title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: For a complex simple Lie algebra (such as ), every such bilinear form is proportional to each other; in particular, to the Killing form.


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: There is a generalization to a general representation formula_56 of a Lie algebra formula_57, such that formula_58 is a homomorphism of Lie algebras formula_59 The trace form formula_60 on formula_61 is defined as above. The bilinear form


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: The concept of trace of a matrix is generalized to the trace class of compact operators on Hilbert spaces, and the analog of the Frobenius norm is called the Hilbert–Schmidt norm.


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: The partial trace is another generalization of the trace that is operator-valued. The trace of a linear operator which lives on a product space is equal to the partial traces over and :


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: If is a general associative algebra over a field , then a trace on is often defined to be any map which vanishes on commutators: for all . Such a trace is not uniquely defined; it can always at least be modified by multiplication by a nonzero scalar.


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: Given a vector space , there is a natural bilinear map given by sending to the scalar . The universal property of the tensor product automatically implies that this bilinear map is induced by a linear functional on .


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: Similarly, there is a natural bilinear map given by sending to the linear map . The universal property of the tensor product, just as used previously, says that this bilinear map is induced by a linear map . If is finite-dimensional, then this linear map is a linear isomorphism. This fundamental fact is a straightforward consequence of the existence of a (finite) basis of , and can also be phrased as saying that any linear map can be written as the sum of (finitely many) rank-one linear maps. Composing the inverse of the isomorphism with the linear functional obtained above results in a linear functional on . This linear functional is exactly the same as the trace.


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: Using the definition of trace as the sum of diagonal elements, the matrix formula is straightforward to prove, and was given above. In the present perspective, one is considering linear maps and , and viewing them as sums of rank-one maps, so that there are linear functionals and and nonzero vectors and such that and for any in . Then


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: Following the same procedure with and reversed, one finds exactly the same formula, proving that equals .


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: The above proof can be regarded as being based upon tensor products, given that the fundamental identity of with is equivalent to the expressibility of any linear map as the sum of rank-one linear maps. As such, the proof may be written in the notation of tensor products. Then one may consider the multilinear map given by sending to . Further composition with the trace map then results in , and this is unchanged if one were to have started with instead. One may also consider the bilinear map given by sending to the composition , which is then induced by a linear map . It can be seen that this coincides with the linear map . The established symmetry upon composition with the trace map then establishes the equality of the two traces.


title: Trace (linear algebra)

text: For any finite dimensional vector space , there is a natural linear map ; in the language of linear maps, it assigns to a scalar the linear map . Sometimes this is called "coevaluation map", and the trace is called "evaluation map". These structures can be axiomatized to define categorical traces in the abstract setting of category theory.


title: Robert Iler

text: Robert Michael Iler (; born March 2, 1985) is an American former actor. He is best known for his portrayal of A.J. Soprano on "The Sopranos". His film roles include "Tadpole" (2002), and "Daredevil" (2003).


title: Robert Iler

text: By mid-1997, he was appearing in commercials for Pizza Hut, and attending three or four auditions a week. He had also appeared on "Saturday Night Live" and in some film parts, but nothing that brought him great recognition. It was then that he won the role of A.J. Soprano, the son of series lead Tony Soprano, on the HBO drama "The Sopranos", which aired from 1999–2007. By May 2001, he had begun home schooling for his education.


title: Robert Iler

text: After the conclusion of "The Sopranos" in 2007, Iler largely retired from acting, instead moving to Las Vegas to pursue a career as a professional poker player, where he participated in both official and unsanctioned games. In September 2019, Iler moved to Los Angeles, where he started the podcast "Pajama Pants" alongside "The Sopranos" co-star Jamie-Lynn Sigler and YouTube comedian Kassem G.


title: Robert Iler

text: Iler struggled with substance abuse, particularly after "The Sopranos" ended. He has been sober since 2013.


title: Robert Iler

text: In July 2001, Iler was arrested for the robbery of two teenagers in his Upper East Side neighborhood and for possession of marijuana. He pleaded guilty to a single charge of larceny and received three years' probation.


title: Robert Iler

text: He was present on October 23, 2005, when the underground poker club Ace Point was raided by the police; however, no charges were filed against him.


title: Danny Ramirez

text: Danny Ramirez (born September 17, 1992) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Wes in "The Gifted", Mario Martinez in "On My Block", Joaquin Torres in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Lt. Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia in "" (2022).


title: Danny Ramirez

text: Ramirez was born in Chicago and raised in Miami. He is of Colombian and Mexican descent. He attended Miami Coral Park Senior High School. Growing up he wanted to be an athlete and he tried American football and soccer. He says that after encountering injuries it took him a year to realize he would need a new career.


title: Danny Ramirez

text: Danny Ramirez made his television debut on Showtime's, "The Affair" followed by roles on NBC's "Blindspot" and the feature film, "Rapid Eye Movement" while attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.


title: Danny Ramirez

text: He played a reoccurring role as Wes on Fox's "The Gifted" and he was Mario Martinez on the hit Netflix series "On My Block". He also guest-starred in "Orange Is the New Black". His first notable film credits came shortly after graduating in Sam Levinson's "Assassination Nation" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He was Chip shortly after that in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's remake of the musical "Valley Girl".


title: Danny Ramirez

text: Recently he has wrapped director Katharine O'Brien's "Lost Transmissions" (with Simon Pegg, Juno Temple, and Alexandra Daddario) which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019, Richard Bates Jr.'s "Tone-Deaf" which premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival in 2019 and David Raboy's "The Giant", which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019.


title: Danny Ramirez

text: In November 2018, Ramirez was presented the Third Annual NYU Stonestreet Granite Award, which was previously awarded to Miles Teller and Rachel Brosnahan.


title: Danny Ramirez

text: In 2021, Ramirez played Joaquin Torres in the Disney+ series "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He will reprise his role in the upcoming film "" in 2024.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products. Featuring nearly 340 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora Collection, Sephora offers beauty products including cosmetics, skincare, body, fragrance, nail color, beauty tools, body lotions and haircare.


title: Sephora

text: The company was founded in Limoges in 1969 and is currently based in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Sephora is owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH as of 1997. The name comes from the Greek word meaning beauty, "sephos", and the Greek spelling of Zipporah (, "Sepphōra"), wife of Moses, described in midrash, aggadah and Targum Onkelos as beautiful.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora was first launched in Paris in August 1970. It was acquired by "Dominique Mandonnaud" in 1993, who merged the purchase with his own perfume chain under the Sephora brand. Mandonnaud is credited for designing and executing Sephora's "assisted self-service" sales experience, which separated itself from standard retail models for cosmetics by encouraging customers to test products in retail locations before purchasing.


title: Sephora

text: Mandonnaud continued to expand the Sephora brand through the 1990s, opening up its flagship store in Champs Élysées in 1997. In July 1997, Mandonnaud and his partners sold Sephora to LVMH, who expanded the stores globally and bolstered the chain's product offerings to include beauty and cosmetic products. Sephora extended its operation to the Middle Eastern markets in 2007 and has opened over 44 Sephora UAE and KSA stores as well as an eCommerce store. It extends its partnership with its exclusive brands in the region.


title: Sephora

text: On 1 January 2014, Calvin McDonald replaced David Suliteanu as president and chief executive officer of Sephora Americas. Suliteanu was named CEO of Kendo Brands, another business in the LVMH portfolio.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora opened its first United States store in New York City in 1998, its first Canadian store in Toronto in 2004 and the first Australian Sephora store in 2014. Its North American headquarters is located in New York City, with corporate offices in San Francisco and Montréal. Sephora currently operates over 430 stores across North America.


title: Sephora

text: On 26 August 2016, Sephora opened its 400th location in North America on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. The store is the city's new flagship location.


title: Sephora

text: On 31 March 2017, Sephora opened its largest retail location in North America near Herald Square in New York City. The store is approximately 11,380 square feet and features over 13,000 products. It's one of six Sephora TIP Workshop locations, with interactive services and tools, in North America; the others include San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Santa Clara Valley, and Toronto.


title: Sephora

text: On 19 November 2018, Sephora signed a long-term lease at Thor Equities’ Town Square Metepec, a new retail and entertainment center in Mexico totaling 1.7 million square feet.


title: Sephora

text: On July 26, 2021, Sephora agreed with Palamon Capital Partners the purchase of Feelunique.com, a UK online retailer of prestige beauty goods founded in 2005, with 1.3 million active customers from 120 countries and more than 35,000 products from over 800 brands. It had been acquired from Palamon Capital Partners for £26 million in 2012. The price was rumored to be £132 million.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora launched its online store in the U.S. in 1999 and in Canada in 2003. The Canadian head office was opened in February 2007 by Marie-Christine Marchives, a former Sephora U.S. and Sephora France employee. Marie-Christine Marchives returned to France in July 2010 to become the general manager of Sephora France. She was replaced in Canada by Klaus Ryum-Larsen. Sephora currently operates over 2,300 stores in 33 countries worldwide, generating over an estimated $4 billion in revenue as of 2013. As of September 2013, the Sephora at Champs Élysées in Paris, France, attracts over six million people a year. Afterpay and Sephora partnered to offer its customers the flexibility to pay in four installments on July 13, 2022.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora features a variety of beauty products from more than 300 brands, including NARS Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Too Faced Cosmetics, One Size, Fenty, Milk, Bite Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Coto Beauty, Urban Decay, Benefit Cosmetics, First Aid Beauty, Lancôme Cosmetics, Sunday Riley Skincare, philosophy, Jo Malone London, Atelier Cologne, YSL Beauty by Yves Saint Laurent, Tatcha, Huda Beauty, Kat Von D, and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Sephora also features its own make-up, skincare, beauty tools and accessories under the brand name Sephora Collection. Packaging for the line previously featured the company's elongated flame logo in standard black print. The new logo features the updated "Sephora Quality, Really Good Price" logo with the $ sign.


