Poland
The deeply Catholic heart of Central Europe, a nation forged by a turbulent history of partition, war, and the triumph of Solidarity, bound by faith, patriotism, and family, famed for its warm hospitality, its pierogi and vodka, and the great Christmas Eve of Wigilia. The complete guide.
Poland is a large country in Central Europe, on the plains between Germany and the lands to the east, stretching from the Baltic Sea in the north to the mountains in the south, home to about thirty-eight million people. To understand it, begin with the deep Roman Catholic faith, which is bound to Polish identity as tightly as in any nation on earth, fused with the national soul through centuries of history; with that turbulent history itself, of a proud nation partitioned and wiped from the map, devastated by war, and risen again, whose memory shapes the Polish character; with the fierce patriotism and love of the homeland the Poles call ojczyzna, born of so much struggle to keep the nation alive; with the legendary hospitality, the goscinnosc that fills the table and keeps a place for the unexpected guest; and with the deep bonds of family and the resilience of a people who have endured. From these flow the customs that follow: the warm greeting, the shared meal, the great festivals. This guide walks through each in turn.
Overview
Poland is a large country in Central Europe, lying on the broad plains between Germany to the west and the lands of the east, bordered also by the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, by Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and by Lithuania and a sliver of Russia to the northeast, with the Baltic Sea along its northern shore and the Sudetes and Carpathian mountains along its south. It is a land of plains, forests, lakes, and rivers, chief among them the Vistula that flows through the heart of the nation. About thirty-eight million people live there, making Poland one of the larger nations of Europe and among the most populous in the European Union. The capital is Warsaw, the great city of the centre, rebuilt from near-total ruin after the Second World War, while the old royal capital of Kraków in the south is the cultural and historical jewel of the nation.
Poland is a parliamentary republic, governed from Warsaw by a prime minister and a parliament, with a president as head of state, and it is a member of the European Union and of NATO, though it keeps its own currency, the złoty, rather than the euro. Since the fall of communism in 1989, Poland has undergone one of the most remarkable transformations in modern Europe, from a poor communist state to a dynamic and fast-growing member of the democratic and prosperous West. The language is Polish, a Slavic tongue written in the Latin alphabet, a deep source of national identity, and the overwhelming majority of Poles are Roman Catholic.
A few deep forces shape life in Poland. There is the deep Catholic faith, bound to Polish identity. There is the turbulent history of a nation partitioned, devastated, and risen again. There is the fierce patriotism and love of the homeland. There is the legendary hospitality. And there are the deep bonds of family and the resilience born of suffering. The sections that follow trace these forces and then walk through the customs of daily life.
Where faith is nationhood
Poland is one of the most deeply Catholic countries in the world, and the Roman Catholic faith is bound to Polish national identity as tightly as in any nation on earth, so that for centuries to be Polish was, in a real sense, to be Catholic. The overwhelming majority of Poles are Roman Catholic, and the Church has played a role in Polish history, culture, and identity far beyond the religious, becoming the keeper of the nation's soul through its darkest times. This bond was forged through the long centuries when Poland's great enemies were the Orthodox to the east and the Protestant to the west, so that the Catholic faith became a mark of Polishness itself and a refuge of national identity.
The bond grew stronger still in the modern age of suffering. Through the partitions, when Poland was erased from the map, and through the long communist decades, the Catholic Church was the one great institution that stood apart from foreign and communist rule, preserving the Polish language, faith, and spirit, offering refuge to the persecuted, and giving the nation an independent voice. The election of the Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II in 1978 filled the nation with immense pride and gave courage to the resistance against communism, and the Polish pope became one of the most revered figures in the nation's history.
The faith runs through Polish life, the calendar, and the customs. Churches stand in every town and village, Sunday Mass is widely attended, the great religious festivals are the high points of the year, and the milestones of life, baptism, first communion, confirmation, marriage, and death, are marked in the Church. Popular devotion is strong, expressed in the roadside shrines, the veneration of the Virgin Mary, above all the Black Madonna of the great shrine at Częstochowa, and the huge pilgrimages to the holy places. Though modern Poland, especially its cities and its young, is becoming more secular, as in much of Europe, the Catholic faith remains a profound force in the culture and identity of the nation. To understand Poland is to understand the deep Catholic faith woven into the very soul of the nation.
