Feast 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The coat of arms of the Trzaskanobility 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.
Statue 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.
West portal of the
GothicCathedral 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.
Tourist 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.
Ruins of old fortifications blend with natural
limestoneoutcrops 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.
Detail 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.
Przemysław 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.
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.
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.
Devil'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.
A group of
graniteoutcrops 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.
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 Barreality TV show. Doda has been dubbed "Polish
Britney Spears" and, as a
Mensa member and Playboy cover girl, "the world's most beautiful genius".
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.
Siegmund "Zishe" Breitbart, shown here pulling a heavy weight using only his teeth, was a
Polish-Jewishstrongman 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.
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.
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.
The 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.
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.
A 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".
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.
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.
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.
A promotional photograph of Behemoth, a
blackeneddeath 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In this 1862 work by Poland's preeminent historical painter,
Jan Matejko, royal court
jesterStańczyk 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.
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".
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.
Two 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.
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.
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.
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
UNESCOEast Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.