title: Sephora

text: In 2010, the company debuted fragrance collections with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, known as Elizabeth and James, and a makeup line with Marc Jacobs.


title: Sephora

text: On the 25th of June 2020, Maddie Ziegler's imagination collection collaborated with Morphe launched in Sephora Canada.


title: Sephora

text: In October 2006, Sephora began opening stores inside JCPenney. Sephora inside JCPenney features some of the same makeup, skincare, and fragrance brands as well as its own product line found in stand alone stores nationwide. Sephora inside JCPenney stores are much smaller than a normal store, usually 1,500 sq ft in size. As of 2017, there were more than 600 Sephora locations in JCPenney stores across the US. That same year, JC Penney announced the closing of 138 stores nationwide, several of which house a Sephora in JCPenney store.


title: Sephora

text: In December 2020, Sephora announced that it would begin opening Sephora stores inside Kohl's locations. The announcement included plans to launch Sephora at 850 Kohl's stores by 2023. The first four Sephora inside Kohl's locations opened on August 6, 2021.


title: Sephora

text: In August 2015, it was announced that Sephora would launch a subscription service: "Play! By Sephora". The monthly subscription service offers boxes containing sample size products for a monthly fee. Boston, Columbus, and Cincinnati were the only three cities to test the initial service launch in September 2015. The service was launched throughout the US in 2016.


title: Sephora

text: For $10 USD billed monthly, each month’s box is a collectable bag that changes each month with five deluxe skincare, makeup, or haircare samples. Each box includes a selection of products based on answers provided by the customer in PLAY! profile.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora terminated PLAY! in April 2020, replacing it with Sephora Luxe. Like Play!, Luxe gives the opportunity to sample products, but Luxe is ordered monthly and is not a subscription service.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora UAE and KSA are regional subdivisions of Sephora. The Middle East head office was opened in February 2006 by Pierre Fayard. Since 2007, over 30 separate Sephora stores have opened across the Middle East region (UAE, KSA, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait). Sephora UAE and KSA provide make up and skincare products from notable brands such as Christian Dior, Laura Mercier and Kat Von D in a high tech contemporary retail environment. Sephora’s first Middle East store opened at Seef Mall in Bahrain on 7 January 2007 followed by Festival City, UAE on 1 March 2007 with a further 30 stores opening across the region since. The Sephora store in the Dubai Mall opened in December 2008 and is now ranked as the company’s number one store worldwide. In 2007, the late Sephora CEO, Jacques Levy expressed a desire to have 100 stores open across the region by 2010. A year later the international financial crisis derailed these ambitions. Levy stepped down in 2011 and died a year later. Despite this early setback Sephora have opened more than 30 more stores and introduced online shopping to the region in November 2016. In December 2017, Sephora opened ‘Gifts Beauty Park, the world's first beauty Festive playground in Dubai. The pop-up store featured fairground and makeup themed games and invited shoppers to sit down with professional Sephora makeup artists to experience the products. In March 2018, Guillaume Motte was announced as the new president of Sephora Europe and Middle East.


title: Sephora

text: Sephora’s Middle East stores stock internationally renowned products by the like of Estée Lauder and subsidiary Clinique, alongside local brands such as Shiffa Dubai Skin Care and Huda Beauty. According to "Forbes", Huda Beauty, founded by Dubai based blogger and business woman Huda Kattan, was the top selling cosmetic brand across Sephora Middle East, in 2018.


title: Sephora

text: In 2016, Sephora launched its own all access tablet and smartphone application Designed "made manifest" by Dennis Hornstra, a software and application designer for Apple. It can be seen as an augmented reality platform. Pocket Contour, one of the digital programs that was rolled out, teaches users how to contour their skin step-by-step depending on their face shape. By uploading a photo, the user can receive a virtual makeover, experimenting with different product and shade combinations.


title: Sephora

text: In April 2019, R&B singer SZA accused the store of racial profiling. On May 23, 2019, Sephora announced they would be closing all locations on Wednesday, June 5, 2019, to hold diversity training for its staff. However, the staff training was a part of their "We Belong To Something Beautiful Campaign" and not the accusations from the singer. The planning and training for this campaign began in late 2019.


title: Sephora

text: In February 2020, an ex-employee of Sephora launched a website accusing the store of bullying culture, mishandling of staff complaints, and wage theft.


title: Sephora

text: On 18 November 2014, four customers filed a class action lawsuit against Sephora. The suit alleges that Sephora engaged in racial discrimination by wrongfully deactivating the customer rewards accounts of Asian customers under the pretense that these customers were buying products from Sephora in bulk and reselling them. Sephora identified accounts to deactivate by looking at email domains from @qq.com (owned by Tencent), @126.com, or @163.com (both owned by NetEase).


title: Sephora

text: Sephora’s sustainable development initiatives were recognized in December 2015. The company received the Sustainable Brand label, as well as the 2015 R Award for eco-design by the Génération Responsible association. Global Cosmetic News reported that Sephora's newly launched display cases have a 30% lighter metal frame that will reduce CO emissions by 220 metric tons.


title: Sephora

text: In 2020, Sephora announced it would no longer carry eyelashes made of mink fur, which has been shown to come from farms where animals are mistreated. The company said it was compelled by concerned customers and a PETA campaign to sell only synthetic lashes.


title: Sephora

text: In June of 2020, Sephora announced that it would take the 15 Percent Pledge, pledging to fill 15 percent of their shelf space with Black-owned businesses.


title: Sephora

text: In March 2018, "FastCompany" named Sephora to the number 36 spot (of 50) on their list of "World’s Most Innovative Companies", citing its expanded offering of broadly diverse and inclusive product lines like Fenty Beauty.


title: Aioli

text: Aioli, allioli or aïoli ( or ; Provençal or "aiòli" ; ; ) is a cold sauce consisting of an emulsion of garlic and olive oil; it is found in the cuisines of the northwest Mediterranean, from Andalusia to Calabria.


title: Aioli

text: The names mean "garlic and oil" in Catalan and Provençal. It is found in the cuisines of the Mediterranean coasts of Spain (Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Murcia, and eastern Andalusia), France (Provence), Italy (Sicily and Calabria), and Malta.


title: Aioli

text: Some versions of the sauce are closer to a garlic mayonnaise, incorporating egg yolks and lemon juice, whereas other versions lack egg yolk and contain more garlic. This gives the sauce a pastier texture, making it more laborious as the emulsion is harder to stabilize. There are many variations, such as adding lemon juice or other seasonings. In France, it may include mustard.


title: Aioli

text: Like mayonnaise, aioli is an emulsion or suspension of small globules of oil and oil-soluble compounds in water and water-soluble compounds. In Spain, purists believe aioli should not include egg, but in France and elsewhere, egg or egg yolk is the usual emulsifier.


title: Aioli

text: Since about 1990, it has become common in the United States to call all flavored mayonnaises "aioli". Purists insist that flavored mayonnaise can contain garlic, but true aioli contains garlic and no other seasoning (except salt).


title: Aioli

text: The English spelling comes from the French "aïoli", which itself comes from Occitan. The spelling in Occitan may be "alhòli", following the classical norm, or "aiòli", following the Mistralian norm. In Catalan it is spelled "allioli" (). The most common term in Spanish is "alioli", an adaptation from Catalan, although it is also called "ajoaceite", "ajiaceite", "ajolio" or "ajaceite". It is also spelt "alioli" in Galician.


title: Aioli

text: Garlic is crushed in a mortar and pestle and emulsified with salt and olive oil. Today, aioli is often made in a food processor or blender, but some traditionalists object that this does not give the same result.


title: Aioli

text: In Malta, arjoli or ajjoli is commonly made with the addition of either crushed galletti (a type of cracker) or tomato.


title: Aioli

text: In Occitan cuisine, "aioli" is typically served with seafood, fish soup, and croutons. An example is a dish called "merluça amb alhòli".


title: Aioli

text: In Provençal cuisine, "aioli" or, more formally, "le grand aïoli", "aioli garni", or "aïoli monstre" is a dish consisting of various boiled vegetables (usually carrots, potatoes, artichokes, and green beans), poached fish (normally soaked salt cod), snails, canned tuna, other seafood, and boiled eggs, all served with "aioli". This dish is often served during the festivities on the feast days of the patron saint of Provençal villages and towns. It is traditional to serve it with snails for Christmas Eve and with cod on Ash Wednesday. Aïoli is so strongly associated with Provence that when the poet Frédéric Mistral started a regionalist Provençal-language newspaper in 1891, he called it "L'Aiòli".


title: Aioli

text: In Spain, particularly in Catalan cuisine and Valencian cuisine, "allioli" is often served with arròs negre, arròs a banda, fideuà, with grilled snails ("cargols a la llauna"), lamb, rabbit, vegetables, boiled cod ("bacallà a la catalana, bacallà amb patates") and comes in other varieties such as "allioli de codony" (allioli with boiled quince, not the preserve) or allioli with boiled pear. Other commonly used vegetables are beets, fennel, celery, zucchini, cauliflower, chickpeas, and raw tomato.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's Fair ("Jarmark Świętojański"), traditional Saint Martin's croissants and a local dialect. Among its most important heritage sites are the Renaissance Old Town, Town Hall and Gothic Cathedral.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań is the fifth-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. As of 2021, the city's population is 529,410, while the Poznań metropolitan area ("Metropolia Poznań") comprising Poznań County and several other communities is inhabited by over 1.1 million people. It is one of four historical and the ancient capital of the Greater Poland region, currently the administrative capital of the province called Greater Poland Voivodeship.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań is a center of trade, sports, education, technology and tourism. It is an important academic site, with about 130,000 students and Adam Mickiewicz University, the third largest Polish university. The city serves as the seat of the oldest Polish diocese, now being one of the most populous Catholic archdioceses in the country. The city also hosts the Poznań International Fair – the biggest industrial fair in Poland and one of the largest fairs in Europe. The city's other renowned landmarks include the National Museum, Grand Theatre, Fara Church and the Imperial Castle.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań is classified as a Gamma- global city by Globalization and World Cities Research Network. According to several rankings it is one of the most business-friendly cities in Poland. It also ranks highly in safety and healthcare quality. The city of Poznań has also, many times, won the prize awarded by "Superbrands" for a very high quality city brand. In 2012, the Poznań's Art and Business Center "Stary Browar" won a competition organised by National Geographic Traveler and was given the first prize as one of the seven "New Polish Wonders". Companies headquartered in the city include energy provider Enea and e-commerce company Allegro.


