Mazovia and Podlassia

Mazowsze (Mazovia) is an historical and ethnographic region in central Poland, straddling the Vistula River. The Mazovian Lowland is one of Poland's most extensive geographical regions. Its natural extension is the Podlassian Lowland at the confluence of the Narew and Biebrza Rivers and the basin of the middle Bug. As the two lowlands are difficult to separate, sometimes they are referred to as the Mazovian-Podlassian Lowland.

Historically, Mazovia is one of the oldest parts of Poland. Since the times of the first Polish prince, Duke Mieszko I, it was ruled by members of the Piast dynasty; in the 12th century an independent Mazovian principality came into being (many formidable Gothic castles and opulent churches that now dot Mazovia were built at that time) and in the 16th century all of Mazovia and Podlassia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland under Sigismundus I the Elder. Towns on major trade routes - Warsaw, Pułtusk, Płock and Łomża - flourished. The centrally located Warsaw developed rapidly as a political, economic and cultural centre. In 1596 King Sigismund III Vasa made it his principal residence and thus Cracow ceased to be Poland's capital.

The 17th century, with its series of wars and epidemics, was a hard time for the new capital - the city was plundered and severely damaged, losing 90 percent of its 20 thousand residents. In the 18th century, under Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław August Poniatowski, Warsaw revived and gained many fine edifices. Poniatowski, a great patron of the arts and artists, brought to the capital many talented architects who designed new buildings and remodelled those already existing. But soon afterwards the partitions began, with Mazovia and Podlassia divided between Austria and Prussia. In 1807 they were included into the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw and in 1815 they became part of  the Congress Kingdom of Poland under the Tsar of Russia. In 1918, after 123 years of political dependence, Warsaw again became the capital of an independent state and a prominent centre of academic and cultural life. Towards the end of the Second World War the Germans virtually razed the city to the ground. Although rebuilt after the War, it has never recovered its former character, instead becoming a modern metropolis in which the remnants of the past are not so patent.

With scores of monuments, museums, theatres, galleries and shopping centres, Warsaw is of course Mazovia's strongest tourist attraction. Many visitors from Poland and abroad flock to Zelazowa Wola, Chopin's birthplace. Another city worth visiting is Lódz - if only to take a stroll down ulica Piotrkowska, Europe's longest shopping street with the biggest concentration of pubs, nightclubs and restaurants in the country.

Above all, however, Mazovia and Podlassia have a magnificent natural countryside, in many instances unique in Europe.

NATURE: FORESTS AND SWAMPS

The Mazovian Lowland is flat and monotonous. Its flatness is broken only by the rows of willows lining the banks of small streams and rivulets. In the Middle Ages most of the region was covered by extensive woodland in which game was hunted. Much has changed since then - today it is one of the least forested parts of Poland (18.9%), where only small fragments of the once impressive forests have survived.

This is in striking contrast to Podlassie. North-east of Warsaw lies an unspoiled land of many unique attractions including the primaeval Białowieża Forest and the marshy valleys of the Narew and Biebrza Rivers with a staggering profusion of wildlife.

 
The Kampinos Forest: dunes and elks

North-west of Warsaw stretches the magnificent Puszcza Kampinoska (Kampinoska Forest). A protected area of this size and importance lying in the direct proximity of a big city is unusual in the world. Predominantly westerly winds sweep the clean air from the forest towards Warsaw, which is beneficial for the city. Experts say that this is what has saved the capital from becoming an environmentally endangered area. In 1959 the forest was designated the Kampinos National Park, the second largest in the country (38,500 ha).

The National Park was created in order to protect a group of inland dunes, very uncommon in Europe, as well as natural plant assemblages (with over 60 listed species) and a rich fauna. The sands are covered by a pine forest with a juniper undergrowth. The most ancient trees are 200 years old. Hollows between the dunes shelter broadleaved species: the oak, birch, aspen and hornbeam. To the south and north there are wetlands and marshes, dominated by alder, birch, and ash. One peculiarity found here is the black birch. In the undergrowth you can see white anemones, while the marshes are punctuated by kingcups and irises.

