3. Lesser Poland Voivodeship

In this post we will go to the south of Poland, more to the east

And now I will write like this:

English word (PL: Polish translation)

PL - Polish or Poland, in short

I hope this is understandable

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3. LESSER POLAND

Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (PL: Województwo Małopolskie, also known as Małopolska) - is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of 15,108 square kilometers (5,833 sq mi), and a population of 3,267,731 (2006).

It was created on January 1, 1999 out of the former Cracow (PL: Kraków), Tarnow (PL: Tarnów), Nowy Sacz (PL: Nowy Sącz) and parts of Bielsko-Biala (PL: Bielsko-Biała), Katowice, Kielce and Krosno Voivodeships, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a historic Polish region, Lesser Poland, or (in Polish: Małopolska), Current Lesser Poland Voivodeship, however, covers only a small part of the broader ancient Małopolska region which, together with Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and Silesian (Śląsk), formed the early medieval Polish state. Historic Lesser Poland is much larger than the current province. It stretches far north, to Radom, and Siedlce, also including such cities, as Stalowa Wola, Lublin, Kielce, Czestochowa (PL: Częstochowa) and Sosnowiec.

The province is bounded on the north by the Holy Cross Mountain (Góry Świętokrzyskie), on the west by Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska (a broad range of hills stretching from Cracow to Częstochowa), and on the south by the Tatra, Pieniny and Beskidy Mountains. Politically it is bordered by Silesian Voivodeship to the west, Holy Cross Voivodeship to the north, Subcarpatian Voivodeship to the east, and Slovakia (Prešov Region and Žilina Regions) to the south.

Almost all of Lesser Poland lies in the Vistula River (PL: Rzeka Wisła) catchment area. The city of Cracow was one of the European Cities of Culture in 2000. Cracow has railway and road connections with Katowice (expressway), Warsaw, Wroclaw and Rzeszów. It liest at the crossroads of major international routes linking Dresden with Kiev, and Gdansk with Budapest. Located here is the second largest inernational airport in Poland (after Warsaw's), the Jan Paweł II International Airport.

Only in Polish

Flag

Coat of arms

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ECONOMY

The Gross domestic product (GDP. In Polish PKB) of the province was 40.4 billion € in 2018, accounting for 8.1% of the Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 19,700 € or 65% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 72% of the EU average.

The region's economy includes high technology, banking, chemical and metallurgical industries, coal, ore, food processing, and spirit and tobacco industries. The most industrialized city of the voivodeship is Cracow. The largest regional enterprise operates here, the Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks (PL: Huta Tadeusza Sendzimira) in Nowa Huta, employing 17,500 people. Another major industrial center is located in the west, in the neighborhood of Chrzanow (PL: Chrzanów) (chiefly the production of railway engines) and Oswiecim (PL: Oświęcim) (chemical works). Cracow Technological Park (PL: Krakowski Park Technologiczny), a Special Economic Zone, has been established within the voivodeship. There are almost 210,000 registered economic entities operating in the voivodeship, mostly small and medium-sized, of which 234 belong to the state-owned sector. Foreign investment, growing in the region, reached approximately US$18.3 billion by the end of 2006.

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UNIVERSITIES

130,000 students attend fifteen Cracow institutions of higher learning. The Jagiellonian University (PL: Uniwersytet Jagieloński), the largest university in the city (44,200 students), was founded in 1364 as Cracow Academy. Mikołaj Kopernik and Karol Wojtyła (Pope Jan Paweł II) graduated from it. The AGH University of Science and Technology (29,800 students) is considered to be the best technical university in Poland. The Academy of Economics, the Pedagogical University, the Cracow University of Technology and the Agricultural Academy are also very highly regarded. There are also the Fine Arts Academy, the State Theatre University and the Musical Academy. Nowy Sącz has become a major educational center in the region thanks to its Higher School of Business and Administration, with an American curriculum, founded in 1992. The school has 4,500 students. There are also two private higher schools in Tarnów.

