museum in Kraków.
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Maria Amalia of Saxony in a Polish dress
Credit: Louis de SilvestreMaria Amalia of Saxony, queen consort of Spain, was the eldest daughter of King Augustus III of Poland. She is portrayed here in a red dress with ermine lining and split sleeves that was the typical attire of female Polish aristocrats in the 18th century.
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Credit: Kroton
Walls of the elliptical inner courtyard of the imposing fortified palace of Krzyżtopór in Ujazd, south-eastern Poland. Constructed by Krzysztof Ossoliński in 1644, the Baroque palace boasted such modern amenities as dumbwaiters, running water, heating and ventilation systems, and possibly even a ceiling aquarium with exotic fish, but suffered extensive damage during the Swedish occupation in 1655 and was ultimately reduced to ruin by the Russians in 1770.
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Credit: Aleksandra Wolska
A nocturnal view of the Main Town of Gdańsk from across the Motława river. The most prominent feature is a medieval port crane; its wooden parts burnt down during World War II and were reconstructed afterwards.
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Miniature from a manuscript copy of two books by Jan Długosz, created in the 1530s for Piotr Tomicki, bishop of Kraków. It depicts Bishop Stanislaus of Szczepanów as a patron saint of Poland, venerated by King Sigismund I and Tomicki himself together with church and secular dignitaries. Although in the 16th century the art of manuscript illumination was becoming obsolete due to the invention of printing press, Stanisław Samostrzelnik was still able to find wealthy clients willing to pay for custom-made codices.
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The Centennial Hall was built in Wrocław (then known as Breslau) in 1913, when the city was part of the German Empire, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Designed by Max Berg, it is an early landmark of reinforced concrete architecture, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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A nocturnal panorama of downtown Warsaw as seen when looking westwards from the viewing platform of the Palace of Culture and Science. The most prominent buildings seen here, some of them among the city's tallest, include (left to right): Centrum LIM, Warszawa Centralna railway station, Złote Tarasy, Złota 44, InterContinental Hotel, and Warsaw Financial Center.
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A star chart with Scutum Sobiescianum and Taurus Poniatovii
Credit: Sidney HallPlate 12 from Urania's Mirror, a set of star charts published in Britain in 1824. The two constellations to the left of Serpentarius (Serpent-bearer, now called Ophiuchus) were named by Polish astronomers after the coats of arms of their kings. Scutum Sobiescianum (Sobieski's Shield), created by Johannes Hevelius in honor of King John III Sobieski, who bore the Janina coat of arms, is now known simply as Scutum. The now-obsolete Taurus Poniatovii (Poniatowski's Bull) was named by Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt for King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, who used the Ciołek coat of arms.
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A Polish Nobleman is a widely accepted title of the portrait of a middle-aged man of uncertain identity, dressed in the garb of a Polish nobleman, painted by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn in 1637. The subject is depicted with a thick moustache, wearing a high fur cap and a reddish brown mantle with a broad fur collar, and holding a baton with a golden knob in his right hand. Gold chains studded with precious stones are wrapped around both his cap and collar, while a large pear-shaped pearl earring drops from his right ear.
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Credit: Krzysztof Sadowski
A promotional photograph of Behemoth, a blackened death metal band founded in 1991 in Gdańsk. The band's musical style is characterized by distinctive drum work, multi-layered vocals and Middle Eastern influences. Poland has developed a vibrant heavy metal scene since the 1980s, with other notable ensembles in this genre including Turbo, Kat, Vader, and Decapitated.
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A 5-zloty note from 1794, part of the first issue of banknotes in Poland. The notes, denominated 5 zł, 10 zł, 25 zł, 50 zł, 100 zł, 500 zł, and 1,000 zł, were issued during the Kościuszko Uprising, just one year before the Third Partition of Poland. The slightly uneven cut into the top design demonstrates the use of a counterfoil.
See other denominations.
See other denominations.
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Four panoramas, extracted from a series of hand-coloured copperplate maps of the town and salt mine of Wieliczka, depict everyday activities at the Wieliczka Salt Mine in the 17th century: miners carving away lumps of rock salt, horse mills powering water pumps and lifts, brine boiling on the surface, men praying in front of an underground altar sculpted in rock salt. The mine, in continuous operation since the 13th century, is a World Heritage Site and a major tourist attraction.