In the past the forest was home to enormous aurochs, bears and European bison. Elks, which died out in the early 19th century, were successfully reintroduced after the War - a group of these animals was brought from the Soviet Union and now their descendants number about 150. Other mammals include the wild boar, roe deer, fox, badger, ermine, hare, least weasel, marten and polecat. Two other reintroduced species are the beaver (in 1980) and the lynx (1992). Now there are about a hundred beavers and about a dozen lynxes in the National Park. The marshes are a nesting place for a variety of birds such as the crane, grey heron and stork. The most valuable vegetation and animal life is protected in 23 strict reserves.

Natural landscape parks and reserves are also to be found in other Mazovian forests - the Puszcza Kamieniecka, Puszcza Kurpiowska, Puszcza Biała, and Puszcza Bolimowska, where, in 1627, the last European aurochs was killed.

The Białowieża Forest:  land of the European bison

Some 200 km north-east of Warsaw, you'll find Europe's largest natural forest, the  Puszcza Białowieska (Białowieża Forest - 150,000 ha, of which 65,000 belong to Poland, and the rest to Belarus), the last patch of the primaeval forest that once extended across the European lowlands. The Białowieża National Park (Poland's oldest, established in 1932) has been inscribed on the list of World Biosphere Reserves and the UNESCO World Heritage List (it is the only site in Poland that has entered both lists). For many years environmentalists have been suggesting that the national park should cover the entire forest (now only about 18% of it is under protection) as in Belarus, but no decision has been made yet.

The statistics are impressive: the Białowieża National Park is home to 21 species of trees (26 in the entire forest), 56 species of bushes, and some 5,000 species of other plants, often endemic, including over 3,000 fungi (almost 430 cap mushrooms), 277 lichens, and almost 200 mosses. As many as 11,559 species of animals have been counted so far (including 9,284 species of insects). The most famous denizens are the free-ranging European bison, but there are many others: wolves, lynxes, elks, wild boar, otters and ermines. The forest is also the habitat of wildfowl, its black storks, cranes, capercaillies, black grouse, snowy owls and eagle owls - a great attraction not only for bird-watchers.

Facts

The aurochs was a large bovid (3.2 m long, 1.9 m at the shoulder, 800 kg), ancestor of domestic cattle, once inhabiting the  Eurasian and north African forests. Its last refuge was Mazovia, where it was under protection already in the 14th century, declared "royal game" (only the king was allowed to hunt it). Despite that, by the mid 16th century only 50 of them were left and the last aurochs was killed in 1627.

The European bison is Europe's largest mammal (2.7 m long, 1.8 m at the shoulder, 850 kg). There are some 700 bison in Poland and 3,000 in the whole world. Listed in IUCN's Red Book, the species is under strict protection in all countries.

Facts

The last bison killing in the forest was in 1919. In 1923, at Prof. Jan Sztolcman's suggestion, the International Association for the Protection of the European Bison was established and based in Frankfurt-am-Main, for the preservation of the species, using just three bison that had survived in captivity. After the War the newly bred animals were released and now there are about 450 bison in the entire forest (about 240 on the Polish side).

Apart from the National Park, there are 21 nature reserves in the Białowieża Forest, including a display of animals (Rezerwat Pokazowy Zwierz�t) with large enclosures in which, in conditions similar to their natural habitat, you can see the European bison, wild boar, elk, wolf, roe deer, deer, zubron (a cross between the European bison and domestic cattle) and Polish horse.

Białowieża itself is worth a visit. It's an old village with traditional wooden houses and an Orthodox church (most of the two thousand residents are Orthodox Christians). It is a popular tourist and scientific centre and most likely the "best educated" village in Poland, with a staggering number of scientists (chiefly biologists).