title: Poznań

text: The official patron saints of Poznań are Saint Peter and Paul of Tarsus, the patrons of the cathedral. Martin of Tours – the patron of the main street Święty Marcin – is also regarded as one of the patron saints of the city.


title: Poznań

text: The name Poznań probably comes from a personal name "Poznan", which was in turn derived from the Polish participle – "one who is known/recognized", and would mean "Poznan's town". It is also possible that the name comes directly from the verb "poznać", which means "to get to know" or "to recognize", so it may simply mean "known town".


title: Poznań

text: The earliest surviving references to the city are found in the chronicles of Thietmar of Merseburg written between 1012 and 1018: ("bishop of Poznań", in an entry for 970) and "ab urbe Posnani" ("from the city of Poznań", for 1005). The city's name appears in documents in the Latin nominative case as "Posnania" in 1236 and "Poznania" in 1247. The phrase "in Poznan" appears in 1146 and 1244.


title: Poznań

text: The city's full official name is "Stołeczne Miasto Poznań" (The Capital City of Poznań), in reference to its role as a centre of political power in the early Polish state under the Piast dynasty. Poznań is known as "Posen" in German, and was officially called "Haupt- und Residenzstadt Posen" (Capital and Residence City of Poznań) between 20 August 1910 and 28 November 1918. The Latin names of the city are "Posnania" and "Civitas Posnaniensis". Its Yiddish name is , or "Poyzn".


title: Poznań

text: For centuries before the Christianization of Poland (an event that essentially is credited as the creation of the very first Polish state, the Duchy of Poland), Poznań was an important cultural and political centre of the Western Polans. It consisted of a fortified stronghold between the Warta and Cybina rivers on what is now Ostrów Tumski. Mieszko I, the first historically recorded ruler of the West Polans and of the early Polish state which they dominated, built one of his main stable headquarters in Poznań. Mieszko's baptism in AD 966, seen as a defining moment in the Christianization of the Polish state, may have taken place in Poznań.


title: Poznań

text: Following the baptism, construction began of Poznań's cathedral, the first in Poland. Poznań was probably the main seat of the first missionary bishop sent to Poland, Bishop Jordan. The Congress of Gniezno in 1000 led to the country's first permanent archbishopric being established in Gniezno (which is generally regarded as Poland's capital in that period), although Poznań continued to have independent bishops of its own. Poznań's cathedral was the place of burial of the early Piast monarchs, among them Mieszko I, Boleslaus I, Mieszko II Lambert, Casimir I, and later of Przemysł I and Przemysł II.


title: Poznań

text: The pagan reaction that followed Mieszko II's death (probably in Poznań) in 1034 left the region weak, and in 1038, Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia sacked and destroyed both Poznań and Gniezno. Poland was reunited under Casimir I the Restorer in 1039, but the capital was moved to Kraków, which had been relatively unaffected by the troubles. In 1138, by the testament of Boleslaus III, Poland was divided into separate duchies under the late king's sons, and Poznań and its surroundings became the domain of Mieszko III the Old, the first of the Dukes of Greater Poland. This period of fragmentation lasted until 1320. Duchies frequently changed hands; control of Poznań, Gniezno and Kalisz sometimes lay with a single duke, but at other times these constituted separate duchies.


title: Poznań

text: In about 1249, Duke Przemysł I began constructing what would become the Royal Castle on a hill on the left bank of the Warta. Then in 1253, Przemysł issued a charter to Thomas of Guben (Gubin) for the founding of a town under Magdeburg law, between the castle and the river. Thomas brought a large number of German settlers to aid in the building and settlement of the city – this is an example of the German eastern migration ("Ostsiedlung") characteristic of that period. The city, which covered the area of today's Old Town neighbourhood, was surrounded by a defensive wall, integrated with the castle. The royal chancery and the University ensured a first flourishing of Polish literary culture in the city.


title: Poznań

text: In reunited Poland, and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poznań was the seat of a voivodeship. The city's importance began to grow in the Jagiellonian period, due to its position on trading routes from Lithuania and Ruthenia to western Europe. It would become a major center for the fur trade by the late 16th century. Suburban settlements developed around the city walls, on the river islands, and on the right bank, with some (Ostrów Tumski, Śródka, Chwaliszewo, Ostrówek) obtaining their own town charters. However, the city's development was hampered by regular major fires and floods. On 2 May 1536 a fire destroyed 175 buildings, including the castle, the town hall, the monastery, and the suburban settlement called St. Martin. In 1519, the Lubrański Academy had been established in Poznań as an institution of higher education, but without the right to award degrees, which was reserved to Kraków's Jagiellonian University. However, the Jesuits' college, founded in the city in 1571 during the Counter-Reformation, had the right to award degrees from 1611 until 1773, when it was combined with the Academy.


title: Poznań

text: In the second half of the 17th century and most of the 18th, Poznań was severely affected by a series of wars, attendant military occupations, lootings and destruction – the Second and Third Northern Wars, the War of the Polish Succession, the Seven Years' War and the Bar Confederation rebellion. It was also hit by frequent outbreaks of plague, and by floods, particularly that of 1736, which destroyed most of the suburban buildings. The population of the conurbation declined from 20,000 around 1600 to 6,000 around 1730, and Bambergian and Dutch settlers ("Bambrzy" and "Olędrzy") were brought in to rebuild the devastated suburbs. In 1778, a "Committee of Good Order" ("Komisja Dobrego Porządku") was established in the city, which oversaw rebuilding efforts and reorganized the city's administration. However, in 1793, in the Second Partition of Poland, Poznań came under the control of the Kingdom of Prussia, becoming part of (and initially the seat of) the province of South Prussia.


title: Poznań

text: The Prussian authorities expanded the city boundaries, making the walled city and its closest suburbs into a single administrative unit. Left-bank suburbs were incorporated in 1797, and Ostrów Tumski, Chwaliszewo, Śródka, Ostrówek and Łacina (St. Roch) in 1800. The old city walls were taken down in the early 19th century, and major development took place to the west of the old city, with many of the main streets of today's city center being laid out.


title: Poznań

text: In the Greater Poland uprising of 1806, Polish soldiers and civilian volunteers assisted the efforts of Napoleon by driving out Prussian forces from the region. The city became a part of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, and was the seat of Poznań Department – a unit of administrative division and local government. However, in 1815, following the Congress of Vienna, the region was returned to Prussia, and Poznań became the capital of the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen. Around 1820, Poznań had over 20,000 inhabitants, 70% of whom were Poles, 20% Jews, and 10% Germans.


title: Poznań

text: The city continued to expand, and various projects were funded by Polish philanthropists, such as the Raczyński Library and the Bazar hotel. The city's first railway, running north-west to Stargard, opened in 1848. Due to its strategic location, the Prussian authorities intended to make Poznań into a fortress city, building a ring of defensive fortifications around it. Work began on the citadel with "Fort Winiary" in 1828, and in subsequent years the entire set of defenses called "Festung Posen" was completed.


title: Poznań

text: A Greater Poland Uprising during the Revolutions of 1848 was ultimately unsuccessful, and the Grand Duchy lost its remaining autonomy, Poznań becoming simply the capital of the Prussian Province of Posen. It would become part of the German Empire with the unification of German states in 1871. Polish patriots continued to form societies such as the Central Economic Society for the Grand Duchy of Poznań, and a Polish theatre opened in 1875. However, the authorities made efforts to Germanize the region, particularly through the Prussian Settlement Commission founded in 1886. Germans accounted for 38% of the city's population in 1867, though this percentage would later decline somewhat, particularly after the region returned to Poland.


title: Poznań

text: Another expansion of "Festung Posen" was planned, with an outer ring of more widely spaced forts around the perimeter of the city. Building of the first nine forts began in 1876, and nine intermediate forts were built from 1887. The inner ring of fortifications was now considered obsolete and came to be mostly taken down by the early 20th century, although the citadel remained in use. This made space for further civilian construction, particularly the Imperial Castle ("Zamek") which was completed in 1910, and other grand buildings around it, including today's central university buildings and the opera house. The city's boundaries were also significantly extended to take in former suburban villages: Piotrowo and Berdychowo in 1896, Łazarz, Górczyn, Jeżyce and Wilda in 1900, and Sołacz in 1907.


title: Poznań

text: In 1910, Poznań had 156,696 inhabitants, of which nearly 60% were Poles (over 91,000 Polish inhabitants of the city), and around 40% were Germans (over 65,000 German inhabitants of the city). Other nationalities accounted for 1-2% of the population (mainly Jews).


title: Poznań

text: At the end of World War I, the final Greater Poland Uprising in 1918–1919 brought Poznań and most of the region back to newly reborn Poland, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles. The local German populace had to acquire Polish citizenship or leave the country. This led to a wide emigration of the ethnic Germans of the town's population – the town's German population decreased from 65,321 in 1910 to 5,980 in 1926 and further to 4,387 in 1934. In the interwar Second Polish Republic, the city again became the capital of Poznań Voivodeship. Poznań's university, today called Adam Mickiewicz University, was founded in 1919, and in 1924 the Poznań International Fair began. In 1929, the fair site was the venue for a major National Exhibition ("Powszechna Wystawa Krajowa", popularly "PeWuKa") marking the tenth anniversary of independence; it attracted around 4.5 million visitors. In the 1930s, the fair ranked as Europe's fourth largest organiser of international trade events. The city's boundaries were again expanded in 1925 to include Główna, Komandoria, Rataje, Starołęka, Dębiec, Szeląg and Winogrady, and in 1933: Golęcin and Podolany.