A nation that would not die
To understand the Polish character, one must understand the nation's turbulent and often tragic history, for Poland has endured more than almost any nation in Europe, partitioned, occupied, devastated, and erased, yet has risen again each time, and this history of suffering and survival has shaped the Polish soul. Once, in earlier centuries, Poland was a great power, a vast and proud commonwealth joined with Lithuania, but its later history was one of catastrophe. In the late eighteenth century the nation was carved up and swallowed by its neighbours, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, in the partitions that wiped Poland from the map of Europe for over a century.
Poland regained its independence after the First World War, only to suffer the most terrible catastrophe of all in the Second World War, when it was invaded from both sides, by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and became the chief killing ground of the war, the site of the death camps of the Holocaust in which millions of Polish Jews and others were murdered, and where Poland lost a greater share of its people than any other nation, its capital Warsaw deliberately razed to the ground. After the war came nearly half a century of communist rule under Soviet domination, a time of hardship, repression, and the loss of freedom.
From this long darkness came one of the great triumphs of the modern age. In 1980, in the shipyards of Gdańsk, Polish workers led by Lech Wałęsa founded Solidarity, the first free trade union in the communist world, which grew into a vast peaceful movement against communist rule, survived the imposition of martial law, and at last, in 1989, led Poland to become the first of the communist nations to win back its freedom, through dialogue rather than violence, helping to bring down the whole communist order in Europe. This history, the partitions, the war, the Holocaust on Polish soil, the communist years, and the triumph of Solidarity, lives in the Polish memory and shapes the patriotism, the resilience, and the deep seriousness of the nation. To understand Poland is to understand its history as a nation that suffered greatly and would not die.
Love of the ojczyzna
Out of this history of struggle and survival comes the fierce Polish patriotism, a deep and emotional love of the homeland that runs through the culture and is one of the defining features of the national character. The Poles have a profound attachment to their country, expressed in the word ojczyzna, the fatherland or homeland, which carries far more than its plain meaning, conveying a sacred, emotional, patriotic bond to Poland, sanctified by the centuries in which Poles fought, suffered, and died to keep the nation alive when it had no state of its own.
This patriotism was forged in the long years when Poland existed only in the hearts and memories of its people, when the nation survived not as a state but as a community of those who refused to let it die, who kept the language, the faith, the customs, and the dream of freedom alive through partition, war, and occupation. Poland, it has been said, exists because individuals chose to fight for it, an imagined community held together by will, memory, and love. This gives Polish patriotism a depth and an emotional charge that can surprise outsiders, bound up with the long history of sacrifice.
The love of country is expressed in many ways: in the deep reverence for the national history, the heroes, the uprisings, and the struggles for freedom; in the seriousness attached to the memorials, the cemeteries, and the sacred sites of national suffering and sacrifice; in the pride in Polish achievement, in the great Poles who carried the nation's name to the world; in the national holidays and the commemorations; and in the literature and poetry, which have always carried the national spirit. National pride, historical memory, and the love of the homeland are powerful forces, and Poles take their history seriously and honour those who kept the nation alive. For a visitor, a genuine interest in and respect for Polish history and patriotism is deeply appreciated. To understand Poland is to understand its fierce patriotism and the sacred love of the ojczyzna.
Goscinnosc, the open table
If any one quality defines Polish social life, it is hospitality, a warm and generous welcome to guests that is a deep value of the culture and has its own cherished name: gościnność. To welcome a guest warmly, to feed them generously, and to make them feel at home is among the deepest of Polish customs, captured in the old saying that a guest in the home is God in the home, which expresses the near-sacred regard in which the guest is held. A visitor to a Polish home will be received with great warmth and pressed with an abundance of food and drink, for the host's honour lies in the generosity of the welcome.
The feeding of the guest is central to Polish hospitality, and the table groans with food, the host pressing more and more upon the visitor, who is expected to accept and to eat, even after protesting that they have had enough, for to refuse the food can disappoint the host. There is an old Polish saying, that one should go into debt if one must but make an impression, which speaks to the cultural emphasis on hospitality, generosity, and the lavish welcome, even at personal cost, when hosting guests or marking an important occasion. The Polish host gives without stint and takes pride in the giving.
