Lesser Poland
Encyclopedia : L : LE : LES : Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland (also "Little Poland", Polish: Małopolska, Latin: Polonia Minor) is one of the historical regions of Poland. It forms the southernmost part of the country.
Geography
Lesser Poland lies in the upper confluence of the Vistula river and covers a large upland, including the Holy Cross Mountains, Lesser Polish Upland, Sandomierz Valley, and Lublin Upland. It stretches from the Carpathians in the south to Pilica and Wieprz rivers to the north. It borders Mazovia and Land of Radom to the north, Silesia to the west and the border with Ukraine (Red Ruthenia) to the east. Historically, until World War II the region also included large parts of modern Ukraine (see Galicia).
Administratively, the historical area is divided into the voivodeships of Lesser Poland, Subcarpathia, Świętokrzyskie, Lublin, the eastern parts of the neighbouring Upper Silesia, and southern parts of Masovia.
Major cities and towns
The most notable cities of the region include: as well as:- Rzeszów
- Częstochowa
- Lublin
- Dąbrowa Górnicza
- Będzin
- Kielce
- Sandomierz
- Sosnowiec
- Tarnów
- Krosno
- Nowy Sącz
- Tarnobrzeg
- Sanok
- Wieliczka
- Bochnia
- Radom
- Zakopane
- Bielsko-Biała
- Jaworzno
- Łuków
- Siedlce
History
The wooden architecture (most notably, churches) of Lesser Poland are on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.
References
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.