title: Poznań

text: During the German occupation of 1939–1945, Poznań was incorporated into the Nazi Germany as the capital of "Reichsgau Wartheland". Many Polish inhabitants were executed, arrested, expelled to the General Government or used as forced labour; at the same time, many Germans and "Volksdeutsche" were settled in the city. The German population increased from around 5,000 in 1939 (some 2% of the inhabitants) to around 95,000 in 1944.


title: Poznań

text: The Jewish community's history in the city dates back to the 13th century. In the past, the Jewish council in Poznan became one of the oldest and most important Jewish councils in Poland. The pre-war Jewish population of at least about 2,000 were mostly murdered in the Holocaust. A concentration camp was set up in Fort VII, one of the 19th-century perimeter forts. The camp was later moved to Żabikowo south of Poznań.


title: Poznań

text: The Nazi authorities significantly expanded Poznań's boundaries to include most of the present-day area of the city; these boundaries were retained after the war. Poznań was captured by the Red Army, assisted by Polish volunteers, on 23 February 1945 following the Battle of Poznań, in which the German army conducted a last-ditch defense in line with Hitler's designation of the city as a "Festung". The Citadel was the last point to be taken, and the fighting left much of the city, particularly the Old Town, in ruins. Many monuments were also destroyed, including Gutzon Borglum's statue of Woodrow Wilson in Poznan.


title: Poznań

text: Due to the expulsion and flight of German population Poznań's post-war population was almost uniformly Polish. The city again became a voivodeship capital. In 1950, the size of Poznań Voivodeship was reduced, and the city itself was given separate voivodeship status. This status was lost in the 1975 reforms, which also significantly reduced the size of Poznań Voivodeship.


title: Poznań

text: The Poznań 1956 protests are seen as an early instance of discontent with communist rule. In June 1956, a protest by workers at the city's Cegielski locomotive factory developed into a series of strikes and popular protests against the policies of the government. After a protest march on 28 June was fired on, crowds attacked the communist party and secret police headquarters, where they were repulsed by gunfire. Riots continued for two days until being quelled by the army; 67 people were killed according to official figures. A monument to the victims was erected in 1981 at Plac Mickiewicza.


title: Poznań

text: The post-war years had seen much reconstruction work on buildings damaged in the fighting. From the 1960s onwards intensive housing development took place, consisting mainly of pre-fabricated concrete blocks of flats, especially in Rataje and Winogrady, and later Piątkowo, following its incorporation into the city in 1974. Another infrastructural change, which was completed in 1968, was the rerouting of the river Warta to follow two straight branches either side of Ostrów Tumski.


title: Poznań

text: The most recent expansion of the city's boundaries took place in 1987, with the addition of new areas mainly to the north, including Morasko, Radojewo and Kiekrz. The first free local elections following the fall of communism took place in 1990. With the Polish local government reforms of 1999, Poznań again became the capital of a larger province entitled Greater Poland Voivodeship. It also became the seat of a "powiat" Poznań County, with the city itself gaining separate "powiat" status.


title: Poznań

text: Post-communism infrastructural developments include the opening of the "Pestka" Fast Tram route in 1997, and Poznań's first motorway connections in 2003 as Poland's east-west A2 highway runs south of the city centre, serving also as a bypass. In 2006 country's first F-16 Fighting Falcons came to be stationed at the 31st Air Base in Krzesiny in the south-east of the city.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań continues to host regular trade fairs and international events, including the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2008. It was one of the host cities for UEFA Euro 2012.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań covers an area of , and has coordinates in the range 52°17'34<nowiki>"</nowiki>–52°30'27<nowiki>"</nowiki>N, 16°44'08<nowiki>"</nowiki>–17°04'28<nowiki>"</nowiki>E. Its highest point, with an altitude of , is the summit of Morasko hill within the Morasko meteorite nature reserve in the north of the city. The lowest altitude is , in the Warta valley.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań's main river is the Warta, which flows through the city from south to north. As it approaches the city centre it divides into two branches, flowing west and east of Ostrów Tumski Cathedral island, and meeting again further north. The smaller Cybina river flows through eastern Poznań to meet the east branch of the Warta, which is also called Cybina – its northern section was originally a continuation of that river, while its southern section has been artificially widened to form a main stream of the Warta. Other tributaries of the Warta within Poznań are the Junikowo Stream "(Strumień Junikowski)", which flows through southern Poznań from the west, meeting the Warta just outside the city boundary in Luboń; the Bogdanka and Wierzbak, formerly two separate tributaries flowing from the north-west and along the north side of the city centre, now with their lower sections diverted underground; the Główna, flowing through the neighbourhood of the same name in north-east Poznań; and the Rose Stream "(Strumień Różany)" flowing east from Morasko in the north of the city. The course of the Warta in central Poznań was formerly quite different from today: the main stream ran between Grobla and Chwaliszewo, which were originally both islands. The branch west of Grobla (the "Zgniła Warta" – "rotten Warta") was filled in late in the 19th century, and the former main stream west of Chwaliszewo was diverted and filled in during the 1960s. This was done partly to prevent floods, which did serious damage to Poznań frequently throughout history.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań's largest lake is Kiekrz in the north-west end of the city. Other large lakes include Malta, an artificial lake formed in 1952 on the lower Cybina river, Strzeszyn on the Bogdanka, and Rusałka, an artificial lake formed in 1943 further down the Bogdanka river. The latter two are popular bathing places. Kiekrz lake is much used for sailing, while Malta is a competitive rowing and canoeing venue.


title: Poznań

text: The city centre – including the Old Town, the former islands of Grobla and Chwaliszewo, the main street Święty Marcin and many other important buildings and districts – lies on the west side of the Warta. Opposite it between the two branches of the Warta is Ostrów Tumski, containing Cathedral and other ecclesiastical buildings, as well as housing and industrial facilities. Facing the cathedral on the east bank of the river is the historic district of Śródka. Large areas of apartment blocks, built from the 1960s onwards, include Rataje in the east, and Winogrady and Piątkowo north of the centre. Older residential and commercial districts include those of Wilda, Łazarz and Górczyn to the south, and Jeżyce to the west. There are also significant areas of forest within the city boundaries, particularly in the east adjoining Swarzędz, and around the lakes in the north-west.


title: Poznań

text: For more details on Poznań's geography, see the articles on its five main districts: Stare Miasto, Nowe Miasto, Jeżyce, Grunwald, and Wilda.


title: Poznań

text: The climate of Poznań is within the transition zone between a humid continental and oceanic climate (Köppen: "Cfb" to "Dfb" although it just fits in the second in the 0 °C isotherm) and with relatively cold winters and warm summers. Snow is common in winter, when night-time temperatures are typically below zero. In summer temperatures may often reach . Annual rainfall is more than , among the lowest in Poland. The rainiest month is July, mainly due to short but intense cloudbursts and thunderstorms. The number of hours of sunshine are among the highest in the country. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "humid continental climate). The warmest temperature was recorded on 11 July 1959 at 38.7 °C (101 °F)


title: Poznań

text: Poznań is divided into 42 neighbourhoods called "osiedle", each of which has its own elected council with certain decision-making and spending powers. The first uniform elections for these councils covering the whole area of the city were held on 20 March 2011.


title: Poznań

text: For certain administrative purposes, the old division into five districts called "dzielnica" is used – although these ceased to be governmental units in 1990. These were:


title: Poznań

text: Many citizens of Poznań thanks to the strong economy of the city and high salaries started moving to suburbs of the Poznań County (powiat) in the 1990s. Although the number of inhabitants in Poznań itself was decreasing for the past two decades, the suburbs gained almost twice as many inhabitants. The Poznań metropolitan area "Metropolia Poznań" comprising Poznań County and several other communities is home to over 1 million inhabitants. The complex infrastructure, population density, number of companies and gross product per capita of Poznań suburbs may be only compared to Warsaw suburbs. Many parts of closer suburbs such as Tarnowo Podgorne, Komorniki, Suchy Las, and Dopiewo produce more in terms of GDP per capita than the city itself.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań has been an important trade centre since the Middle Ages. Starting in the 19th century, local heavy industry began to grow. Several major factories were built, including the Hipolit Cegielski's steel mill and railway factory, popularly called "Ceglorz".


title: Poznań

text: Nowadays, Poznań is one of the major trade centres in Poland. It is regarded as the second most prosperous city in Poland after its capital Warsaw. The city of Poznań produced PLN 31.8 billion of Poland's gross domestic product in 2006.


title: Poznań

text: Many Western European companies have established their Polish headquarters in Poznań or in nearby towns such as Tarnowo Podgórne and Swarzędz. Most foreign investors are German (36%) and Dutch companies (14%). The best known examples of corporation who have their headquarters in Poznań and the surrounding areas are that of Volkswagen, GlaxoSmithKline, Amazon, Bridgestone, Beiersdorf, Raben Group (near Kórnik) and Kuehne + Nagel (near Gądki). There are also several shared services centers, and IT branch offices. Investors are mostly from the food processing, furniture, automotive and transport and logistics industries. Foreign companies are primarily attracted by relatively low labour costs, good road and railway network, good vocational skills of workers, and relatively liberal employment laws.


title: Poznań

text: Some of the best-known major corporations founded and still based in Poznań and the city's metropolitan area include Allegro – owner of the Poland's biggest e-commerce site, H. Cegielski-Poznań SA – a historic manufacturer, Solaris Bus & Coach – a modern bus and coach maker based in Bolechowo, and Enea S.A. – one of the country's biggest energy firms. Kompania Piwowarska based in Poznań produces some of Poland's best known beers, and includes not only the local Lech Brewery's products but also Tyskie from Tychy and Dojlidy Brewery from Białystok among many others.


