Wawel CastleThe Wawel Royal Castle (ˈvavɛl; Zamek Królewski na Wawelu) and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established on the orders of King Casimir III the Great and enlarged over the centuries into a number of structures around an Italian-styled courtyard. It represents nearly all European architectural styles of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Polish BrethrenThe Polish Brethren (Polish: Bracia Polscy) were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658. By those on the outside, they were called "Arians" or "Socinians" (arianie, socynianie), but themselves preferred simply to be called "Brethren" or "Christians", and, after their expulsion from Poland, "Unitarians".
Polish diasporaThe Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish as Polonia, the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages. There are roughly 20,000,000 people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest in the world and one of the most widely dispersed. Reasons for displacement include border shifts, forced expulsions, resettlement by voluntary and forced exile, and political or economic emigration.
Coat of arms of PolandThe coat of arms of Poland is a white, crowned eagle with a golden beak and talons, on a red background. In Poland, the coat of arms as a whole is referred to as godło both in official documents and colloquial speech, despite the fact that other coats of arms are usually called a herb (e.g. the Nałęcz herb or the coat of arms of Finland). This stems from the fact that in Polish heraldry, the word godło (plural: godła) means only a heraldic charge (in this particular case a white crowned eagle) and not an entire coat of arms, but it is also an archaic word for a national symbol of any sort.
StarostaThe starosta "sta:rQst@ or starost (Cyrillic: старост/а, Latin: capitaneus, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. The Slavic root of starost translates as "senior". Since the Middle Ages, it has meant an official in a leadership position in a range of civic and social contexts throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Old PolishThe Old Polish language (język staropolski, staropolszczyzna) was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old Polish language are the data of the comparative-historical grammar of Slavic languages, the material of Polish dialects, several Latin manuscripts with Polish glosses, as well as – most importantly – monuments written in Old Polish: the Holy Cross Sermons (Kazania świętokrzyskie), the Florian Psalter (Psałterz floriański), Bogurodzica (Bogurodzica), the Sharoshpatak Bible (Biblia szaroszpatacka or Biblia królowej Zofii) and some others.
Gord (archaeology)A gord is a medieval Slavonic fortified settlement, usually built on strategic sites such as hilltops, riverbanks, lake islets or peninsulas between the 6th and 12th centuries in Central and Eastern Europe. The typical gord usually consisted of a group of wooden houses surrounded by a wall made of earth and wood, and a palisade running along the top of the bulwark. The term ultimately descends from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root ǵhortós, enclosure.
KashubiaKashubia or Cassubia (Kaszëbë, Kaszëbskô, Kaszuby, Kaschubei, Kaschubien) is a language area in the historic Eastern Pomerania (Pomerelia) region of northern Poland. The cities of Kartuzy and Kościerzyna are two towns that have been fighting over the title of the capital city of Kashubia. Located west of Gdańsk (inclusive of all but the easternmost district) and the mouth of the Vistula river, it is inhabited by members of the Kashubian ethnic group. The region is home to the Kashubian Lake District.
Tatra MountainsThe Tatra Mountains (), Tatras, or Tatra (Tatry either in Slovak (ˈtatri) or in Polish (ˈtatrɨ) - plurale tantum), are a series of mountains within the Western Carpathians that form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highest mountains in the Carpathians. The Tatras are distinct from the Low Tatras (Nízke Tatry), a separate Slovak mountain range further south. The Tatra Mountains occupy an area of , of which about (77.7%) lie within Slovakia and about (22.3%) within Poland.
VecheVeche (véče; wiec; víče, ˈʋit͡ʃe; viéča, ˈvjɛt͡ʂa; věšte) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries. In Novgorod and in Pskov, where the veche acquired great prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde. The word is inherited from Proto-Slavonic *větje , meaning 'council', 'counsel' or 'talk' (which is also represented in the word "soviet", both ultimately deriving from Proto-Slavic verbal stem of *větiti 'to talk, speak').
