Podlaskie Voivodeship

Podlaskie Voivodeship Województwo podlaskie
—  Voivodeship  —
Flag Seal Coat of arms
Location within Poland
Coordinates (Białystok):
Country	Poland
Capital	Białystok
Counties	3 cities, 14 land counties * Białystok Łomża Suwałki Augustów County Białystok County Bielsk County Grajewo County Hajnówka County Kolno County Łomża County Mońki County Sejny County Siemiatycze County Sokółka County Suwałki County Wysokie Mazowieckie County Zambrów County
Area
- Total	20,180 km2 (7,791.5 sq mi)
Population (2006)
- Total	1,197,610
- Density	59.3/km2 (153.7/sq mi)
- Urban	712,675
- Rural	484,935
Car plates	B
Website	http://www.bialystok.uw.gov.pl
* further divided into 118 gminas

Podlaskie Voivodeship (also known as Podlasie Province, Polish: województwo podlaskie [vɔjɛˈvut​͡stfɔ pɔdˈlaskʲɛ] or simply Podlaskie) is a voivodeship (province) in north-eastern Poland. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Białystok and Łomża Voivodeships and the eastern half of the former Suwałki Voivodeship, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. Its capital is Białystok.

Etymology

The voivodeship takes its name from the historical region of Podlasie. This name originates from the period when the territory was within the Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, along the borderline with the Mazovia province, primarily a fief of the Poland of the Piasts and later on part of the Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons. Hence pod Lachem would mean "near the Poles", "along the border with Poland".

Transportation

Railways

Passenger Service

Passenger services is provided by two rail service providers:

• PKP Intercity - intercity passengers trains (express, intercity, eurocity, hotel and TLK)
• Przewozy Regionalne - runs only regional passenger trains financed by the voivodeship. Passenger trains are mostly run using electrical multiple units (on electrified lines) or rail buses^[1].

Przewozy Regionalne provides service on the following routes:

• Białystok - Sokółka - Augustów - Suwałki
• Białystok - Sokółka - Kuźnica Białystok- Hrodno, Belarus
• Białystok - Warsaw
• Białystok - Mońki - Grajewo - Ełk
• Hajnówka - Czeremcha - Siemiatycze - Siedlce
• Białystok - Bielsk Podlaski - Czeremcha (Connects to Hajnówka - Siedlce service)

Rail Baltica

Rail Baltica is one of the priority projects of the European Union Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). The project is supposed to link Finland, Baltic States and Poland and also improve the connection between central and eastern Europe and Germany. It requires an upgrade of the existing standard gauge railway from Warsaw–Białystok–Ełk- Sokółka -Trakiszki to 160 km/h^[2].

Roadways

Geography

Varied landscape, shaped in the north of the Baltic glaciation, the rest of the Middle Poland glaciation. The highest peaks are in the north (Rowelska Top - 298 m), where the landscape is dominated by hilly lake district. Lakeland: Zachodniosuwalskie, Wschodniosuwalskie, Ełckie) and sandrowy lake district (Augustów Plain) in the central and southern plains prevail peryglacjalne (plateaus: Kolneńska, Białystok, Wysokomazowiecka, Drohiczynska, Sokólskie Hills, Międzyrzecko łomżyński, Plain Bielsko), varied in wcinającymi not kotlinami and river valleys, lies on the west edge of the outwash plains Kurpiowska. Predominate on the surface of sand, gravel, clay, moraine, and in the valleys and basins of the rivers silt, sand and peat river.

Natural assets

The vast forests and forests (Białowieża, Augustów, Knyszyń, Puszcza Kurpiowska), some of which are the only ones in Europe have retained their original character, you can meet a unique wealth of flora and fauna. The vegetation of the region is extremely rich and diverse, which contributes to the richness of the animal world. Visitors can also see moose, wolves, lynx and bison living in the Bialowieża Forest and Knyszyń Forest.

Podlaskie has the lowest population density of the sixteen Polish voivodeships, and its largely unspoilt nature is one of its chief assets. Around 30% of the area of the voivodeship is under legal protection. The Polish part of the Białowieża Forest biosphere reserve (also a World Heritage Site) is in Podlaskie. There are four National Parks (Białowieża, Biebrza, Narew and Wigry), three Landscape Parks (Knyszyń Forest, Łomża and Suwałki), 88 nature reserves, and 15 protected landscape areas. The voivodeship constitutes a part of the ecologically clean area known as "the Green Lungs of Poland".

Climate

Podlaskie is the coldest region of Poland, located in the very northeast of the country near the border with Belarus and Lithuania. The region has a continental climate which is characterized by high temperatures during summer and long and frosty winters . The climate is affected by the cold fronts which come from Scandinavia and Siberia. The average temperature in the winter ranges from -15°C (5°F) to -4°C (24.8°F)^[3].

Culture

Podlaskie is the most diverse of all Polish voivodships. The area has been inhabited for centuries by members of different nations and religions: Belarusians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russyns, Gypsies, Tatars, Jews and Filipons.

