Portal:Poland

Welcome to the Poland Portal — Witaj w Portalu o Polsce

Cityscape of Kraków, Poland's former capital

Poland is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic to the southwest, Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, Lithuania to the northeast, and the Baltic Sea and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the north. It is an ancient nation whose history as a state began near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century when it united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements in the late 18th century, Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned Poland amongst themselves. It regained independence as the Second Polish Republic in the aftermath of World War I only to lose it again when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II. The nation lost over six million citizens in the war, following which it emerged as the communist Polish People's Republic under strong Soviet influence within the Eastern Bloc. A westward border shift followed by forced population transfers after the war turned a once multiethnic country into a mostly homogeneous nation state. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union called Solidarity (Solidarność) that over time became a political force which by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A shock therapy program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented country completed, Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, but has experienced a constitutional crisis and democratic backsliding since 2015.

From Polish history –

Grand Standard-Bearer of the Crown, Stanisław Sobieski, as painted anonymously on the Stockholm Roll (ca. 1605)

Throughout most of Poland's history, the banner of Poland was one of the main symbols of the Polish State, normally reserved for use by the head of state. Although its design changed with time, it was generally a heraldic banner, i.e., one based directly on the national coat of arms: a crowned White Eagle in a red field. Derived from early Slavic flag-like objects, a royal banner of arms dates as far back as the 11th century CE. A symbol of royal authority, it was used at coronations and in battles. The banner of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was initially plain white emblazoned with the arms of the Commonwealth which consisted of the heraldic charges of Poland (White Eagle) and Lithuania (Pursuer). Since both Polish and Lithuanian coats of arms consist of white charges in a red field, these two colors started to be used for the entire banner (example pictured). In the interwar period, the royal banner was replaced with the Banner of the Republic of Poland, which was part of the presidential insignia. A national banner is not mentioned in the current regulations on Polish national symbols, although today's presidential jack is based directly on the pre-war design for the Banner of the Republic. The banner should not be confused with the flag of Poland, a white and red horizontal bicolor, officially adopted in 1919. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected biography –

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) was a Polish journalist, novelist and philanthropist, best remembered for his historical novels. Born into an impoverished Polish noble family in Russian-ruled Congress Poland, he began publishing journalistic and literary pieces in the late 1860s. In the late 1870s he explored the United States, sending back travel essays that won him popularity with Polish readers. He began serializing novels in the 1880s and soon became one of the most popular Polish writers of the turn of the century. Numerous translations gained him international renown, culminating in his receipt of the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer." In Poland he is best known for his Trilogy of historical novels — With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Sir Michael — set in the 17th-century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while he is mostly remembered abroad for Quo Vadis, a novel set in Nero's Rome. Several of his works have been filmed, some more than once, with the 1951 Hollywood adaptation of Quo Vadis receiving most international recognition. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

Selected location –

Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia in Płock

Płock is a town on the Vistula River in the western part of the Masovian Voivodeship. During the reigns of Vladislaus Herman and Boleslaus the Wrymouth in the 10th–11th centuries, Płock was briefly Poland's capital city, and later served as one of the seats of the dukes of Masovia. The town has two cathedrals: the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Masovia (pictured) where Vladislaus and Boleslaus are buried, and the Temple of Mercy and Charity, the principal seat of the Mariavite Church, a native Polish branch of Christianity. Płock is home to Poland's largest oil refinery, owned by PKN Orlen and served by the Druzhba ("Friendship") pipeline linking Russia with Germany. (Full article...)

More selected locations

Did you know –

Polish and Ukrainian border posts

... that the Poland–Ukraine border (border posts pictured), the most often crossed stretch of the European Union's eastern boundary, is also a major smuggling route?
... that the last murdered Jews of the Mińsk Mazowiecki Ghetto came from the iron foundry of K. Rudzki i S-ka?
... that Wacław Kopisto was one of the Silent Unseen rescuers of Home Army prisoners tortured at a Pinsk prison?
... that Kabaret TEY was one of the most popular Polish cabarets of the 1970s and 1980s?

Poland now

Recent events

Our Lady of Mercy in Konotopie

On 16 August, the 17th-century wooden St. Nicholas' Church was completely destroyed by a fire at the Museum of Folk Architecture in Sanok.
On 15 August, a 55.6-meter tall statue of Our Lady of Mercy (pictured), Europe's tallest effigy of Virgin Mary, was unveiled in Konotopie.
On 28 June, a temperature reading of 40.5 °C was recorded in Słubice, breaking the country's all-time temperature record from 1921.
On 15 June, Semyon Skrepetsky, a neo-primitivist Russian artist exiled in Poland, was assassinated in Biała Podlaska three days after holding a one-man anti-Putin protest in Berlin.

Ongoing

Polish constitutional crisis • Belarus–EU border crisis • Ukrainian refugee crisis

Holidays and observances in August 2026
(statutory public holidays in bold)

Polish military aircraft flying in formation during a Polish Armed Forces Day parade

Assumption Day and Polish Armed Forces Day (military aircraft pictured), 15 April
Solidarity and Freedom Day, 31 August

Archive and more...

Selected image –

Man Crossing the River in Bydgoszcz

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.