Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Lesser
Poland Voivodeship

map

Coat of arms and logo

Basic data

Capital : Krakow

Voivode : Piotr Ćwik

Voivodeship Marshal : Witold Kozłowski

Biggest town: Krakow

ISO 3166-2 : PL-12

Residents : 3,391,380 (Dec. 31, 2017)

Population density : 216 inhabitants per km²

geography

Area : 15,108 km²

- of which country: ? km²

- of which water: ? km²

Expansion: North-South: up to 147 km
West-East: up to 150 km

The highest point: 2499 m

Deepest point: 165 m

Landscape structure

Forests: 28.6%

Waters: ? %

Agriculture: 49.7%

Other: ? %

Administrative division

Independent cities : 3

Counties : 19th

Municipalities : 173

The Lesser Poland Voivodeship (Polish województwo małopolskie [ vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ mawɔˈpɔlskʲɛ ]) is one of the 16 voivodeships of the Republic of Poland . It encompasses the southern part of Poland around the city of Krakow and is enclosed from west to east by the Silesian , Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian Voivodeships . In the south Lesser Poland borders on Slovakia , with which it has shares in the Carpathian Mountains . The capital is Krakow. On April 29, 2019, the Voivodeship Parliament, the Sejmik, passed a resolution declaring the entire Voivodeship to be an “ LGBT-free zone ”. For this reason, the French region Center-Val de Loire terminated the partnership on February 24, 2020.

history

The three historical voivodeships of Lesser Poland Cracow , Lublin and Sandomierz until 1772 against the background of the modern administrative structure of Poland

The current voivodeship was formed with the administrative reform in 1999 from several small administrative units around the city of Krakow and is located in the area of the historical Krakow Voivodeship, which also existed from 1945 to 1975.

The coat of arms is based on historical models and is as follows described : In a red gold died änderter gold-winning and gold reinforced silver eagle with golden clover stalks .

topography

The Lesser Poland Voivodeship is dominated by the highest mountains in Poland in the south and north-west. The highest point is the north-west summit of the Rysy (Meeraugspitze) with 2499.6 meters in the High Tatras . The Vistula flows through it from west to east. Most of the rivers in Lesser Poland drain into the Baltic Sea via the Vistula . Some streams in the southwest of Lesser Poland drain into the Black Sea via the Orava and Danube .

Administrative division

The Lesser Poland Voivodeship is divided into 19 rural and three urban powiate (counties). The three cities with powiat status (independent cities) are each a powiat grodski , corresponding to a German urban district . They do not belong to the surrounding powiat ziemski (corresponding to a German district ) named after them .

One district cities

Kraków ( Kraków , 767,348 inhabitants)
Nowy Sącz ( New Sandez , 84.041)
Tarnów ( Tarnow , 109.650)

Powiate

The Lesser Poland Voivodeship comprises a total of 19 rural powiate, to which a total of 182 municipalities ( Gmina ) belong.

Bochnia (106,096)
Brzesko (93,164)
Chrzanów (125,725)
Dąbrowa (59,311)
Gorlice (109,076)
Krakow (274,843)
Limanova (130,964)
Miechów (49,315)
Myślenice (126,339)
Nowy Sącz (214,999)

Nowy Targ (191.266)
Olkusz (112,539)
Oświęcim ( Auschwitz , 154.292)
Proszowice (43,658)
Sucha (84,317)
Tarnów (201.268)
Tatras (68,034)
Wadowice (159,938)
Wieliczka (125,197)

(Residents on December 31, 2017)

Biggest cities

The provincial capital Krakow is the second largest city in the country with around 770,000 inhabitants and by far the largest in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.

city	Resident December 30, 2017
Kraków (Krakow)	767,348
Tarnów (Tarnow)	109,650
Nowy Sącz (New Sandez)	84.041
Oświęcim (Auschwitz)	38,678
Chrzanów	37.123
Olkusz	35,921
Nowy Targ	33,361
Bochnia	29,992
Gorlice	27,781
Zakopane	27,266
Skawina	24,325
Wieliczka	22,946
Andrychów	20,567
Trzebinia	19,954
Kęty	18,886
Wadowice	18,851
Myślenice	18,415
Libiąż	17,135
Brzesko	16,884
Limanova	15,103

economy

Galeria Krakowska in Krakow

Rolling mill in Nowa Huta

In comparison with the gross domestic product of the EU, expressed in purchasing power standards , the voivodeship achieved an index of 62 in 2015 (EU-28 = 100). The unemployment rate was 6.0% in May 2017, which corresponds to around 68,000 people. The average salary in May was PLN 4,264.36, which was around EUR 1,000. In May 2017, 374,447 companies were registered in Lesser Poland. The share of the Polish gross domestic product in 2010 was 7.6 percent.