Many places of religious worship remain:

• An 18th-century former Carmelite monastery on Wigry Lake
• A former jesuit monastery complex in Drohiczyn
• Christ's Transfiguration Orthodox church on the Holy Mount of Grabarka
• Saint Nicolaus the Miracle Worker Orthodox church in Białystok
• A 17th-century synagogue in Tykocin
• The oldest Polish mosque in Kruszyniany

Historical Locations

Middle Ages

• St.. Michael and John the Baptist in Łomża (1504–1526)

Renaissance

• The ruins of the castle in Tykocin[ (15th century)
• The Jewish cemetery in Tykocin (16th century)
• Monastery of the Annunciation in Suprasl (16th to 18th centuries)

Baroque

• Dominican Convent of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Sejny (1610–1619)
• Old Parish Church in Białystok (1617–1626)
• Synagogue (1642) and the Talmud house in Tykocin (18th century)
• Trzewiczkowych Carmelite Monastery with the Church of Our Lady of Mount Caramel in Bielsk Podlaski (mid-17th century)
• Branicki Palace in Białystok (the 17th and 18th centuries)
• Summer residence Branicki in Choroszcz (1752–1759)
• Holy Trinity Church in Tykocin (1742–1750)
• Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Siemiatycze (1719–1727)
• Monastery of the Dominican church of St. And St. John the Baptist. Stephen Martyr in Choroszcz (mid-18th century)
• Capuchin Monastery in Łomża (1770–1798)
• Old Town Hall in Bielsk Podlaski (1776–1780)
• Sokółki Palace in Pawłowiczch near Sokółka
• Synagogue in Orla
• Bernardine Monastery in Tykocin (1771–1791)
• The team Stawiski Franciscan monastery (17th - 19th century)

Classicism

• Basilica. Birth of the Virgin and St. Nicholas in Bielsk Podlaski (1780)
• Cathedral of St.. Nicholas in Białystok (1843–1846)
• Church of Sts. Kolnie Anne (1834–1839)
• Co-cathedral of St. Alexander in Suwałki (1825)
• Classical brick mansion in Little Płock (1835)
• Church of Sts. Anthony in Sokółka (1848)
• Cemetery Cathedral in Łomża
• Synagogue in Kolno (second half. 18th century)

19th century

• Lubomirski Palace in Białystok (second half. 19th century)
• Hasbacha Palace in Białystok (the late 19th century)
• The palace and park in Buchholtzów Suprasl (1892–1903)
• Team Becker factory in Białystok (nineteenth and early 20th century)
• The fence and gate parafialno-municipal cemetery in Kolno (1809)
• Church in the Parish and (the first half. 19th century)
• Catholic Parish in Grabowie (the first half. 19th century)
• The Jewish cemetery in Kolno (1817)
• The Jewish cemetery in Stawiski (the first half. 19th century)
• Parish Church p.w. St. Adalbert in m (the first half. 19th century)
• The team mail Stawiski (II quarter of the 19th century)
• Neo-Baroque bell tower at the church brick church. St. Anne Kolnie (1862)
• Buildings of the monastery of SS. Benedictine in Łomża (1863)
• Church of the Assumption in Łomża (1877)
• Roman Catholic Cemetery in Porytem (second half. 19th century)
• Church of the Holy Trinity in Zambrów (1879)
• Church of the Holy Trinity in Grajewo (1882)
• Church of Sts. John the Baptist in Wysokie Mazowiecki (1888)
• Building Seminar in Łomża(1866)
• Town Hall in Łomża (1822–1823)
• Numerous monuments Street. Dwornej in Łomża
• Manor in Wojnówce

• Basilica of the Assumption in Białystok (1900–1905, neo-Gothic)
• The Church of St.Adalbert in Białystok (1906–1912)
• The Church of St. Rocha in Białystok (1926–1947, modernist)
• Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Augustów (1905–1911 eclectic)
• The Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa and St. Casimir in Mońkach (1921–1935)
• Saints' Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Łapach (1918–1927)
• Fortress in Osowcu
• A Polish Tatars' (Islam in Poland) wooden mosque and a Muslim cemetery in the village of Bohoniki

Economy

General Economic Indicators

The following are general economic indicators for Podlaskie^[4]:

• Population (as of 30 September 2009) - 1190735
• Average paid employment in enterprise sector (November 2009) - 95896
• Average monthly gross wages and salaries in enterprise sector (November 2009) - 2813,05 zł
• Unemployment rate (as of the end of November 2009) - 12,0%
• Dwellings completed (November 2009) - 661
• Procurement of milk (November 2009) - 126,8 mln l
• National economy entities in the REGON register, excluding persons tending private farms (as of the end of November 2009) - 89654

According to REGON register in the year 2002 there were around 95 thousand companies registered in Podlaskie region (97 % of them in private sector), dealing with;

• Trade and servicing – 33.2 %
• Providing services to real estates and companies – 11.8 %
• Construction – 10.5%
• Industrial processing – 9.7 %
• Transport 8.3%
• Agriculture, hunting and forestry 4.5%

Agriculture

Arable land constitutes around 60% of the total area of the region – most of which is ploughland (around 40%), forests, meadows and pastures. Over 120 000 farms are registered, roughly half of which are small farms of 1–5 ha and medium-sized farms of 5–10 ha. The smaller farms prefer intensive production (gardening, orcharding), whereas the larger ones engage in cattle and crop production. The cattle-raising farms are mainly oriented towards milk production.