title: Poznań

text: In 2008, three Poznań students founded Netguru, a software development and digital consultancy company. It grew fast to employ about 600 people in 2019.


title: Poznań

text: "Stary Browar", the center of commerce and art opened in 2003, won several awards for its architecture. Other notable shopping centers include "Posnania", the biggest commerce facility in Greater Poland, "Galeria Malta", and the shops at the Hotel Bazar – a historical hotel and commercial center in the Old Town.


title: Poznań

text: The main Poznań railway station is called "Poznań Główny", and is located just southwest of the city centre. There are also the smaller "East Poznań" and "Poznań Garbary" stations northeast of the centre, and a number of other stations on the outskirts of the city. The main east-west A2 motorway runs south of the city centre connecting it with Berlin in the west and Łódż and Warsaw in the east, serving also as a centre bypass. Other main roads run in the direction of Warsaw, Bydgoszcz, Wągrowiec, Oborniki, Katowice, Wrocław, Buk and Berlin.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań has one of the biggest airports in the west of Poland called "Ławica" Airport. In 2016 it handled approximately 1.71 million passengers.


title: Poznań

text: Since the bend of the communist era in 1989, city investments into transportation have been mostly into public transport. While the number of cars since 1989 has at least doubled, municipal policy concentrated on improving public transport, which mostly consists of trams and both urban and suburban buses. New tram lines are planned and built, including "Pestka" Fast Tram sections, and the rolling stock is being replaced for modern low-floor vehicles such as trams Solaris Tramino / Combino and Moderus Gamma, and buses such as Solaris Urbino.


title: Poznań

text: Paid parking zones in the city centre were established, and Park & Ride car parks have been built to encourage commuters to leave their car on the outskirts of the city and continue their journey by public transport, as well as to allow safe and legal parking outside the city centre. Limiting car access to the strict centre actually increased the level of ridership.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań possesses many historic buildings and heritage sites, mostly concentrated around the Old Town and other parts of the city centre. Many of these lie on the tourist Royal-Imperial Route – a walk leading through the most important parts of the city showing its history, culture and identity. Parts of the city centre are listed as one of Poland's official national historic monuments, as designated 28 November 2008, along with other portions of the city's historic core. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland.


title: Poznań

text: Apart from traditional theatres with a long history such as "Teatr Wielki", "Teatr Polski", "Teatr Nowy", and others like "Teatr Animacji", "Teatr Muzyczny" and Polish Dance Theatre, Poznań is also home to a growing number of different kind of alternative theatre groups. It is believed that even up to 30 more or less known groups may work in the city, and thus, the city has recently become a new Polish off-theatre performance centre.


title: Poznań

text: Classical music events include the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition which is held every 5 years, and classical music concerts by the Poznań Philharmonic orchestra held each month in the Hall of the Adam Mickiewicz University, considered to be one of the best in terms of acoustics in Poland. Especially popular are concerts by the Poznań Nightingales.


title: Poznań

text: Every year on 11 November, city residents celebrate the Day of St. Martin. A procession of horses, with Saint Martin at its head, parades along Saint Martin Street ("ulica Święty Marcin"), in front of the Imperial Castle. The renowned St. Martin's Croissant, a regional product of Poznań, are widely sold during the festivities.


title: Poznań

text: An important cultural event in Poznań is the annual Malta Festival, which takes place at many city venues, usually in late June and early July. It hosts mainly modern experimental off-theatre performances often taking place on squares and other public spaces. It also includes cinema, visual, music and dancing events. Poznań also stages the Ale Kino! International Young Audience Film Festival in December, and Off Cinema festival of independent films. Other festivals: Animator (animated film festival), Ethno Port festival of traditional world's ethnic music, Maski Theater Festival, Dance International Workshops by Polish Dance Theater, Made in Chicago (jazz festival), Festival of Ice Sculpture, Science and Art Festival, Tzadik (Jewish music festival), and Meditations Biennale (modern art).


title: Poznań

text: Poznań has several museums as well as cinemas, including multiplexes and art-house institutions. The Rozbrat social centre, a squatted former factory in Jeżyce, serves as a home for independent and open-minded culture. It hosts frequent gigs, an anarchist library, vernissages, exhibitions, annual birthday festival in October, poetry evenings and graffiti festivals. The city centre has many clubs, pubs and coffee houses.


title: Poznań

text: A popular venue is "Malta", a park with an artificial lake situated in its centre. On one south bank of the lake there are ski and sleigh slopes of Malta Ski centre, and on the opposite bank a large complex of "Termy Maltańskie" swimming pools.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań Zoological Garden has two facilities. The Old Zoo is one of the oldest in Poland, established in 1874 just west of the city centre. The large was opened to the public in 1974, becoming second largest in Poland in terms of area. It is located on a hilly forest area with six large ponds at the eastern city's wedge of greenery, beyond the Malta lake. There is a dedicated and adored by children "Maltanka" mini-railway, that starts the route near the "Śródka" roundabout.


title: Poznań

text: In 1600, approximately 20,000 inhabitants resided in the whole Poznań conurbation. By 1732 the population had dropped to 4,000 due to wars, floods and plague. Historically, its growth rate was high throughout the 19th and 20th centuries; in the year 1900 approximately 110,000 people were registered as residents and by 1939 there was already 274,155 people. The population of Poznań has declined steadily since 1990, when it reached a maximum of 590,101. This phenomenon, which also affected other European cities, is caused in part by the growth of satellite suburbs at the expense of the downtown region within the city proper. In 2020, Poznań had 532,048 registered inhabitants being the fifth most populous town in Poland, while the metropolitan area had a population of more than 1,200,000 people. The city's population density was 5,300 people per square mile (2,040/km2).


title: Poznań

text: Contemporary Poznań has one of the highest concentration of foreigners in Poland alongside Warsaw and Wrocław; a significant majority are migrant workers from Ukraine; others came from Italy, Spain, Belarus, Russia and Serbia. No exact statistic exists on the number of temporary residents from abroad. Many are students studying at Poznań's schools and institutions of higher learning.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań is one of the four largest academic centres in Poland. The number of students in the city is about 140,000, which ranks it the third or fourth after Warsaw and Kraków and about equal to Wrocław in student population. Every one in four inhabitants of Poznań is a student. Since Poznań is smaller than Warsaw or Kraków still having a very large number of students it makes the city even more vibrant and dense academic hub than both former and current capital of Poland – Kraków and Warsaw respectively. Poznań with its almost 30 universities and colleges has the second richest educational offering in the country after Warsaw.


title: Poznań

text: The city has eight state-owned universities. Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU, "UAM" in Polish) is one of the most influential and biggest universities in Poland. Poznań University of Technology (PUT, "PP" in Polish) is one of the most influential and biggest technical universities in Poland.


title: Poznań

text: Adam Mickiewicz University is one of the three best universities in Poland after University of Warsaw and University of Kraków. They all have a very high number of international student and scientist exchange, research grants and top publications.


title: Poznań

text: In northern suburbs of Poznań a very large "Morasko Campus" has been built (Faculty of Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Political Sciences, Geography). The majority of faculties are already open, although a few more facilities will be constructed. The campus infrastructure belongs to the most impressive among Polish universities. Also, there are plans for "Uniwersytecki Park Historii Ziemii" (Earth History Park), one of the reason for the park construction is a "Morasko meteorite nature reserve" situated close by, it is one of the rare sites of Europe where a number of meteorites fell and some traces may be still seen.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań University of Technology was ranked fifth among all universities in Poland, and third among Polish technical universities, in the 2018 international Scimago Institutions Ranking. In the 2019 Academic Ranking of World Universities, known also as the Shanghai Ranking, PUT was classified among the 500 best universities in the world in two disciplines, i.e. "Computer Science & Engineering" and "Mechanical Engineering". PUT was ranked third among all Polish universities in the 2019–20 Ministry of Science and Higher Education popularity ranking. Recent years have brought extensive development of university infrastructure at the "Warta campus", located on the right side of Warta river between Malta lake and Poznań city center. Location of this campus belongs to the most impressive among Polish universities.


title: Poznań

text: There is also a great number of smaller, mostly private-run colleges and institutions of higher education, including SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Collegium Da Vinci, and .


title: Poznań

text: Poznań has numerous high schools, which have different programmes focusing on different subjects. Some of the most notable are:


title: Poznań

text: There are several multi-sport clubs in Poznań. Warta Poznań was one of the most successful clubs in pre-World War II history, and Lech Poznań football team frequently plays in European cups. Lech plays at the Municipal Stadium, which hosted the 2012 European Championship group stages as well as the opening game and the final of the 2006 under-19 Euro Championship. Warta usually plays at the small Dębińska Road Stadium, a former training ground for Edmund Szyc Stadium, however, since the latter fell into disrepair in 1998 and was sold in 2001, it became the team's main ground. The club was planning to rebuild Szyc Stadium with historical 60,000-seat capacity. In 2019/2020 season, Warta played their I liga matches at the stadium in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, as Dębińska Road Stadium did not fulfill the requirements of the I liga's authorities.


title: Poznań

text: The city's third professional football team of multi-sport Olimpia Poznań club ceased activity in 2004, and the club focused on other sports, achieving good results in judo and tennis. Olimpia is hosting the annual tennis Poznań Open tournament at its Olimpia Tennis Park. The club owns a large sports complex near Rusałka lake, and apart from the tennis facilities boasts a large city recreation areas: mountain biking facilities with a four-cross track, an athletics stadium with 3,000 capacity, and a football-speedway stadium with 20,000 capacity. The latter had fallen into vast disrepair until it was acquired by the City Council from the Police in 2013 and was renovated. The football-speedway stadium hosts speedway club PSŻ Poznań, rugby union side NKR Chaos, American football team the Armia Poznań, and football team Poznaniak Poznań.