This hospitality has a beautiful expression in the Polish custom of the empty place at the table, kept at the great Christmas Eve supper and on other occasions for the unexpected guest or traveller, a symbol of the Polish readiness to welcome the stranger and share what one has. The warmth of the welcome may take a little time to appear, for Poles can be reserved and formal with strangers at first, but once a relationship is formed, the hospitality becomes warm, generous, and heartfelt. For a visitor, the keys are to accept the hospitality graciously, to eat heartily, and to show genuine appreciation for the host's generosity. To understand Poland is to understand gościnność, the warm and generous welcome at the heart of the culture.
Rodzina and the wide circle of kin
The family lies at the very heart of Polish life, the deepest and most important of all bonds, and Polish families are close, warm, and strongly knit, with deep ties between the generations and a wide circle of kin. The word rodzina, family, extends beyond the immediate household to embrace the extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and close friends often form part of a trusted inner circle, so that the family and this circle are the foundation of social life, the first source of love, support, and identity, and a refuge in a nation that has known much hardship.
Family bonds carry deep obligations of mutual support and loyalty, and family members help one another through life as a matter of course. Multi-generational households remain common, especially outside the cities and in older or more traditional families, and grandparents often play a large part in the raising of children. The great occasions of the family, the holidays, the religious milestones, the weddings, and the gatherings, bring the wider family together, and the great festivals such as Christmas and Easter are above all family occasions, when the generations come together around the table.
Respect for elders and for parents runs deep in Polish life, the old honoured and cared for within the family, their authority and wisdom respected, and the young taught to show deference and courtesy to their seniors. Polish family culture is traditional and warm, though it is changing with modern life, the cities, and the wider world, with smaller families and more young people living independently, and the emigration of many Poles to work abroad has scattered some families across Europe, even as the bonds remain strong. Through it all, the family remains the bedrock of Polish society and the deepest source of warmth, support, and identity. To understand Poland is to understand the central place of the close family, the wide circle of kin, and the deep respect owed to elders.
The formal hello
Polish greetings are courteous and somewhat formal, especially between those who do not know one another well, reflecting a culture that values politeness, respect, and good manners. The standard greeting is a handshake, firm and accompanied by direct eye contact, given on meeting and parting, between men and increasingly between all, though traditionally a man waited for a woman to extend her hand. Among family and close friends, the greeting is warmer, with embraces and kisses on the cheek, often three, among those who are close. Older and more traditional Polish men may still, as a gallant courtesy, kiss a woman's hand in greeting.
Forms of address in Poland are formal and respectful, an important mark of courtesy. One does not move quickly to first names, especially with elders, strangers, and in formal or professional settings; instead the polite forms, equivalent to sir and madam, are used with the surname or alone, and titles, such as those of profession or education, are valued and used. The move to first names comes only with familiarity, and often by mutual agreement. This formality is a sign of respect, and a visitor does well to be courteous and somewhat formal until invited to be more familiar.
Poles can seem reserved, serious, or even distant to strangers at first, with public manners more restrained and less openly friendly than in some cultures, and the easy smile of strangers less common, but this reserve gives way to genuine warmth, humour, and hospitality once a relationship is formed, and the Polish are warm, generous, and loyal friends. Polish conversation, once the formality is past, can be direct and heartfelt, and Poles value sincerity over surface friendliness, so that a question such as how one is doing is a real question, not a mere nicety, deserving a real answer. For a visitor, the keys are to be courteous and respectful, to use the formal address until invited otherwise, and to understand that the initial reserve hides a deep warmth. To understand Poland is to understand the courteous, somewhat formal greetings and the warmth that lies beneath the reserve.
Pierogi, kielbasa, and the Polish table
Polish food is hearty, warming, and satisfying, the rich and comforting cuisine of a Central European land of cold winters, built on meat, potatoes, grains, cabbage, mushrooms, and the produce of the forest and farm, generous in portion and deep in flavour. It is a cuisine of soups and stews, of dumplings and sausages, of pickled and fermented foods, of rye bread and sour flavours, shaped by the seasons and by the long tradition of preserving food for the winter, and it is closely tied to the great hospitality and the festivals of the nation.
