1. Poland is the 9th largest country in Europe.
2. The most popular
name for a dog in Poland is Burek which translates to: “brownish-grey color”.
3. In Poland the name day is
considered more important than the birthday.
4. Amongst all the
members of the European Union, the residents of Poland marry the youngest.
5. Poland boasts 17
Nobel prize winners, including four Peace Prizes and five in Literature.
6. Marie Curie
(born Maria Sklodowska ; 1867-1934), the first and only Nobel laureate in two
different sciences and first female professor at the Sorbonne University.
7. Polish born
astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was the first person to propose that the earth
was not the center of the universe.
8. Another Polish astronomer,
Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) published the earliest exact maps of the moon.
9. Saint John’s Kupala is
a popular holiday in which people jump over fires, a tradition that predates
Christianity.
10. In Wroclaw there is an
annual city-wide medieval festival, including jousts, horse archery, medieval
dances and other activities.
11. Marzanna is a tradition
where people weave straw dolls and decorate them with ribbons. These represent
the end of winter, and the beginning of spring. When the snow starts to melt,
they proclaim the beginning of spring and chuck the Marzannas into the river or stream,
symbolically ‘killing’ the winter.
12. During Wianki people go to
the riverbanks and float wreaths with candles on them on the water. If it
floats to a woman on the other side, she’ll find love. If it circles three
times, she’ll be unlucky with her love life.
13. Natural resources include: coal,
sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber, arable land.
14. Przystanek Woodstock is the biggest
open-air festival in Europe–an annual free rock music festival in Poland,
inspired by and named for the Woodstock Festival.
15. Pizza in Poland does not contain tomato
sauce. The waiters bring sauce to the table in a pitcher, and you pour it on
top. Sometimes the sauce is just ketchup.
16. There is a Pope channel on TV.
Anytime one needs to see the pope, one can tune him in.
17. In Poland, bananas are peeled from the
blossom end, not from the stem end.
18. Some Polish beer is 10% alcohol.
19. Polish toilet paper is made of crepe.
20. Nearly 35% of the 60 million Poles live abroad
and large Polish speaking communities can be found in the US, Canada, UK,
Germany, Australia, Brazil and Argentina.
21. The name "Poland" originates from the
name of the tribe "Polanie" which means "people living in open
fields".
22. It has been invaded or has fought for freedom
in insurrections 43 times from 1600 to 1945. 23. The 1st floor
is regarded as floor "0" so you press "1" when you want to
go to the 2nd floor in the elevator.
24. Famous English novelist Joseph Conrad's real
name was Teodor Józef Konrad Nałęcz-Korzeniowski (3 December 1857 to 3 August
1924).
25. Poles are well educated. 90% of Poland's youths
complete at least secondary education and 50% have an academic degree.
26. It adopted the first constitution of its type in
Europe and the second ever in the world after that of the United States on 3
May 1791 and was in effect for only 14 months and 3 weeks. It was referred to
as "the last will and testament of the expiring Country" and of
Polish sovereignty before Poland entered into 123 years of partition.
27. Historians believe that 284 Poles who were seen
as threats to the communist regime were murdered and buried by Stalin's secret
police between 1945 and 1956. An exhumation at the military cemetery in Warsaw
by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance is a part of a nationwide
project to find the final burial places of the victims of Communist terror and
to identify the bodies.
28. It
contributes soldiers to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO)
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan; maintains troops
in the Balkans, mainly in the NATO Kosovo Force; and is contributing a full
battalion to the NATO Response Force, with soldiers on call for rapid
deployment.
29. Kraków was
the headquarters and the place of coronation of Polish kings and the nation's
capital from 1038 until the move to Warsaw in 1596.
30. It was the centre of the Euopean Jewish world
with 3.3 million Jews living in Poland.
30. 3 small cycle-cars called the SKAF, which
sat 2 persons and could go 25 m.p.h in 1921 and a 4-seater car named the
Polonia, which went 60 m.p.h in 1924 were the only Polish-made cars.
31. Located in Wrocław is the oldest restaurant
in Europe, "Piwnica Swidnicka", operating since 1275.
32. It was "stolen" between 1772 and
1795 when the country was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria and
erased from the map. In 1807, Poland was reborn as the Duchy of Warsaw under
Napoleon Bonaparte but his defeat in 1815 ended with Poland being partitioned
by Austria and Prussia.
33. The Fiat was the first mass produced car in
Poland and 10,000 were sold before the eve of WWII.
34. Polish has the second largest number of
speakers among the Slavic languages after Russian.