title: Poznań

text: The artificial Malta lake, which was formed in 1952 and is about long, hosted the 2009 World Rowing Championships and some regattas of the World Rowing Cup. It also held the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in 1990, 2001, and 2010.


title: Poznań

text: "Termy Maltańskie", big water sports and recreation complex featuring Olympic-size swimming pool, is located at the north bank of the lake. A 50-metre pool can be divided into two 25-metre pools. The other pool with a diving tower also fulfils all requirements necessary for organizing sports competitions. "Termy Maltańskie" consists of as many as 18 sports and recreational swimming pools with a total water surface area of as well as many other attractions such as different kind of saunas and spa, among others. The complex uses natural geothermal waters drawn nearby from a depth of and saturated with beneficial minerals and elements, for some of the swimming pools.


title: Poznań

text: At the south bank of the lake, Malta-Ski year-round skiing complex is situated, and is hosting minor sport competitions, equipped with a toboggan run and a minigolf course. There is also a roller rink with a roller skating club nearby.


title: Poznań

text: Since 2000, the city has been the host of the Poznań Marathon, one of the largest such races in the country.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań's indoor sporting arena is simply called "Arena". Located west of city centre and built in 1974, it originally seated about 5,500 people and is used for many different indoor sports and cultural events such as volleyball and concerts, among others. The facility has since been modernized, including lowering the level of the ground floor to increase arena capacity to about 9,200. Poznań has experience as a host for international sporting events such as the 2009 EuroBasket.


title: Poznań

text: The city has the largest motorsport race track in Poland, Tor Poznań, located at the west city's suburbs in Przeźmierowo.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań is also considered to be the hotbed of Polish field hockey, with several top teams of Warta Poznań, Grunwald Poznań – multi-sport club which also has shooting, wrestling, handball and tennis sections, Pocztowiec Poznań, and AZS AWF Poznań – an academic club which also fields professional teams in women's volleyball and basketball. Other clubs include: Posnania Poznań – one of the best rugby union teams in the country, Polonia Poznań – formerly a multi-sport club achieving many successes in rugby with only a football section remaining, KKS Wiara Lecha – football club formed by the supporters of Lech Poznań, and Odlew Poznań – arguably the most famous amateur club in the country due to their extensive media coverage and humorous exploits. There are also numerous rhythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming clubs, as well as numerous less notable amateur football teams.


title: Poznań

text: Poznań bid for the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics but lost to Nanjing, with the Chinese city receiving 47 votes over Poznań's 42.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: "We shall fight on the beaches" is a common title given to a speech delivered by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 4 June 1940. This was the second of three major speeches given around the period of the Battle of France; the others are the "Blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech of 13 May 1940, and the "This was their finest hour" speech of 18 June 1940. Events developed dramatically over the five-week period, and although broadly similar in themes, each speech addressed a different military and diplomatic context.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: In this speech, Churchill had to describe a great military disaster, and warn of a possible invasion attempt by Nazi Germany, without casting doubt on eventual victory. He also had to prepare his domestic audience for France's falling out of the war without in any way releasing France to do so, and wished to reiterate a policy and an aim unchangeddespite the intervening eventsfrom his speech of 13 May, in which he had declared the goal of "victory, however long and hard the road may be".


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, eight months after the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He had done so as the head of a multiparty coalition government, which had replaced the previous government (led by Neville Chamberlain) as a result of dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war, demonstrated by the Norway debate on the Allied evacuation of Southern Norway.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Coincidentally, the German Wehrmacht offensive in the Low Countries and France had begun on 10 May with the invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Churchill had spoken to the House of Commons as Prime Minister for the first time on 13 May, to announce the formation of the new administration:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Expecting that the German offensive would develop along much the same lines as it did in 1914, the lines of communication of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) did not run through the "short crossing" Channel portsBoulogne, Calais, Dunkirk, etc.but rather through Dieppe and Le Havre. On 13 May, the Wehrmacht's attack through the Ardennes had reached the Meuse River at Sedan and then crossed it, breaking through the defences of the French Army. By 20 May, Wehrmacht armoured divisions had reached the coast of the English Channel, splitting the BEF and the French First Army from the main French forces.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: The Wehrmacht next moved against the cut-off Allied forces, moving along the seacoast with only small Allied forces to resist them. After the capitulation of Belgium on 28 May, a gap had also appeared on the eastern flank of the Allied forces, which had been forced to retreat into a small pocket around the seaport of Dunkirk. From this pocket the bulk of the BEF and a considerable number of French troops had been evacuated in Operation Dynamo, but these troops had left behind virtually all of their heavy equipment (transport, tanks, artillery and ammunition). The French First Army had most of its units pocketed around Lille. Those of its units evacuated from Dunkirk were relanded in France, but saw no further action; they were still being reorganised in Brittany at the fall of France.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Churchill had made a brief statement to the Commons on 28 May reporting the Belgian capitulation, and concluding:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: He had promised a further statement of the military situation on 4 June, and indeed the major part of the speech is an account of military eventsso far as they affected the BEFsince the German breakthrough at Sedan.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: The German breakthrough had not been exploited southwards, and the French had improvised a relatively thinly held defensive line along the Aisne and the Somme. The British military evaluation was that this was unlikely to withstand any major attack by the Wehrmacht. In the air, the French were short of fighter planes, and the shortage was worsening due to their many losses in combat. The French military commanders had hence asked for additional British fighter squadrons to be sent into the fight in France. Politically, there were considerable doubts over the French willingness to continue the war, even in the absence of any further military catastrophes. Churchill had argued in favour of sending the fighter squadrons to France because he considered that that move would be vital to sustain French public morale, and also to give no excuse for the collapse of the French Army. That would possibly lead to a French government that would not only drop out of the war, but also become hostile to the United Kingdom. The British War Cabinet discussed this issue at meetings on 3 June and on the morning of 4 June, but it decided to take the advice of the Royal Air Force and the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, that the British priority must be to prepare its own defences. The three squadrons present in France would be kept up to fighting strength, but no further squadrons could be spared for the Battle of France.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Despite relief that the bulk of the BEF had made it back to Britain, Mass-Observation reported civilian morale in many areas as zero, one observer claiming that everyone looked suicidal. Only half the population expected Britain to fight on, and the feelings of thousands were summed up as:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Therefore, when talking about the future course and conduct of the war in this speech, Churchill had to describe a great military disaster, and warn of a possible German invasion attempt, without casting doubt on eventual victory. He needed to prepare his domestic audience for France's departure from the war without in any way releasing France to do so. In his subsequent speech of 18 June, immediately after the French had sued for peace, Churchill said:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Finally, he needed to reiterate a policy and an aim unchangeddespite the intervening eventsfrom his speech of 13 May, in which he had said:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: S.L.A. Marshall commented that the speech may have partially been inspired by General Ferdinand Foch at the Doullens Conference, who reportedly asked Douglas Haig:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: The peroration is widely held to be one of the finest oratorical moments of the war and of Churchill's career.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: In the sentence that begins "We shall fight on the beaches" and ends in "surrender", only the last word – "surrender" – does not have Old English roots.


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: It is said that immediately after giving the speech, Churchill muttered to a colleague, "And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that's bloody well all we've got!". Nonetheless, Churchill impressed his listeners and the speech was immediately recognised to be historic. Jock Colville, one of Churchill's secretaries, noted in his diary "A magnificent oration, which obviously moved the House". Chips Channon, a Conservative MP, wrote in his diary "he was eloquent and oratorical and used magnificent English; several Labour members cried". A Labour MP, Josiah Wedgwood, friend and admirer of Churchill since the Dardanelles campaign, wrote to him, "My dear Winston. That was worth 1,000 guns and the speeches of 1,000 years".


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: Unlike his subsequent This was their finest hour speech, Churchill's 4 June speech in the House of Commons was not repeated by him as a live radio broadcast that evening. Rather, as with his earlier Blood, toil, tears and sweat speech, extracts were read by the newsreader on that evening's BBC news broadcast. They made a great impression on Vita Sackville-West:


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: The next year American journalist H. R. Knickerbocker wrote that its words "deserve to be memorized by us all", observing that "With Churchill's picture these words are placarded in homes and offices throughout the British Empire."


title: We shall fight on the beaches

text: No audio record was made at the time of the original speech; Churchill only produced an audio recording in 1949, by repeating his previous oration. Despite this, many people after the war misremembered that they had heard Churchill speaking on the radio in 1940 when all there had been were BBC news reports that quoted his words. In 1984, English heavy metal band Iron Maiden mixed a section of this recording at the beginning of the video for their song "Aces High", which is inspired by the Battle of Britain, also using the recording as the introduction to the song when performed on stage, Iron Maiden also use this section as a beginning for many live shows namely during their 1984 World Slavery Tour. In Fool's Overture, the closing track of Supertramp's 1977 album "Even in the Quietest Moments...", some excerpts of the speech are heard along with London's Big Ben chiming.


title: Special OPS

text: Special Ops is an Indian Hindi-language action espionage thriller web series for Hotstar Specials created and directed by Neeraj Pandey, with Shivam Nair serving the credits for co-direction. Pandey also produced the series under his Friday Storytellers, a division of his production house, for providing content to the digital medium. It stars Kay Kay Menon as Himmat Singh, a member of Research and Analysis Wing, forms a team of five agents, in order to track down a person, who is the mastermind of the terror attacks which took place in India.


title: Special OPS

text: Neeraj Pandey eventually conceptualised the idea of the script in late 2010, with the series eventually scheduled to be aired on Star Plus, which however did not materialise. He later revived the project in August 2019. Shooting of the series took place in India, and some scenes were filmed in Turkey, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. The cinematography and editing were handled by Sudheer Palsane, Arvind Singh and Praveen Kathikuloth, whereas Advait Nemlekar composed the background score.