The beloved dishes are many. Above all there are the pierogi, the famous Polish dumplings, little pockets of dough filled with meat, potato and cheese, cabbage and mushroom, or sweet fruit, boiled or fried, and adored across the nation. There is kiełbasa, the Polish sausage in its many forms, a true national food; bigos, the rich hunter's stew of cabbage, sauerkraut, and meats; gołąbki, the cabbage rolls stuffed with meat and rice; schabowy, the breaded pork cutlet; and the great soups, the beetroot barszcz, the sour rye żurek, and the mushroom and tomato soups. Rye bread, pickled cucumbers, and sauerkraut are everyday staples, and the highland sheep cheese oscypek is a regional treasure.
The Polish table is generous and social, the centre of hospitality and family life, and meals are occasions to gather and to share. The national drink is wódka, vodka, of which Poland is one of the great homes, drunk in small glasses, often neat and chilled, and central to celebration and toasting, where a toast may call for a reply and a round of drinking; Poland is also a great beer-drinking nation, and has an old tradition of honey mead. Sweet treats and cakes are loved, from the doughnuts of Fat Thursday to the festive babka and the poppy-seed cake. The rhythm of eating includes a substantial main meal in the early afternoon in the traditional pattern. For a visitor, to share the pierogi, the kiełbasa, the hearty soups, and a toast of vodka is to taste the warm, generous heart of Polish food. To understand Poland is to understand its hearty, warming table, above all the pierogi and the kiełbasa.
Wigilia and the Christmas table
The most beloved and sacred celebration of the Polish year is Christmas, and at its heart lies Wigilia, the Christmas Eve supper, perhaps the most cherished and memorable family occasion in the whole Polish calendar, rich with ancient and deeply held customs. On the evening of the twenty-fourth of December, the family gathers for a solemn and festive meal that begins when the first star appears in the sky, recalling the star of Bethlehem, after which the family shares the opłatek, a thin Christmas wafer, each person breaking a piece from another's and exchanging heartfelt wishes and forgiveness, in one of the most moving of all Polish customs.
The Wigilia supper is a feast of twelve meatless dishes, recalling the twelve apostles, which vary by region and family but traditionally include the beetroot barszcz, the carp and other fish, the pierogi, the cabbage and mushroom dishes, the poppy-seed cake, and the dried-fruit compote. A beautiful custom is the empty place set at the table, with an extra plate and chair left for an unexpected guest or traveller, a wanderer or a lonely soul, a symbol of Polish hospitality and the spirit of the season, and hay is sometimes placed under the tablecloth in memory of the manger. After the supper comes the exchange of gifts, the singing of the beloved Polish carols, and, for many, the midnight Mass called Pasterka, the shepherds' Mass.
Christmas Day itself is a time of rest, joy, and further family gathering and feasting, and the Christmas season, with its carols, its lights, and its customs, is the warm and sacred heart of the Polish winter. The deep importance of Wigilia, with its blend of religious devotion, family love, ancient custom, and hospitality, makes it the supreme expression of Polish tradition, and Poles across the world keep its customs faithfully, linking families everywhere to the same beloved rituals. For a visitor invited to share a Wigilia supper, it is a profound window into the soul of Polish culture. To understand Poland is to understand Wigilia, the great Christmas Eve supper at the heart of the Polish year.
Easter and the wet Monday
After Christmas, the greatest festival of the Polish year is Easter, Wielkanoc, a deeply religious and joyful celebration that marks the central event of the Christian faith and is, like Christmas, a great family occasion rich with cherished customs. The Easter season begins with the solemn observances of Holy Week, and a beloved custom comes on Holy Saturday, when families prepare beautiful baskets of food, the święconka, filled with eggs, bread, sausage, salt, and a little lamb of sugar or butter, and carry them to church to be blessed by the priest, the blessed food then eaten at the festive Easter breakfast.