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CLIMATE

Located in Southern Poland, Lesser Poland is the warmest place in Poland with average summer temperatures between 23 °C (73 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F) during the day, often reaching 32 °C (90 °F) to 38 °C (100 °F) in July and August, the two warmest months of the year. The city Tarnów, which is located in Lesser Poland, is the hottest place in Poland all year round, average temperatures being around 25 °C (77 °F) during the day in the three summer months and 3 °C (37 °F) during the day in the three winter months. In the winter the weather patterns alter each year; usually winters are mildly cold with temperatures ranging from −7 °C (19 °F) to 4 °C (39 °F), but the winter season changes often to a more humid and warmer winter, or more continental and cold, depending on the many various wind patterns that affect Poland from different regions of the world. Błędów Desert (PL: Pustynia Błędowska), the only desert in Poland, is located in Lesser Poland, where temperatures can often reach 38 °C (100 °F) in the summer.

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TOURISM

Four national parks and numerous reserves have been established in the voivodeship to protect the environment of Lesser Poland. The region has areas for tourism and recreation, including Zakopane (Poland's most popular winter resort) and the Tatra, Pieniny and Beskidy Mountains. The natural landscape features many historic sites. The salt mine at Wieliczka, the pilgrimage town of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and Cracow's Old Town are ranked by UNESCO among the most precious sites of world heritage. At Wadowice, birthplace of Jan Paweł II (50 kilometers southwest of Cracow) is a museum dedicated to the late Pope's childhood. The area of Oświęcim, with the former Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz-I and Auschwitz-II-Birkenau, is visited annually by a million people. Another tourist destination is the town of Bochnia with its salt mine, Europe's oldest.

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CITIES AND TOWNS

The voivodeship contains 61 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006)

You must zoom in to have good quality

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ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION

Smaller Poland Voivodeship is divided into 22 counties (PL: Powiaty): 3 city counties and 19 land counties. These are further divided into 182 gminas.

The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population).

You must zoom in to have good quality

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PROTECTED AREAS

Protected areas in Lesser Poland Voivodeship include six National Parks and 11 Landscape Parks. These are listed below:

• Babia Gora National Park (PL: Babia Góra, or Babigórski Park Narodowy) - a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve
• Gorce National Park
• Magura National Park - partly in Subcarpatian Voivodeship
• Ojcow National Park (PL: Ojców, or Ojcowski Park Narodowy)
• Pieniny National Park
• Tatra National Park - part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve shared with Slovakia
• Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park
• Ciezkowice-Roznow Landscape Park (PL: Ciężkowice-Rożnów, or Ciężkowicko-Rożnowski Park Krajobrazowy)
• Dlubina Landscape Park (PL: Dłubnia, or Dłubniański Park Krajobrazowy)
• Eagle Nests Landscape Park - partly in Silesian Voivodeship
• Cracow Valleys Landscape Park
• Little Beskids Landscape Park - partly in Silesian Voivodeship
• Pasmo Brzanki Landscape Park - partly in Subcarpatian Voivodeship
• Poprad Landscape Park
• Rudno Landscape Park
• Tenczynek Landscape Park
• Wisnicz-Lipnica Landscape Park (PL: Wiśnicz-Lipnica, or Wiśnicko-Lipnicki Park Krajobrazowy)

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SYMBOLS

Lesser Poland Voivodeship's symbols can be blazoned as follows:

1. Coat of arms: A traditional Iberian shield gules, an eagle argent displayed armed, legged, beaked, langued and crowned Or
2. Flag: Per fess argent and gules, a narrow fess Or

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MOST POPULAR SURNAMES IN THE REGION

1. Nowak - 23,671
2. Wojcik (PL: Wójcik) - 13,347
3. Zajac (PL: Zając) - 10,206

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The Lesser Poland Voivodeship has partnerships with the following regions:

• Thuringia (Germany)
• Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (France) 
• Prešov Region (Slovakia)
• Žilina Region (Slovakia)
• Lviv Oblast (Ukraine)
• Cluj County (Romania)
• Sverdlovsk Oblast (Russia
• Latgale (Latvia)
• Jiangsu (China)
• Andhra Pradesh (India)
• Uppsaia County (Sweden)
• Kurdistan Region (Iraq)
• Istria County (Croatia)
• Adjara (Georgia)

In February 2020, the French region of Centre-Val de Loire suspended its partnership with the Lesser Poland Voivodeship as a response to the anti-LGBT resolution passed by the voivodeship's authorities.

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More information and photos here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Poland

or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Poland_Voivodeship

This week (June 8-14) I will add about 5 entries, or at least I have such plans. Because from June 15 I go to practice professional

CREDITS TO ARTIST for authors of photos and articles from Wikipedia