title: Special OPS

text: "Special OPS" was released through Hotstar on 17 March 2020. The series received positive response from critics, praising the performances of the cast members, storyline, direction and technical aspects. It also received eight nominations at the inaugural Filmfare OTT Awards, winning three of them. Pandey had transformed the series into a franchise, with the second instalment "" released on 12 November 2021.


title: Special OPS

text: The series follows Himmat Singh (Menon) of the Research and Analysis Wing who finds similar patterns in terrorist attacks and is convinced a single person is behind all the attacks. His task force team of five agents living in various parts of the world aim to catch the mastermind.


title: Special OPS

text: The episode were titled, as a tribute, after various Bollywood films by series creator Neeraj Pandey who served as an episode director on an alternating pattern with co-director Shivam Nair. The films referenced include "Kaagaz Ke Phool" (1959), "Guide" (1965), "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), "Hum Kisise Kum Naheen" (1977), "Chaudhvin Ka Chand" (1960), "Qurbani" (1980), "Shatranj ke Khiladi" (1977) and "Sholay" (1975).


title: Special OPS

text: On 15 January 2019, the streaming platform Hotstar, announced its foray to original content production exclusively for the service, with Star India, the parent company of Hotstar, tied up with 15 Indian filmmakers for creating the shows for its label called Hotstar Specials. Pandey had started a new division Friday Storytellers, a subsidiary of his production house Friday Filmworks, for digital content providers, in which the series is produced.


title: Special OPS

text: The series is developed as an eight-hour story which is inspired by nineteen years worth events of national significance by Pandey along with Deepak Kingrani and Benazir Ali Fida. Shivam Nair was served as the co-director. He initially pitched the idea of the series in 2010, with Star India's head Gaurav Bannerjee, offering to premiere the show on Star Plus, but failed to materialise later. The project was eventually announced with Kay Kay Menon being offered to play the protagonist, on 6 August 2019, and the rest of the cast and crew members were finalised in the same month.


title: Special OPS

text: The principal photography of the series was kickstarted in mid-August 2019. Shivam Nair took charge of helming the major portions of the show taking place in India, and Pandey was directing the rest of the sequences. The show has recreated Parliament of India for filming 2001 Indian Parliament attack portions which were dealt for the first time in film history. Apart from India the show is filmed in Turkey, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. Pandey eventually stated that the shooting of the series in Delhi was more expensive, as the team needed to build sets and also use visual effects, as the story needs heavy mounting, and hence filmed in international locations.


title: Special OPS

text: A promotional video featuring between the scenes footage of filming was released on 23 February 2020. The teaser poster was released on 25 February 2020, followed by the trailer of the series, which was dropped on the same day at a press conference held in Mumbai, attended by the cast and crew. On 1 March 2020, the makers announced that the series will be premiered on Hotstar on 17 March 2020, where it will be made accessible for viewers who enabled the VIP subscription method, in the streaming platform. On 15 March 2020, the second trailer of the series was released, which confirmed the release on the said date. However, Hotstar eventually released the first episode, earlier ahead of the scheduled date, on 16 March 2020, followed by the other consecutive episodes. The series was premiered in seven Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi and Kannada, along with its Hindi original version on the said date.


title: Special OPS

text: "Special OPS" received mostly positive response from critics. Rohan Naahar of "Hindustan Times" stated "Neeraj Pandey and Kay Kay Menon deliver the first Hotstar original series almost worth the self-isolation." Sana Farzeen of "The Indian Express" stated "With some impressive performances and a compelling tale, Special Ops deserves a watch". Saibal Chatterjee of "NDTV" gave three out of five stars to the show stating ""Special Ops", is a sprawling espionage actioner that takes its own sweet time to glide towards two suspenseful climactic build-ups." Archika Khurana of "The Times of India" too gave three out of five and stated "Special Ops' could have been a winner all together if it was more focussed. Still, this setup of spies is better than some of its counterparts, and is binge worthy too."


title: Special OPS

text: Stutee Ghosh of "The Quint" stated ""Special Ops" is uneven in its pace and falters in between but it’s also a proof of Neeraj Pandey’s skill that despite these flaws he has created a series that has enough drama to keep us hooked", and gave three out of five stars. Divyanshi Sharma of "India Today", gave a mixed review stating "Special Ops has some stellar performances, which was put down by, forced slow-motion scenes, predictable twists, absence of logic and poorly executed story." Nandini Ramanath of "Scroll.in" opined ""Special Ops" lands on the better side of "Bard of Blood", but doesn’t match the entertainment value of "The Family Man" [...] While the Parliament attack is well executed, the hand-to-hand combat scenes are unmistakably choreographed."


title: Special OPS

text: Avinash Ramachandran of "The New Indian Express" commented "Despite the supporting cast being underwritten, a few setbacks in the pacing, and the oh-so-convenient twists, the show gets a lot right". "Firstpost" chief critic Pratishruti Ganguly gave two out of five and stated "Perhaps it would have fared better for "Special Ops" to do away with the frills and focus on the titular special operation right from the get ... However, it could well be a binge-worthy series in the times of self-quarantine."


title: Special OPS

text: In a live chat session on Instagram, with Kay Kay Menon, Karan Tacker and Neeraj Pandey in May 2020, the director hinted of the second season of the series which is yet to be conceptualised. Although an official announcement of the second season was made in April, Pandey hinted that the series will be "bigger than that of the first season".


title: Special OPS

text: In January 2021, Pandey announced that the works on the second season will be completed, before starting the production of Ajay Devgn's "Chanakya". He eventually converted the series into a franchise and on 22 January 2021, the makers announced the second instalment in the franchise titled "". The series which revolves around the backstory of Himmat Singh (Menon) as a raw agent, is a prequel to the first season. The series consisted of four episodes with a runtime of nearly one-hour and was premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 12 November 2021.


title: Warcraft

text: Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: "", "", "", "World of Warcraft", and "Hearthstone". The first three of these core games are in the real-time strategy genre, where opposing players command virtual armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy. The fourth and best-selling title of the franchise is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players control their character and interact with each other in a virtual world. "Warcraft" is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, having grossed $11.2 billion in lifetime revenue, as of 2018.


title: Warcraft

text: Expansion sets were released for "Warcraft II" (""), "Warcraft III" ("") and multiple expansions were released for "World of Warcraft" ("", "", "", "", "", "", "" and ). "World of Warcraft"'s ninth expansion, "", released November 28, 2022.


title: Warcraft

text: At BlizzCon 2018 on November 2, 2018, Blizzard announced a remaster of "Warcraft III" entitled "" featuring remodeled characters and graphics with a prospective release in 2019. The game was officially released on January 28, 2020.


title: Warcraft

text: All games in the series have been set in and around the world of Azeroth, a high fantasy setting. Initially, the start of the series focused on the human nations that make up the Eastern Kingdoms, and the Orcish Horde, which arrived in Azeroth via a dark portal, beginning the great wars. The Orcs came from another world, referred to as Draenor, the world that will be shattered into pieces by demonic magics during the events of "Warcraft II", thereafter being known as Outland. Later on in the series the world of Azeroth was expanded, revealing the new continents of Kalimdor, Northrend, Pandaria, Broken Isles, Kul Tiras, and Zandalar, allowing the introduction of the Night Elves, Tauren, Pandaren, and other major races into the universe. The world of Azeroth also contains the traditional fantasy setting races of elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, and trolls. Unusually for the genre, all of these races are available to be played, whereas trolls and full-blooded orcs are usually presented in fantasy fiction as being solely antagonists for protagonists of the more "human-friendly" races.


title: Warcraft

text: The series spawned several books and other media, covering a broad range of characters and timelines in the "Warcraft" universe. A collectible card game was published, which offered those who bought booster packs a chance to gain access codes to limited in-game content in "World of Warcraft". Comics have been released alongside the books, further covering parts of the universe's storyline. A short-lived, online subscription only magazine was available but later ceased publication after five issues. A film adaptation, "Warcraft", was released in 2016.


title: Warcraft

text: The first three games in the "Warcraft" series, including their expansion packs, were all released on both the PC and Macintosh. All of these games were of the real-time strategy genre. Each game proceeded to carry on the storyline of the previous games, and each introduced new features and content to improve gameplay. The name "Warcraft" was proposed by Blizzard developer Sam Didier. It was chosen because "it sounded super cool", according to Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham, without any particular meaning attached to it.


title: Warcraft

text: "" was the first game in the series to feature play over the internet using Battle.net, although this was not included until a later release of the game. "Warcraft II" was also the first in the series to be re-released as a "Battle Chest", a bundled copy of the game containing both the original and expansion. "" was the first game in the series to feature a Collector's Edition, which all subsequent games have released as well. "Warcraft III" and "World of Warcraft" also have both had "Battle Chests" released for them subsequent to their initial release. The "Battle.net" edition of "Warcraft II" was also the first to introduce the use of CD keys to the series, requiring each user online to have their own copy of the game in order to be able to connect.


title: Warcraft

text: In 1998, an adventure game in the series, "", was announced as being canceled, having been previously delayed from a 1997 release.


title: Warcraft

text: In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment moved the series away from the real-time strategy genre and released "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Requiring a subscription fee to be paid to play, it also introduced regular additional content to the series in the form of patches. "World of Warcraft" gained popularity worldwide, becoming the world's largest subscription-based MMORPG in 2008. The game reached a peak 12 million subscribers worldwide in October 2010. "World of Warcraft" has had eight expansions as of 2022 with a ninth on the way. During the production of "", Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stated that "If there's a team that's passionate about doing another "Warcraft" [real-time strategy], then that's definitely something we would consider. It's nothing that we're working on right now, we have development teams working on "", "", "Diablo III", and when those teams are all off the projects they're working on, they'll be intimately involved in the discussions about what's next".