Another place of interest is the Site of Power (Miejsce Mocy) near Białowieża. Amid oaks and pines, sometimes with multiple trunks growing out of the same roots, there is a mysterious stone ring. Diviners claim that it generates an exceptionally strong magnetic field beneficial for humans. This strange energy removes fatigue and relieves pain. Białowieża is said to be situated on a transcontinental radiation line which connects  places like Gniezno, a legendary cult place in the Hartz Mountains, and a Catharist chapel in Druggelte, Westphalia.

The Narew and Biebrza Rivers: Poland's Amazonia

The north-eastern part of Podlassia is one of the most beautiful and wildest areas in Poland. Here you'll find the Biebrza floodplain, the largest and best preserved natural peatland in Europe, protected by the international Ramsar Convention which protects wetlands of great natural value and important as waterfowl habitats. It is also encompassed by the Biebrza National Park, the largest national park in Poland (59,000 ha). The park features water habitats, marshes, bushes and forests, with distinctive vegetation zones. There are reed-covered river banks and old river beds with floating plants (like nenufars). Then come inundation areas and grasses interspersed with low bushes, followed by peat swamps and mosses. Here you can see glacial relics such as the saxifrage, sundew, Charles' sceptre and Jacob's ladder. Beyond them are alder forests, birch- and spruce-pine woods.

Sunrise in the Biebrza Valley Photo:GA www.poland.gov.pl

The Biebrza marshes are Poland's largest haunt for elk: the strictly protected 2,500-hectare Czerwone Bagno ("Red Swamp") has over 500 of them. There are also many beavers (the river owes its name to them), deer, roe deer, wild boar, and otters. The numbers of wolves, foxes, badgers, raccoon dogs, martens, and polecats are somewhat smaller. But above all the Biebrza is the bird-watcher's paradise: the habitat of 269 bird species, of which 178 nest here. In spring and autumn it's an important stopover for migratory birds. Predictably, the most common are water and mud birds: gulls, terns, mute swans, ducks, geese, and grebes. The place is also a favourite with white and black storks, grey herons and cranes; occasionally you can see the white-tailed eagle, greater spotted eagle, eagle owl, or short-eared owl.

Facts

The Biebrza and Bialowieża National Parks have been invited to join the international PAN PARK (Protected Area Network) project. As members of the network, they will be among Europe's showcase national parks, widely promoted around the world.

The other wetland in Podlassia is a stretch of the Narew Valley sometimes referred to as the Polish Amazonia. Its sleepy villages and little towns, distant from the buzz of big city life, are an oasis of tranquillity only recently discovered by tourists. The locals are still amazed that their traditional punts propelled with a long pole may be an attraction for other people. Go punting amid endless fields, marshes and floodplains, listen to birds chattering and frogs croaking, and you'll feel relaxed and rejuvenated.

The Narew Valley with its chain of forking and converging channels is one of Europe's last regularly flooded areas. Since 1996 it has been protected as the 7,350-hectare Narew National Park, a haven for birds (over 200 species) including the widgeon, great snipe, ruff, and little crake, all extremely rare in Europe. Other incentives for bird watchers are the black tern, bittern, common snipe, and black-tailed godwit. The Narew Valley is a nesting place for the corn crake and aquatic warbler, both threatened with extinction worldwide. Its mammals include the omnipresent otters and beavers plus elks, martens, ermines and least weasels. There are also magnificent dragonflies and a profusion of amphibians: marsh frogs, fire-bellied toads and newts. The water is home to over 20 fish species including the pike, crucian carp, tench, carp, bream, and sheatfish.

The area around the Biebrza and Narew Rivers is wild but not inaccessible. On the contrary, it offers many hotels, pensions, campsites and a large number of agrotourist farms. Although large expanses of the terrain are swamps or water-logged, there are also many hiking trails. Both rivers make excellent waterways for boats and canoes, and rowing your way through is the best manner of visiting both Parks. And don't fail to see a sunrise on the Biebrza - this is a view you'll never forget.