Easter Sunday is marked by the joyful Resurrection Mass and a great celebratory breakfast, the first meal after the long Lenten fast, featuring the blessed foods, the eggs, the sausage, the sour rye soup żurek, the ham, and the Easter cakes, above all the babka. The decorated Easter eggs, the pisanki, beautifully painted in intricate patterns, are a treasured folk art and a symbol of the season, placed in the baskets and exchanged. The whole celebration blends deep religious devotion with the warmth of family gathering and feasting.
The Monday after Easter brings one of the most playful and beloved of all Polish customs, Śmigus-Dyngus, the wet Monday, when, by an old tradition, people splash and douse one another with water, the young especially soaking their friends, family, and passers-by in a joyful, mischievous water fight that fills the streets and gardens, a custom said to symbolise cleansing, renewal, and the coming of spring. The blend of the sacred and the playful, the blessing of the baskets and the dousing of wet Monday, captures the spirit of the Polish Easter. To understand Poland is to understand its Easter, the blessed baskets, the festive breakfast, and the joyful water of wet Monday.
From Fat Thursday to All Saints
Beyond the great feasts of Christmas and Easter, the Polish year is filled with festivals, most of them tied to the Catholic calendar and its saints and holy days, reflecting the deep faith of the nation. One of the most beloved and distinctive is Fat Thursday, Tłusty Czwartek, the last Thursday before Lent, a day of joyful indulgence when Poles eat great quantities of pączki, the rich Polish doughnuts filled with jam, and other sweets, before the long fast of Lent begins, with bakeries selling them by the million across the land.
Among the most solemn and deeply felt of Polish observances is All Saints' Day, on the first of November, when Poles honour and remember their dead in one of the most moving of all national customs. On this day families travel, often great distances, to the cemeteries to visit the graves of their loved ones, which they clean, decorate with flowers and chrysanthemums, and cover with candles, so that as night falls the cemeteries across the whole country glow with the light of countless candles, a beautiful and profound sight that expresses the deep Polish reverence for the dead, for memory, and for the bonds of family across the generations.
The calendar holds many other festivals: the religious feasts of Corpus Christi, with its processions, of the Assumption, and of the great Marian devotions; the name days, the feast days of the saint a person is named after, which in Poland are traditionally celebrated as much as or more than birthdays, with good wishes, gatherings, and gifts; the national holidays that mark the struggles and triumphs of Polish history, Independence Day in November and the Constitution Day of the third of May, observed with pride and ceremony; and the regional and folk festivals, the harvest celebrations, and the customs of the countryside. Through them all runs the blend of deep faith, family, history, and the love of celebration. To understand Poland is to understand its festivals, from the doughnuts of Fat Thursday to the candlelit cemeteries of All Saints' Day.
The rites of a life
The great milestones of life in Poland are marked in the Catholic tradition, with the gathering of the family, and they are among the richest expressions of the culture. Birth is welcomed with joy and followed by baptism, the initiation of the child into the Church and the community, a deeply important occasion celebrated by the family, with godparents who take a lasting role. The stages of a Catholic childhood, above all the First Communion, a major event celebrated with great ceremony, family gatherings, and gifts when a child first receives the sacrament, mark the passage of the young.
The wedding is the supreme celebration, and Polish weddings are large, warm, and famously festive affairs, deeply rooted in tradition and bringing together the wider family and a great host of guests. Most weddings include the church ceremony, the sacrament of marriage in the Catholic rite, often followed by old customs, the greeting of the newlyweds by their parents with bread and salt, a wish that they may never know hunger, and a glass to share. The wedding reception is a great and joyful feast that can go on through the night and even into a second day, with an abundance of food, the flowing of vodka, the toasts, the music, and the dancing, for the Polish wedding is a celebration of legendary warmth and stamina, a joining of families and a cause of communal rejoicing.
Death is marked with the solemnity and faith of a deeply Catholic and remembering people. The funeral is held in the church, followed by burial, and the customs of mourning are observed, with the family and community gathering in support of the bereaved. The Polish reverence for the dead, expressed so movingly at All Saints' Day, runs through the customs of mourning and remembrance, the graves tended and the dead honoured across the years. Through the milestones of life run the enduring threads of Polish culture: faith, family, tradition, and the deep bonds of memory and community. To understand Poland is to understand these milestones, where faith and family mark the passage of every Polish life.