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Credit: Jacek Halicki
Interior of a spa resort in Lądek-Zdrój (German: Bad Landeck), Lower Silesia. Erected in the 17th century, it was rebuilt in the late 19th century, in Neo-Baroque style. Its guests have included Frederick the Great, John Quincy Adams, Ivan Turgenev, and Władysław Gomułka.
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Credit: anonymous (painting), National Museum in Warsaw (photograph)
Coffin portrait of an unidentified Polish noblewoman wearing a black lace-trimmed dress and a white bonnet adorned with strings of pearls and tufts of black ribbons, dated to the reign of King John Casimir (r. 1648–1668). Realistic portraits of the deceased painted on distinctively hexagonal or octagonal metal sheets, were an important part of the Polish nobility's funerary tradition during the period of Sarmatian Baroque. They were attached to coffins for the duration of the funeral, but removed before the burial and hanged on a wall inside a church.
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Beautiful Madonna of Kazimierz
Credit: anonymous (statue), National Museum in Warsaw (photograph)The Beautiful Madonna of Kazimierz, a polychrome wooden statue of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus. Carved in the region of Lesser Poland during the 1420s or 30s, in the Beautiful Style of International Gothic, which is characterized by dignified elegance, elongated figures and flowing lines, it has later undergone many repairs and modifications, including complete repainting and removal of a necklace.
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Credit: Jan Matejko
In this 1862 work by Poland's preeminent historical painter, Jan Matejko, royal court jester Stańczyk appears to be the only person at a ball given by Queen Bona Sforza of Poland, to be troubled by the news of the 1514 capture of the Lithuanian city of Smolensk by Muscovite forces. Matejko, who in his works endowed Stańczyk with his own facial features, created the popular image of the Renaissance jester as a serious thinker concerned with his homeland's fate.
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Credit: Karol Palion
Piwo z Grodziska, a modern recreation of the historical beer style known as Grodziskie or Grätzer, originally brewed in Grodzisk Wielkopolski from the 14th century until 1993. It is a top-fermented beer made from oak-smoked wheat malt and features a crisp taste with a smoky aroma. This style is traditionally served in tall, conical glasses designed to show off the clear, light golden color and high carbonation, which gave Grodziskie the nickname of "Polish Champagne".
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Reconstruction of the polychrome wooden vault of the Gwoździec Synagogue
Credit: PudelekThe polychrome wooden vault and bimah of the Gwoździec Synagogue, painstakingly reconstructred in 2014, is the centrepiece of the permanent exhibition at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. The original synagogue, built in ca. 1640 in what is now the Ukrainian town of Hvizdets, was burnt down in 1941 by Nazi German forces.
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Credit: Diego Delso
The Kórnik Castle, reflecting here in a frozen moat, was originally constructed in the 14th century, but it was redesigned in the Neo-Gothic style in 1855. The southern façade, seen on the right, is dominated by a chaitya arch, which was probably modelled on the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and indirectly on the Islamic architecture of India. The castle now houses a museum and one of Poland's largest libraries.
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White-tailed eagles fighting
Credit: Andreas WeithTwo white-tailed eagles (an adult, left, and a juvenile) fighting in the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. After Norway and Russia, Poland has the third-largest population of this species in Europe. With its massive beak, featherless feet and a light-colored head and tail, the bird is often believed to be the original model for the White Eagle in the coat of arms of Poland.
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Credit: Jakub Hałun
The village of Zalipie, near the town of Dąbrowa Tarnowska in southeastern Poland, is known for its tradition of local women decorating their houses, farm buildings and other structures with brightly-colored floral motifs.
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Credit: Ferb1972
Leafless oaks on a frosty April morning in the Rogalin Landscape Park. The park, located in the region of Greater Poland, contains Europe's largest group of centuries-old oak trees, measuring up to 9 meters in circumference.
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Saint Anne's Chapel at the Malbork Castle
Credit: Diego DelsoTombstones of grand masters of the Teutonic Order are lining the floor in Saint Anne's Chapel of the Malbork Castle in northern Poland. The Teutonic Knights were a German crusading military order invited to Poland in 1226 to help convert the Baltic Prussians to Christianity and who eventually built a powerful state along the coast of the Baltic Sea.
