Poland

Discover Poland

Fun Foods

Pierogi, Kielbasa, Placki ziemniaczane, Zapiekanka, Kremówka, Ptasie Mleczko, and Faworki

Imagine looking for your country on a world map and not finding it. For 123 years, that was Poland.

The country was erased, and it didn't reappear until 1918.

Here's how that happened. In the 1500s, Poland was one of the largest and most powerful countries in all of Europe. But it was surrounded by powerful, hungry neighbors: Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

Starting in 1772, those three empires began slicing Poland apart and keeping the pieces. By 1795, there was nothing left, and Poland simply vanished from the map.

Yet the Polish people never gave up their language or who they were. After World War I, they won their country back in 1918.

The freedom didn't last long. In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and started World War II.

The war was one of the worst disasters in the country's history. Around 6 million Polish citizens died, and Poland's large Jewish community was almost completely wiped out in the Holocaust.

When the war ended, Poland still wasn't free. It became a communist country controlled by the neighboring Soviet Union for more than 40 years.

Polish workers slowly pushed back. In 1989, Poland became a democracy and has stayed one since.

Through all of it, Poles stayed proud of their history. This is the country that produced Nicolaus Copernicus, the astronomer who figured out that the Earth circles the Sun, and not the other way around.

In the capital, Warsaw, you can walk through the Old Town, a maze of colorful squares and churches. Bombs flattened it during the war, so Poles rebuilt the whole thing, brick by brick, to look just as it had for centuries.

Near Kraków, you can climb down into the Wieliczka Salt Mine, an underground world carved entirely from salt. There's even a giant chapel down there where the floor, the statues, and the chandeliers are all made of salt.

For food, pierogi are soft dumplings stuffed with potato, cheese, meat, or fruit. Try them with kielbasa, a smoky Polish sausage.

And grab a zapiekanka, a long toasted roll piled with mushrooms and melted cheese, like Polish street pizza.