The natural conditions of the region are conducive to the development of organic growing, which at present is practised by around 100 farms. Over 600 farms in the region offer agritourist services.^[5]

Government

The voivodeship's seat is the city of Białystok. Like all voivodeships, it has a government-appointed Provincial Governor^[6] (Polish: wojewoda), as well as an elected Regional Assembly (sejmik) and of the executive elected by that assembly, headed by the voivodeship marshal (marszałek województwa). Administrative powers and competences are statutorily divided between these authorities.

Cities and towns

The voivodeship contains 39 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006^[7] ):

Administrative division

Podlaskie Voivodeship is divided into 17 counties (powiats): 3 city counties and 14 land counties. These are further divided into 118 gminas.

The counties are shown on the numbered map and detailed in the table beside it.

1. Białystok 2. Łomża 3. Suwałki 4. Augustów County 5. Białystok County 6. Bielsk County 7. Grajewo County 8. Hajnówka County 9. Kolno County 10. Łomża County 11. Mońki County 12. Sejny County 13. Siemiatycze County 14. Sokółka County 15. Suwałki County 16. Wysokie Mazowieckie County 17. Zambrów County

English and Polish names	Area (km²)	Population (2006)[7]	Seat	Other towns	Total gminas
City counties
Białystok	102	295,210			1
Suwałki	65	69,234			1
Łomża	33	63,572			1
Land counties
Białystok County powiat białostocki	2,985	136,797	Białystok *	Łapy, Czarna Białostocka, Wasilków, Choroszcz, Supraśl, Michałowo, Zabłudów, Tykocin, Suraż	15
Sokółka County powiat sokólski	2,054	72,424	Sokółka	Dąbrowa Białostocka, Krynki, Suchowola	10
Bielsk County powiat bielski	1,385	60,047	Bielsk Podlaski	Brańsk	8
Wysokie Mazowieckie County powiat wysokomazowiecki	1,288	59,719	Wysokie Mazowieckie	Ciechanowiec, Szepietowo	10
Augustów County powiat augustowski	1,658	58,966	Augustów	Lipsk	7
Łomża County powiat łomżyński	1,354	50,887	Łomża *	Nowogród, Jedwabne	9
Grajewo County powiat grajewski	967	50,120	Grajewo	Szczuczyn, Rajgród	6
Siemiatycze County powiat siemiatycki	1,460	48,603	Siemiatycze	Drohiczyn	9
Hajnówka County powiat hajnowski	1,624	48,130	Hajnówka	Kleszczele	9
Zambrów County powiat zambrowski	733	44,798	Zambrów		5
Mońki County powiat moniecki	1,382	42,960	Mońki	Knyszyn, Goniądz	7
Kolno County powiat kolneński	940	39,676	Kolno	Stawiski	6
Suwałki County powiat suwalski	1,307	35,136	Suwałki *		9
Sejny County powiat sejneński	856	21,331	Sejny		5
* seat not part of the county

Historical units

The following is a partial list of political subdivisions in which part or all of current day Podlaskie Voivodeship was wholly or partially contained within:

Russian Empire

• Grodno Governorate (1842–1915)
• Belostok Oblast (1807–1842)

Kingdom of Poland (Congress Poland)

Kingdom of Prussia

• Białystok Department (1795–1807)

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

• Podlaskie Voivodeship (1569–1795)

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

• Podlaskie Voivodeship (1513–1569)
• Trakai Voivodeship
• Duchy of Trakai
• Duchy of Lithuania

Kingdom of Poland

• Duchy of Masovia

Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia

• Galicia–Volhynia (Land of Berestia)

Kievan Rus

• Kievan Rus

• Yotvingia

External links

• Radzilow Web Page
• Szczuczyn Web Page
• Wizna Web Page
• VisitBiałystok.com
• (Polish) Podlaski Urząd Wojewódzki Official website
• Natural tourism (birdwatching) in Podlasie
• Topographical maps 1:50 000

References

Counties of Podlaskie Voivodeship City counties Białystok (capital) • Łomża • Suwałki Land counties Augustów • Białystok • Bielsk • Grajewo • Hajnówka • Kolno • Łomża • Mońki • Sejny • Siemiatycze • Sokółka • Suwałki • Wysokie Mazowieckie • Zambrów

Voivodeships of Poland Greater Poland · Kuyavian-Pomeranian · Lesser Poland · Łódź · Lower Silesian · Lublin · Lubusz · Masovian · Opole · Podlaskie · Pomeranian · Silesian · Subcarpathian · Świętokrzyskie · Warmian-Masurian · West Pomeranian