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Credit: Pudelek
A November sunrise over Bieszczady Mountains as observed from Chatka Puchatka ("House at Pooh Corner"), a mountain hut located 1228 m above sea level on Połonina Wetlińska. A połonina is a massif covered with subalpine meadow that is characteristic for this mountain range extending from the extreme southeast of Poland into Slovakia and Ukraine, and protected as the UNESCO East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.
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Credit: Jar.ciurus
Main building of the Wrocław University on the bank of the Oder. Located in the Wrocław Old Town, the university is famous for its baroque Aula Leopoldina which is open for visitors.
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Credit: Kolossos
The Old Town Hall of Wrocław stands at the center of the city’s Market Square. One of the chief landmarks of the city, the Gothic building was developed over a period of about 250 years, from the end of the 13th century to the middle of the 16th century. During the 1930s, the official role of the town hall was reduced, and the building was converted into a museum. It suffered minor damage during the Siege of Breslau in World War II, after which the entire region was transferred from Germany to Poland.
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Credit: Marcin Szala
Mannerist-Baroque houses standing along the northern edge of the main square of the Renaissance town of Zamość originally belonged to ethnic Armenian merchants and are hence known as Armenian Houses. The town was founded by and named after Jan Zamoyski, a powerful 16th-century stateman, who allowed Jews and Armenians to settle here. The colorful houses are now home to the Museum of Zamość.
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A 25-Danzig-gulden note
Credit: Banknote design credit: Bank of Danzig; photographed by Andrew ShivaThe Danzig gulden was the currency of the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland) between 1923 and 1939. Inflation in Danzig during 1922 had spiralled out of control, and the city abandoned the German Papiermark in favour of the Danzig gulden the following year. The obverse this 25-gulden note shows the Gothic St. Mary's Church on the obverse and Neptune's Fountain on the reverse.
Other denominations:
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A Negress is an 1884 oil-on-canvas painting by the Polish artist Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz, depicting an unknown model. The subject is portrayed from the waist up and dressed in a white robe, but is part naked, with one breast exposed. The Japanese hand fan and the source of light that illuminates the figure and is reflected by highlights in the gold bijoux, create a warm and chamber-like atmosphere. Painted in Paris, the painting was looted during World War II. It was returned to the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw in 2012.
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Jewess with Oranges is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Polish artist Aleksander Gierymski, completed in 1881 and purchased in 1928 by the National Museum in Warsaw. During the World War II looting of Poland, the painting was stolen by German forces, and the Polish authorities sought its whereabouts and its return after the war. In 2010, the painting appeared in an antique market in Germany. The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage began negotiations to bring the painting back to Poland. The talks were successful, and on 15 July 2011 the painting was returned to the National Museum, with compensation paid by the PZU Foundation to the German owner.
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The Portrait of Count Stanislas Potocki is an oil-on-canvas equestrian portrait of Polish patron, politician and writer Stanisław Kostka Potocki by French painter Jacques-Louis David. It was painted in Rome in 1781, when the artist and the subject met during David's stay at the Villa Medici after winning the first prize in painting at the 1774 Prix de Rome. Potocki displayed the work at Wilanów Palace, his residence near Warsaw. It later became the property of the Branicki family, and was looted by German forces during World War II. After the war, it passed into Soviet hands, before being repatriated to Poland in 1956. The painting is now part of the collection of the Museum of King John III's Palace at Wilanów.
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The Warta Mouth National Park (Park Narodowy Ujście Warty) is the youngest of Poland's 23 national parks. It was created in 2001 along the lowest stretch of the Warta river, up to its confluence with the Oder, which marks the Polish–German border. The ground here is swampy and muddy, which makes it a haven for birds.
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Credit: Emptywords
Wilson Square is an urban square and roundabout, located in the Żoliborz area of Warsaw. It was constructed around 1923, close to the Warsaw Citadel. Initially named after Polish novelist Stefan Żeromski, the square was renamed in 1926 in honour of the recently-deceased US president Woodrow Wilson. The buildings around the square were partially destroyed in 1944, during World War II, and it was remodelled in 1955. The modern square features a lawn and greenery with a road running through it, as well as tram tracks and the Plac Wilsona metro station. This photograph shows an aerial view of Wilson Square from the south-east.