With a value of 0.867, Lesser Poland ranks second among the 16 Voivodeships of Poland in the Human Development Index .

Industry

There are four industrial parks in the Lesser Poland region:

Krakowski Okręg Przemysłowy around Krakow
Jaworznicko-Chrzanowski Okręg Przemysłowy around Jaworzno and Chrzanów
Tarnowski Okręg Przemysłowy around Tarnów
Karpacki Okręg Przemysłowy in the Carpathian Mountains

Natural resources

Lesser Poland is rich in natural resources. Be won:

Salt in Bochnia and Wieliczka
Oil in Gorlice
Hard coal in Brzeszcze and Libiąż
Zinc and lead in Chrzanów and Olkusz
Mineral water in Krynica-Zdrój and Muszyna
Thermal springs in Podhale at the foot of the Tatra Mountains
Natural gas near Kraków and Babia Góra
Quarries near Krzeszowice

energy

The largest power plants are in Kraków, Skawina, Trzebina and Tarnów.

transport

A4 near Krakow

Krakow airport train station

Vistula River in Krakow

Krakow Airport

In Lesser Poland, important transport routes cross from west to east and from north to south.

Streets

Two European roads, one motorway and twelve expressways run through Lesser Poland. The main connection is the A4 motorway, which connects Lesser Poland with the Silesian Voivodeship in the west and the Subcarpathian Voivodeship in the east. The A4 also forms the western and southern bypass roads of Krakow . The S7 expressway connects Lesser Poland with the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in the north with Slovakia in the south. The S7 also forms the northern and eastern bypass roads of Kraków. Between Krakow and Zakopane , the S7 (in the southern part the S47) forms the Zakopianka panoramic road , which is currently being expanded to two lanes. The longest road tunnel in Poland is also being built on the Zakopianka near Chabówka .

railroad

In Lesser Poland there are 1,121 km of used railways. Regional traffic is operated by the Malopolska Railway Company, which owns forty trains made by Newag , Pesa and Kolzam . Krakow has direct train connections with all major cities in Poland as well as with Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Kiev and Odessa. There are 26 larger train stations in Lesser Poland, four of which are listed: Nowy Sącz , Rabka-Zdrój , Tarnów and Zakopane .

water

The Vistula is navigable in Lesser Poland over a length of approx. 100 km between Oświęcim and Krakow . It is planned to build a connecting canal between the Vistula and the Oder and between the Oder and the Danube . This would connect Lesser Poland with the Baltic Sea, North Sea and Black Sea via inland shipping. The largest river port in Lesser Poland is located in the eastern Kraków district of Nowa Huta .

Air traffic

John Paul II Airport Kraków-Balice is the international airport in Lesser Poland. It is located in the town of Balice , approx. 11 km west of Krakow city center, directly on the A4 / E 40 motorway and the Balice-Krakow railway line. With a passenger volume of around 5 million passengers a year, it is the second largest airport in Poland after Frédéric Chopin Airport in Warsaw . The airport has around 100 direct connections to Europe, America, Africa and Asia.

Sights and culture

Czarny Staw in the High Tatras

Three crowns in the Pienines

Babia Góra in the Beskids

Turbacz in the Gorce

Ojców in the Kraków-Częstochowa Jura

There are five UNESCO World Heritage Sites and six national parks in the voivodeship.

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites are

the old town of Krakow with the Wawel Castle
the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the Bochnia Salt Mine and the Salzgrafenschloss

the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

the Franciscan monastery in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska

the wooden churches in southern Lesser Poland

The national parks are

The landscape parks are

Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park
Ciężkowice-Rożnów Landscape Park
Dłubnia Landscape Park
Adlerhorste landscape park
Krakow Valleys Landscape Park
Small Beskydy Landscape Park
Pasmo Brzanki Landscape Park
Poprad Landscape Park
Rudno Landscape Park
Tenczynek Landscape Park
Wiśnicz-Lipnica Landscape Park

Health resorts are

Other attractions are:

Krakow-Czestochowa Jura
Błędów Desert
Eagle's nest castles
Dunajec castles , etc. a. Niedzica and Czorsztyn
Skamieniałe Miasto, Ciężkowice

Famous people from Lesser Poland

One of the most famous people from Lesser Poland is Karol Wojtyła, who was Pope John Paul II head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005 . He came from Wadowice near Cracow.