The folk costume
Everyday dress in Poland is modern and European, like that of its neighbours, and Poles, especially in the cities, dress neatly, with care, and in current fashion, taking pride in a good appearance for work, for social occasions, and above all for church and celebrations, where smart and respectful dress is expected. The young of the cities follow the styles of Europe, and modern Poland is indistinguishable in dress from the wider Western world, though a certain neatness and care, and respect for the formality of occasions, mark the Polish style.
Modest and respectful dress is valued for church and religious occasions, which remain frequent and important in this Catholic land, and for the solemn national commemorations. For the great festivals, weddings, and family celebrations, Poles dress well and formally, honouring the importance of the occasion. The traditional respect for formality and propriety in dress, as in manners, reflects the courteous and somewhat formal character of the culture.
Poland has a rich heritage of regional folk costume, each region with its own distinctive and often beautiful traditional dress, brightly coloured, embroidered, and adorned, of which the costumes of the highland Górale of the southern mountains and of regions such as Łowicz are especially famous. Once the everyday wear of the countryside, the folk costumes are now kept for folk festivals, weddings, religious processions, and the performances of the folk dance and music ensembles, worn with pride as a mark of regional identity and national heritage, and treasured as part of the rich folk culture that the Church and the nation have worked to preserve. For a visitor, the folk costumes are seen at festivals and celebrations and in the famous folk ensembles. To understand Poland is to understand its modern, neat dress and the cherished heritage of its regional folk costume.
The points of courtesy
Polish manners are courteous and somewhat formal, and a visitor who understands a few customs will be warmly received. Courtesy and respect are highly valued, especially toward elders, and the formal forms of address should be used until one is invited to be more familiar. Good manners at the table are appreciated: one waits for the host to invite the start of the meal, eats in the continental manner, tries a little of all that is offered, and shows appreciation for the food and hospitality, accepting the host's generous pressing of more food and drink with good grace.
When invited to a Polish home, it is customary and polite to bring a small gift, such as flowers, good chocolates, or a bottle of wine or spirits, the flowers given in an odd number, as an even number is for funerals, and unwrapped at the door. Punctuality for social and business engagements is appreciated. If vodka is served and toasts are made, a guest may be expected to take part and to reciprocate a toast, though one may decline politely. Respect should be shown around churches, religious occasions, and the many customs of the faith, with modest dress and quiet behaviour.
Above all, a visitor should show respect and sensitivity toward Polish history and patriotism, which are deeply and seriously felt, and avoid careless remarks about the painful chapters of the past, the wartime suffering, or the nation's neighbours and history, for these touch the deepest national feelings; a genuine interest in and respect for Polish history is, by contrast, much appreciated. Poles can be reserved at first but are warm and generous once a relationship is formed, valuing sincerity, loyalty, and genuine respect over surface friendliness. In manner, courtesy, respect, formality until invited otherwise, and a sincere warmth are the keys. To understand Poland is to understand its courteous, somewhat formal manners and the deep respect owed to its history and faith.
Chopin, the great Poles, and the arts
Poland holds a rich and proud artistic and intellectual heritage, and its contributions to the culture of the world are out of all proportion to the nation's troubled history, a source of deep national pride. Greatest of all, perhaps, in the affection of the nation is Fryderyk Chopin, the composer and pianist whose romantic music, drawing on the rhythms and spirit of Polish folk dance and song, the mazurka and the polonaise, carried the soul of Poland to the world and remains a cherished national treasure, celebrated in the great international piano competition that bears his name in Warsaw.
Poland has given the world a remarkable line of genius. In science there is Nicolaus Copernicus, the astronomer who placed the sun at the centre of the heavens and changed humanity's view of the universe, and Maria Skłodowska-Curie, the great scientist and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, honoured across the world; in literature, a deep and beloved tradition that carried the national spirit through the centuries of partition and oppression, producing poets and novelists revered as national heroes and several winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature; and in music beyond Chopin, a rich tradition of composers and performers of international standing. The Polish people have long honoured learning, literature, and the arts, often placing cultural achievement above all else as the keeper of the national soul.