SITES AND CITIES: THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY

Warsaw: high-rises and wide parks

Before the Second World War Warsaw was called the Paris of the North, but on the other hand always being degraded to the role of an ugly city  to be compared with its ancient rival, Cracow - obviously in favour of the latter. Nowadays Warsaw is certainly a different city, not so orderly and growing systematically  for centuries as Cracow. Razed to the ground during the War, it was rebuilt with devotion, but rather chaotically, with so many open spaces and unfinished squares left that it lost much of its previous charm. Even today it resembles a gigantic patchwork of bright colours - painstakingly restored palaces, churches, monuments, individual houses or whole streets - mixed with a coarse and grey mass of unsightly blocks of flats and markets. Also, it's hard to say where its centre is - you won't find it, either on a map or in reality. Some people say the centre is the area around the Palace of Culture, while for others the city's heart is the showpiece street of Nowy �wiat or the Old City.

Warsaw's Old City, Photo: J. Lamparski, www.poland.gov.pl

This does not stop the city of 1.8 million people from continuing to grow quickly. Life in Warsaw is visibly faster than in other parts of the country. Streets are jammed with traffic, while modern steel-and-glass office buildings shoot up into the sky and vast shopping malls appear virually overnight. But there are also many beautiful parks and evocative nooks and crannies. All you need is to know where to find them.

Facts

The 42-storey Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw's landmark, designed by a Soviet architect and built between 1952 and 1955 as a "gift of the Soviet nation for Poland", remains the tallest building in the country, measuring 231 m. It is also the sixth tallest building in Europe, after  constructions like the Commerzbank Tower (258 m) and Messeturm (256 m) in Frankfurt, and London's Canary Wharf Tower (236 m). But it may soon lose its position as new skyscrapers continue to be erected in Warsaw, notably the 270 m European Trade Center.

Warsaw's Old City dates back to the turn of the 14th century, but during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising 90% of it was destroyed. The brightly painted town houses enclosed by a band of red-brick walls, slender church towers and the squat Royal Castle are all a result of post-war reconstruction. In 1980 the Old City was listed by UNESCO as an example of perfect reconstruction work making use of what had survived from the original buildings.

One of the original edifices is Sigismund's (the Sigismundian) Column in the centre of the courtyard in front of the Castle (Plac Zamkowy, Castle Square), one of the oldest secular monuments in Poland (1644), depicting King Sigismund III Vasa who moved the country's capital from Cracow to Warsaw in 1597. The statue survived the War, though it lost one palm and the sabre. The Royal Castle, dating back to the 13th century, was not so lucky. It  was  blown up by the Nazis in late 1944. The present building, with its opulent 17th-century interiors, was reconstructed in 1971-84 from donations from Poles living all over the world. The Castle is not stunningly beautiful and can't rival Cracow's Wawel, nevertheless it makes a big tourist attraction.

The famous streets, Krakowskie Przedmie�cie (the most beautiful), Nowy �wiat (the most elegant), and Aleje Ujazdowskie (busy but still charming), lead to another treasure - the Łazienki Palace. Regarded as Poland's (or even Europe's) finest 18th-century palace and grounds, it was created for King Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1766 he purchased Ujazdów Castle with an adjacent hunting ground which held a pond with an islet dominated by a bath-house (hence the name of the park, meaning literally "Baths"). For the next 30 years the best architects led by Domenico Merlini designed the new palaces and pavilions as well as a landscape park with scenic ponds, flower beds, groups of trees and bushes, and winding pathways.

The central part of the park is occupied by a large pond amid alleys which double as a playground for squirrels. The islet on the pond holds one of the most beautiful palaces in Warsaw: a graceful and elegant royal residence known as the Palace on Water. A vast terrace outside is decorated with statues, a fountain and a sundial. Peacocks strut between the flower beds,  and the steps descending to the water are a perfect place for feeding ducks and swans. There is another famous residence in Łazienki: the Belvedere Palace, once serving Poland's presidents. Also worth seeing are the small but well-maintained Botanical Gardens with seven thousand plant species and the Chopin Monument. Put up in 1926, the splendid sculpture was melted down by the Nazis, so what you can see today is a replica. It stands on a scenic pond, surrounded by a rose garden laid out before the First World War. In this special setting Chopin concerts are held every Sunday from spring to autumn.