title: Warcraft

text: In 2013, Blizzard announced a new free-to-play online digital collectible card game, originally titled "", with the beta being available in summer of 2013. In March 2014, "Hearthstone" was released. In addition to free-to-play basic gameplay "Hearthstone" contains fee-based features such as additional card packs.


title: Warcraft

text: On May 3, 2022, Blizzard announced a new "Warcraft" free-to-play mobile game called "Warcraft Arclight Rumble".


title: Warcraft

text: In 2009, Blizzard announced that it would be releasing a magazine with Future US Ltd. This magazine would be purchasable by online subscription, and not for sale in newsagents or stores, making them collector's items. The magazine released quarterly, and each contained 148 pages. No advertisements were included in the magazine. In September 2011, Blizzard announced that the magazine was ceasing publication. Refunds, plush toys or in-game pets were given to subscribers depending on the outstanding length of subscription.


title: Warcraft

text: In a May 9, 2006 press release, Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures announced that they would develop a live-action film set in the "Warcraft universe". At BlizzCon 2008, according to Mike Morhaime, a script was being written.


title: Warcraft

text: In January 2013, Duncan Jones was announced to direct the adaptation, from a script by Charles Leavitt. The film was set to begin principal photography in early 2014 with a plot based on the novel "". On July 20, 2013, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment unveiled a sizzle reel during their San Diego Comic Con 2013 panel, with Duncan Jones hopping on stage briefly to discuss the project. Production on the film started shooting on January 13, 2014. The first full-length trailer for the film was released on November 6, 2015. "Warcraft" premiered in Los Angeles on June 6, 2016, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 10, 2016. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, and grossed $433 million.


title: Warcraft

text: In 2015, Blizzard released "Heroes of the Storm", a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game in which players can control various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, the majority of which come from the "Warcraft" universe. The game also features numerous mounts based on mounts or other creatures from "World of Warcraft," as well as a battleground based on the PvP zone Alterac Pass. A number of "Warcraft"-themed skins have been introduced for "Heroes of the Storm" in the “Echoes of Alterac” event in June 2018. Various soundtracks from "World of Warcraft", such as "Obsidian Sanctum" from "Wrath of the Lich King", "The Wandering Isle" from "Mists of Pandaria," and "Stormwind" theme, are present as background music in the game. "Heroes of the Storm" is inspired by "Defense of the Ancients", a community-created mod based on "".


title: Warcraft

text: Most of the "Warcraft" series takes place on the planet of Azeroth. Other planets in the "Warcraft" universe include: Draenor (and its sundered remnants, known as Outland), Argus, K'aresh, Mardum (also known as the Shattered Abyss), Xoroth, Rancora, and Nathreza. There are also several metaphysical areas mentioned, including the Emerald Dream, the Elemental Planes, the Twisting Nether, the Great Dark Beyond, and the Shadowlands. "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans", the first game in the series, takes place in Azeroth.


title: Warcraft

text: Azeroth has four known continents, named the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend, and recently rediscovered Pandaria. All continents are separated by the Great Sea. Three major archipelagos also reside in the Great Sea: the Broken Isles, Zandalar, the birthplace of the troll civilization, and Kul Tiras, a maritime human nation. In the center of the Great Sea is an enormous, everlasting vortex called the "Maelstrom" beneath which lies the aquatic city of Nazjatar, home of the amphibious Naga. Near the Maelstrom lies the volcanic Isle of Kezan, home of the goblins.


title: Warcraft

text: The Eastern Kingdoms are the primary setting of the first two games (and their expansions) and the first half of "". It is made up of 22 areas or zones. The kingdom of Stormwind lies at the south of the Eastern Kingdoms, south of the dwarven kingdom of Khaz Modan and north of the jungle known as Stranglethorn Vale. The capital city of Stormwind, Stormwind City, is nestled into the northwest of Elwynn Forest, a large forest at the center of the kingdom. The Dwarven capital in Khaz Modan, called Ironforge, is located in Dun Morogh.


title: Warcraft

text: The former human kingdom of Lordaeron, which successfully headed the human Alliance in "" but later fell to the Scourge in "," is located north of the southern kingdoms. Underneath the ruined city of Lordaeron now lies the Undercity, capital of the Forsaken, a rebel band of the undead Scourge. The area is now known as Tirisfal Glades and is threatened by the Western Plaguelands held back at The Bulwark. Northeast of Lordaeron is the elven nation of Quel'Thalas and its capital city, Silvermoon, both of which were conquered by the Scourge in "".


title: Warcraft

text: The continent of Kalimdor was introduced in "" and is made up of 18 zones. Whereas the Eastern Kingdoms can be described as the equivalent of medieval Europe, with traditional kingdoms and advanced cities, Kalimdor can be compared to the Americas at the time of the first arrivals of Europeans, full of wild lands. The geography and topography of Kalimdor are similar to North America and Africa, with massive, ancient forests and mountains covering the North and vast deserts and savannahs in the South. The Night Elven kingdom is located in the northwest region of Kalimdor, also including the island Teldrassil (actually a giant tree, similar in lore and spelling to Yggdrasil) off the northwest coast, which contains the city of Darnassus.


title: Warcraft

text: To the south, past the Ashenvale Forest, is a stretch of land known as The Barrens, situated between the grasslands of Mulgore to the west, and Durotar, the land settled by the Orcs, to the east. Mulgore is home to the Tauren capital of Thunder Bluff, a large city of tepees and lodges built on top of a conglomerate of high plateaus which are only accessible by air travel and a great series of lifts built down to the ground. In the north of Durotar is the fortress-city of Orgrimmar, the capital of the Orcs.


title: Warcraft

text: The third continent, Northrend, is located in the northern polar region of Azeroth and is the primary stronghold of the malevolent Undead Scourge. Northrend is featured in "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos" and its expansion set "", and is the main location featured in "", the second expansion pack to "World of Warcraft".


title: Warcraft

text: In the expansion "", Azeroth has been changed permanently in-game, even for players without the expansion set installed. The corrupted Black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing the Destroyer (formerly Neltharion, the Earth-Warder) has broken free from imprisonment in Deepholm, part of the Elemental Plane, and caused major changes and destruction in the land. In addition, many new parts of the continents of Azeroth that have previously been inaccessible have become key parts in the new world.


title: Warcraft

text: Lorewise, this is the second major change to the face of Azeroth, the first being the Sundering. The Sundering was caused as a result of the War of the Ancients where demons of the Burning Legion invaded the ancient Kalimdor. It caused a massive explosion that split the one continent into the four seen in-game and created the Maelstrom.


title: Warcraft

text: "" was the fourth expansion released and it focuses on the mythical and long-forgotten lands of Pandaria, a continent far to the south that has until now been shrouded in magical mists. With both factions landing on Pandaria, adventurers rediscover the ancient Pandaren people, whose wisdom will help guide them to new destinies; the Pandaren Empire's ancient enemy, the Mantid; and their legendary oppressors, the enigmatic Mogu.


title: Warcraft

text: The storyline for "Mists of Pandaria" is split into multiple chapters. The story arc that introduces Pandaria—where players discover the continent and level up, helping to solve problems and figure out what happened for the past 10,000 years and why—was included entirely within the initial expansion release. Later chapters in the storyline brought the war between the Horde and the Alliance back into focus, including changing parts of Pandaria (via phasing) to show additional settlements, and eventually returning the players back to Kalimdor for a final showdown, dethroning Warchief Garrosh Hellscream.


title: Warcraft

text: "" was the sixth expansion released and it focuses on the Broken Isles, a continent and group of islands located northeast of the Maelstrom in the middle of the Great Sea; one of the islands contains the Tomb of the Dark Titan, Sargeras. The Burning Legion has started an invasion of Azeroth and the player characters must find powerful artifacts to stop the invasion.


title: Warcraft

text: Having thwarted the Burning Legion's attempts to invade Azeroth, the players and other significant lore characters traveled to Argus, the homeworld of the Burning Legion, in order to end its threat. While successful, they couldn't stop Sargeras entirely. Before being banished and imprisoned, he thrust a magical sword into the surface of Azeroth, leaving the planet wounded and bleeding a magical substance called "Azerite".


title: Warcraft

text: "" was the seventh expansion released and it focuses on the islands of Kul'Tiras and Zandalar, two islands which are home to their respective kingdoms. This is the first expansion that introduces two new continents on initial release. During this expansion, the Horde and Alliance seek the aid of the kingdoms of Zandalar and Kul'tiras, respectively, for the reignited war between the factions. Throughout campaigns on both continents, adventurers learn the history of both kingdoms and uncover plots involving the Old Gods.


title: Warcraft

text: Events influenced by N'Zoth and his followers lead to the discovery of the continents of Nazjatar, the underwater kingdom of Azshara, and Mechagon, an island inhabited by the Mechagnomes. The final patch of Battle for Azeroth takes players back to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Uldum to cure them of the corruption of N'Zoth, and ultimately face the Old God himself in his empire of Ny'alotha.


title: Warcraft

text: The story of Battle for Azeroth is also the first time players are given choices that can have a significant impact on their own adventures. One significant choice is whether to join the orc Varrok Saurfang in his rebellion against the Horde Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner. Another choice that players are given is whether to become a servant of N'Zoth. Both choices lead to unique dialogue, cinematics, and quests, depending on the choices made.


title: Warcraft

text: Draenor was torn apart when the Orcish leader, Ner'Zhul (later the first Lich King) opened dozens of portals to other worlds in an attempt to escape the invading Alliance Armies from Azeroth. The sheer number and combined power of the portals ripped Draenor into fragments and cast the remainder into the mysterious parallel dimension called the Twisting Nether, Home of the Demons. The remnants of the world are now known as Outland, and feature in the last mission of the human campaign of "" (though, without any actual terrain changes), "" and more prominently in "".


title: Warcraft

text: An intact Draenor is the main feature of the fifth "World of Warcraft" expansion, "", which takes place 35 years earlier in an alternate timeline.