35. The first surviving Polish recipes cookbook
dates back to 1682 with dishes influenced by strong Lithuanian and
Tartar-Turkish influences and German culinary traditions.
36. The biggest section of any grocery store in
Poland is the candy section.
37. It is among the world's biggest producers of
hard coal (6th place in the world). Poland's reserves of hard coal
are estimated at 45.4 billion tons, enough to meet the country's demand for almost
500 years, twice as long as the world's average.
38. Famous musical composer Frederic Chopin was
Polish and he was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in east-central Poland.
39. Poles
represent the biggest number of people by nationality to rescue Jews during the
German Nazi-organised Holocaust, up to around 450,000 from certain death.
Poland holds the world record with the most people at 6,135 being awarded the
title of Righteous among the Nations by the State of Israel.
40. The Euro 2012 helped Poland to raise its
public profile and marked its 20 year journey into "Central European
Powerhouse".
41. A popular drink in Poland, orangeade or
oranzada, is a sweet carbonated drink with an orange taste that originated in
France and spread to Poland in the 18th century.
42. Nazi-occupied Poland was the only territory
where the Germans decreed that any kind of help for Jews was punishable by
death. Up to 50,000 Poles were executed by the Nazis for saving Jews.
43. Traditionally, the main meal of 3 courses is
eaten around 2pm, starting with a soup, a main course of meat and a desert.
44. Polish dumplings or
"pierogi" are one of national dishes and one of the best recognizable
Polish food outside Poland.
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| Pierogi |
45.
Covering 1/3 of Poland, it's geothermal waters resources are ranked among the
richest in Europe. Equivalent to some 3.5 billion tons of oil, it is sufficient
for heating the houses of about 30 million people.
46. It's first documented ruler was Mieszko I in
the 10th century.
47. The 1st oil refinery in the world was built in 1856 by Polish pharmacist
and petroleum industry pioneer, Ignacy Lukasiewicz.
48. Beer is often served with raspberry or
blackcurrant juice (piwo z sokiem) and drunk using a straw. During colder
seasons the popular refreshment is hot beer with cloves and cinnamon, sweetened
with honey (piwo grzane).
49. It is part of the 'Vodka belt countries' and
has a history of producing high quality vodka for more than 500 years. They are
made from specially selected variety of Stobrawa potatoes, rye or the grass
Hierochloe odorata. BOLS from the Netherlands has also been produced in Poland since 1994.
50. The Katyń Massacre records the murder of
some 22,000 of Poland's finest soldiers, academics, professionals and business
owners in the 1940 by the Soviet Secret Police who were buried in the Katyń
Forest in what is today Russia.
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Stalin
|
51. It boasts the most winners of the "World's Strongest
Man" title.
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| Mariusz Pudzianowski |
52. Poles love their cold cut and Polish butcher
shops or "sklep miesny" are known for their enormous selection.
53.It is estimated that more than 6 million
Poles including soldiers and civilians died in concentration camps, labor
camps, prisons, and forced labor during the 5 years of Nazi occupation.The
historic site of the Auschwitz German concentration camp near Oświęcim is now a
site of pilgrimage and monument to the prevention of war and suffering.
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| Oswiecim, Concentration Camp |
54All Saints' Day on 1st November is an
important religious holiday where Poles visit cemeteries to honour their loved
ones who have passed away.
55.The "Paczki" or Polish doughnut is
one of the most traditional Polish desserts appearing since the time of King
Augustus III of Poland in the early 18th century. It is most consumed on the
last Thursday or "tlusty czwartek", which is a Thursday before Ash
Wednesday. It has been recorded that 100 million "paczki" are
consumed every year just on this one day.
56. It was famous for its amber, transported
along the Amber Route from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic coast for over 1000
years. Gdansk on the northern tip of Poland holds the world famous Amber
Market.
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| Baltic Amber |
57. Poland is largely ethnically homogeneous
with minorities including Ukrainian, Belorussian, Slovakian, Lithuanian and
Germans.
58. It is home to one of the world's best
preserved Neolithic flint workings (3500-1200 BC) and one of the most valuable
archeological sites in Europe.
59. Wieliczka Salt Mine or "Kopalnia soli
Wieliczka" build in the 13th century is one of the world's old salt mines
still in operation until 2007. It is also referred to as "the Underground
Salt Cathedral of Poland" due to its three chapels and an entire cathedral
carved out of the rock salt by the miners and placed on the UNESCO list of the
World Heritage Sites in 1978.
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| Salt Mine, Wieliczka |