Zelazowa Wola: Chopin's house

This tiny village on the Utrata River is among the most frequently visited places in Mazovia. Here, on 1 March (or, as other sources say, 22 February) 1810 Frederic Chopin was born. At the time the estate belonged  to the Skarbek family whose children's tutor was Nicolas Chopin, Frederic's father, married to Justyna Krzyżanowska, a relative of the Skarbeks. When the future composer was just six months old, the Chopins moved to Warsaw, but he would often come back to Zelazowa Wola for holidays and family anniversaries. His last visit was in 1830, just before he left Poland.

Of the Skarbeks' original dwór country cottage,  only the left annex had survived - the one in which Chopin was born. In 1928 the dilapidated building was purchased by the Frederic Chopin Society, specially created for this purpose, which financed its restoration. The ivy-clad single-storey house with a shingle roof and a porch flanked by two columns has become one of the most widely recognised symbols of Polish culture.

The six rooms contain antique furniture and other period objects. Nothing of it ever beloged to the Chopins, but you can also see their family portraits, copies of the parents' marriage certificate and Frederic's birth and baptismal certificates and some other memorabilia. Rather unsurprisingly, there is also a piano used during Sunday concerts of Chopin's music.

The dwór is set in one of Poland's loveliest parks, created in 1931-1937 and featuring almost 500 tree and bush species.

Łód�: a promised land

With a population of almost 800,000, Łód� is Poland's second largest city. For centuries just a small farming settlement, in the early 19th century it rapidly grew into a major centre of the textile industry. Soon dubbed "a promised land", the city attracted thousands of merchants, industrialists and architects, predominantly Germans and Jews (before the Second World War they accounted for half of Łód�'s inhabitants). The world's biggest textile factories sprouted up here, as did opulent villas, mansions and town houses - now making up the city's finest examples of period architecture. Characteristic of this urban development were the factory complexes comprising the owner's residence, factory halls and family houses for the workers.

Prosperity ended abruptly when the First World War broke out. The Germans who occupied the city closed down most of the factories and then took away or destroyed the machines. After the War production was gradually renewed in some mills, but they never regained their former grandeur. The golden years of industrial Łód� were gone.

Facts

Łód� was the birthplace of the world-famous pianist Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982).

What has remained is ulica Piotrkowska, believed to be Europe's longest shopping street (4 km of continuous buildings). This is also the city's most famous street and there are tourists who come to Łód� to see only Piotrkowska. It is lined with exclusive shops and eye-catching residences that once belonged or were financed by affluent businessmen. The last few years have seen a renaissance of the Piotrkowska. It has come to serve as the city's main precinct (Łód� is unique in that it has no clearly defined Old City), a venue for concerts, sporting events, street performances, and happenings. It also boasts the biggest concentration of pubs, nightclubs and restaurants in Poland, especially in the stretch between Pasaż Schillera and ulica Moniuszki, where almost every house and gateway has a few of them. The area is locally known as the "Bermuda Triangle" as you can easily disappear here for at least a good few hours.

Łód� is also the centre of the Polish film industry. It has an excellent film school whose graduates include many renowned directors such as Krzysztof Kie�lowski, Andrzej Wajda, and Roman Polański. Part of ulica Piotrkowska has been turned into a Walk of Fame with brass stars honouring such celebrities as Jerzy Hoffmann, Agnieszka Holland, Jan Machulski, Andrzej Seweryn and many others.

Few people know that Łód� has the biggest Jewish cemetery in Central and Eastern Europe (and one of the biggest in the world). About 200,000 tombs from 1893-1939 have survived in the 40-hectare necropolis. Some of them are impressive, even monumental structures , often featuring classical or Art Nouveau motifs. A few hundred of the tombstones have been listed.

Source: www.poland.gov.pl