The wider arts of Poland are rich too: the architecture of its cities, from the Gothic and Renaissance jewels of Kraków to the rebuilt old town of Warsaw, painstakingly restored from wartime ruin; the deep tradition of folk art, music, and dance, the colourful costumes, the carved and painted crafts, the famous folk ensembles; the strong traditions of theatre, film, and poster art that won international acclaim; and a lively modern cultural life. This rich heritage, carried through so much suffering and held as a treasure of the nation, is a profound source of Polish pride and identity. To understand Poland is to understand its arts, from Chopin and Copernicus to the deep love of literature and the rich folk culture of the nation.
From rebuilt Warsaw to ancient Krakow
Poland is a varied land, and its cities and regions each carry their own history and character. The capital, Warsaw, on the Vistula in the centre of the country, is the great modern metropolis of the nation, a city of nearly two million, almost entirely destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt from the ruins, including its historic old town, painstakingly restored, so that the city stands as a symbol of Polish resilience and renewal, now a busy centre of government, business, and culture. It is the heart of modern, dynamic, fast-growing Poland.
The old royal capital of Kraków in the south is the historical and cultural jewel of Poland, one of the best-preserved old cities in Europe, spared the worst of the wartime destruction, with its magnificent medieval and Renaissance old town, its great market square, its royal castle on Wawel Hill, and its ancient university, a city of deep history and beauty that holds a special place in the Polish heart. Other great cities include the Baltic port of Gdańsk, with its Hanseatic architecture and its place in the Solidarity story; Wrocław in the southwest, with its Germanic and bridge-laced character; Poznań; and Łódź.
Beyond the cities, the regions of Poland keep their own characters, traditions, and sometimes dialects: the highland region of Podhale in the southern Carpathian mountains, home of the Górale highlanders with their strong and distinctive folk culture, music, dress, and the mountain town of Zakopane; the lake districts and forests of the north and east; the Baltic coast; and the historic regions of Silesia, Masuria, and others, each with its own history and identity within the nation. The countryside, with its farms, villages, forests, and roadside shrines, keeps the older, more traditional Poland, while the cities drive the rapid modern transformation. For all its variety, the nation is bound by the shared faith, language, history, and patriotism. To understand Poland is to understand its cities and regions, from rebuilt Warsaw and ancient Kraków to the highland villages of the south.
The nation today
Poland today is a parliamentary republic of about thirty-eight million people, a member of the European Union and of NATO, and one of the great success stories of modern Europe, having transformed itself since the fall of communism in 1989 from a poor, repressed communist state into a dynamic, fast-growing, and increasingly prosperous democracy, now among the larger economies of Europe. It is governed by a prime minister, Donald Tusk, and a parliament, with a president, Karol Nawrocki, as head of state, and its politics in recent years have been marked by sharp division between liberal and conservative camps, and by the tension of a government and a presidency at odds. The Polish language and the Catholic faith remain at the heart of national identity.
Modern Poland faces the challenges of a nation transformed at great speed. It grapples with deep political polarisation between liberal and national-conservative visions of the country; with the social changes of rapid modernisation, secularisation, and European integration, which test the old bonds of faith and tradition, especially between the cities and the countryside and between the generations; with the emigration of many Poles, especially the young, to work elsewhere in Europe, and now the arrival of immigrants in turn; and with its position on the eastern edge of the European Union and NATO, near Russia and bordering Ukraine, which has made security and the war in Ukraine matters of the deepest national concern. These are the concerns of a confident, rising nation conscious of its history and its place.
Through all its modern change, Poland holds firmly to the identity that defines it. The deep Catholic faith still runs through the culture, if tested by secularisation; the turbulent history still shapes the resilient, serious, patriotic Polish character; the fierce love of the ojczyzna still burns; the legendary gościnność still fills the table and keeps the empty place for the guest; the deep bonds of family still anchor society; and the cherished customs, above all the great Wigilia, still bind Poles across the world. To know Poland is to meet a proud and resilient nation that suffered greatly and would not die, deeply faithful, fiercely patriotic, warmly hospitable, and rich in culture, a land risen from darkness into freedom and rapidly making its way as one of the rising nations of Europe.