Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province, in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Wrocław, Legnica, Wałbrzych and Jelenia Góra Voivodeships, following the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. It covers an area of , and has a total population of 2,899,986.
It is one of the wealthiest provinces in Poland as natural resources such as copper, brown coal and rock materials are widely present.
Its capital and largest city is Wrocław, situated on the Oder River. The voivodeship is host to many castles and palaces. For this reason tourism is a large part of this region's economy.
History
In the past 1,200 years, the region has been part of Great Moravia, the Medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Crown of Bohemia, Habsburg monarchy (Austria), Prussia, the German Empire, and modern Poland after 1945.
Silesian tribes settled the lands at the end of the first millennium after the Migration Period. During the period of Germania Slavica, the region became part of Great Moravia under Svatopluk I of Moravia. Mieszko I brought the various existing Silesian duchies under the rule of the Piast dynasty and they became the Duchy of Silesia. It was again divided into small realms reigned by Silesian branches of Piast princes after the testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth in 1138. With the Ostsiedlung, the cultural and ethnic Germanic influence grew with an influx of immigrants from the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, of which Silesia was a direct part until the 1330s when it was subjugated to the Kingdom of Bohemia, then together with it became part of the Habsburg monarchy (1526), then the Kingdom of Prussia (1742/44), and subsequently the German Empire (1871). In 1945, Lower Silesia was made part of Poland as agreed at the post-war Potsdam Conference. As a consequence, Lower Silesia suffered a nearly total loss of its pre-war population between 1945 and 1950. Polish citizens dispossessed by the Soviets were then settled in the now emptied lands.
Lower Silesia was, during the early medieval era, one of Poland's cultural centers. The Book of Henryków (1273), which contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language, as well as a document which contains the oldest printed text in Polish, were both created within it. Złotoryja, Poland's first town, was granted municipal privileges according to German Magdeburg rights by Henry the Bearded. Over the centuries, Lower Silesia has experienced several epochal events such as the Protestant Reformation, the Silesian Wars, industrialisation and the two World Wars.
Geography
Although much of the region is relatively low-lying, Lower Silesia includes the Sudeten Foreland, as well as part of the Sudetes mountain range, that runs along the Polish/Czech border. Ski resorts in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship include Karpacz and Szklarska Poręba in the Karkonosze mountains.
The voivodeship has a number of mineral springs and is host to a large number of spa towns.
Lower Silesian Voivodeship is bordered by Lubusz Voivodeship to the north-west, Greater Poland Voivodeship to the north-east, Opole Voivodeship to the south-east, the Czech Republic (Hradec Králové Region, Liberec Region, Olomouc Region and Pardubice Region) to the south, and Germany (Saxony) to the west.
Transport
The Copernicus Airport Wrocław serves as an international and domestic airport.
Wrocław Główny is the largest railway station in Poland, serving an average of 21.2 million passengers annually. It offers the domestic and international connections of various carriers.
The A4 motorway, A8 motorway, A18 motorway and S3 Expressway, S5 Expressway, S8 Expressway also run through the Voivodeship.
Tourism
Tourism is important for Lower Silesian Voivodeship. There are 99 castles and hundreds of palaces. A lot are located Jelenia Góra valley.
Wrocław being the largest city in the voivodeship has many sights and attractions, including the Market Square, Ostrów Tumski and Wrocław's dwarfs. The Festival of Good Beer is held every year of June.
The annual international Chopin Festival is held in the Fryderyk Chopin Theatre in the town of Duszniki-Zdrój. Other major attraction of the town is the Museum of Papermaking, established in a 17th-century paper mill.
Śnieżka is the highest peak of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the whole of the Sudetes.
Protected areas
Protected areas in Lower Silesian Voivodeship:
2 National Parks
Karkonosze National Park (part of a UNESCO trans-border biosphere reserve)
Table Mountains National Park
12 Landscape Parks
Barycz Valley Landscape Park (partly in Greater Poland Voivodeship)
Bóbr Valley Landscape Park
Bystrzyca Valley Landscape Park
Chełmy Landscape Park
Jezierzyca Valley Landscape Park
Książ Landscape Park
Owl Mountains Landscape Park
Przemków Landscape Park
Rudawy Landscape Park
Ślęża Landscape Park
Śnieżnik Landscape Park
Sudety Wałbrzyskie Landscape Park
67 Nature reserves
20 protected landscape areas
3100 Natural monuments
114 Ecological usages
15 Teams nature and landscape
and many areas of Natura 2000 network.
Tourist routes
The Main Trail Sudetes long-distance mountain trail
The Piast Castles Trail
Trail around Wrocław
Cistercian trail
The trail of the Valley of Palaces and Gardens of the Jelenia Góra Valley
Lower Silesian Rout of St. James
Sudetes Rout of St. James
Camino de Santiago - Via Regia
The Trail of Extinct Volcanoes on the Kaczawskie Foothills
Lower Silesian Beer and Wine Trail
EuroVelo 9
Lower Silesian Bicycle Highway
Bicycles S5 (Wrocław – Poznań)
Blue Velo - The Odra River Bicycle Route
Economy
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 41.1 billion € in 2018, accounting for 8.3% of the Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €23,400 or 78% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 85% of the EU average. Lower Silesia Voivodship is the province with the second highest GDP per capita in Poland.
GDP per capita in Lower Silesia Voivodeship: GDP in Poland:
Cities and towns
The voivodeship contains 8 cities and 83 towns. The cities (governed by a city mayor or prezydent miasta) are listed below in descending order of population (as of 2019):
Cities
Towns
Administrative division
Lower Silesian Voivodeship is divided into 30 counties (powiats), four of which are city counties. These are further divided into 169 gminas.
Lower Silesia is divided into three districts administracyji province government, the capital of Wrocław (administrative region):
1 one district Wałbrzyski
Powiats in the district
Świdnica, Kłodzko, Ząbkowice Śląskie, Dzierżoniów
2 second district Legnicki
Powiats in the district
Glogów, Jawor, Lubin, Polkowice, Złotoryja
3 third district Jeleniogórski
Powiats in the district
Boleslawiec, Kamienna Góra, Luban, Lwówek Śląski, Zgorzelec.
The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population).
Governors
See also
Princess Marianne of the Netherlands
Tourism in Poland
References
External links
Województwo Dolnośląskie Official website
Website of the government of Lower Silesia
States and territories established in 1999
1999 establishments in Poland