After the fall of communism Polish culture and society were significantly transformed, as free of heavy government controls they were both liberalized and subject to market forces

Market Forces

Market Forces is a science fiction novel by Richard Morgan, first published in 2004.Set in 2049 in the wake of a global economic downturn called the Domino Recessions, it follows up-and-coming executive Chris as he plunges into the profitable field of Conflict Investment...

.

Historical background

Polish culture has been influenced by both Eastern

Eastern world

__FORCETOC__The term Eastern world refers very broadly to the various cultures or social structures and philosophical systems of Eastern Asia or geographically the Eastern Culture...

 and Western

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

 influences. The character of Polish art always reflected world trends. Modern Polish culture is significantly influenced by global cultural globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

.

Visual arts

See also: Visual arts of Poland, Painting of Poland, Sculpture of Poland, Architecture of Poland

Culture of Poland#Art

...on modern Polish painters, sculptors, architects, etc...

Literary arts

Polish literature

Polish literature

Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages, used in Poland over the centuries, have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German and...

 dates back to 12th century and includes many famous poets and writers such as Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski

Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language.He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz, and the greatest Slavic poet, prior to the 19th century.-Life:Kochanowski was born at...

, Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

, Bolesław Prus, Juliusz Słowacki, Witold Gombrowicz

Witold Gombrowicz

Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor...

, Stanisław Lem and, Ryszard Kapuściński

Ryszard Kapuscinski

Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet, he was born in Pińsknow in Belarusin the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic, into poverty: he would say later that...

. Writers Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...

, Władysław Reymont, Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska have each won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

...on modern Polish literature...

Polish poetry

Polish poetry

Polish poetry has a centuries old history, similar to the Polish literature.Three most famous Polish poets are known as the Three Bards: Adam Mickiewicz , Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński ....

Science fiction and fantasy in Poland

Science fiction and fantasy in Poland

Science fiction and fantasy in Poland dates to the late 18th century. During the later years of the People's Republic of Poland, social science fiction was a very popular genre of science fiction. Afterwards, many others gained prominence. Currently there are many science fiction writers in Poland....

Theatre, radio, film and television

See also: Theatre of Poland, Cinema of Poland

Cinema of Poland

The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as history of cinematography, and it has universal achievements, even though Polish movies tend to be less commercially available than movies from several other European nations....

, Television in Poland

Television in Poland

Television in Poland was introduced in 1937. It was state owned, and was interrupted by the Second World War in 1939. Television returned to Poland in 1951 and for several decades was controlled by the communist government. Colour television was introduced in Poland in 1971...

Many world renowned Polish movie directors

Cinema of Poland

The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as history of cinematography, and it has universal achievements, even though Polish movies tend to be less commercially available than movies from several other European nations....

 include Academy Awards winners Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

, Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...

, Zbigniew Rybczyński

Zbigniew Rybczynski

Zbigniew Rybczyński is a Polish filmmaker who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United States and internationally. He was also a teacher of cinematography, and digital cinematography. Currently he is a researcher of blue and greenscreen compositing technology at Ultimatte...

, Janusz Kamiński

Janusz Kaminski

Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1993's Schindler's List.-Life and career:...

 and, Krzysztof Kieślowski

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...

.

The Polish avant-garde theatre is world-famous, with Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski was a Polish theatre director and innovator of experimental theatre, the "theatre laboratory" and "poor theatre" concepts....

 as its most innovative and creative representative. One of the most original twentieth-century theatre personalities was Tadeusz Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor was a Polish painter, assemblage artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad.- Life and career :...

, painter, theoretician of drama, stage designer, and playwright, his ideas finding their culmination in the theatre of death and his most recognised production being "Umarła klasa" (Dead Class).

There is no strict division in Poland between theatre and film actors, therefore many stage artists are known to viewers the world over, for instance from the films of Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...

 (e.g., Wojciech Pszoniak

Wojciech Pszoniak

Wojciech Pszoniak , is a Polish film and theater actor.Pszoniak gained international visibility following Andrzej Wajda's 1975 film The Promised Land, in which he played Moritz, one of the three main characters....

, Daniel Olbrychski

Daniel Olbrychski

Daniel Olbrychski is a Polish actor best known for leading roles in several Andrzej Wajda movies and also known for playing the Russian defector and spymaster Vassily Orlov, alongside Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie in the movie Salt....

, Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz) or Krzysztof Kieślowski

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...

 (Jerzy Stuhr

Jerzy Stuhr

Jerzy Stuhr is one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish actors. He also works as a screenwriter, film director and drama professor...

, Janusz Gajos

Janusz Gajos

Janusz Gajos is a Polish actor.He graduated in 1965 from the National Film School in Łódź as one of its best students despite having been rejected during entrance exams for three times. He debuted while he was still in film school in children's film Panienka z okienka in 1964...

).

...on modern Polish cinema and television...

Music

The traditional Polish music composers include world-renowned pianist Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

 as well as famous composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...

, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Karol Szymanowski

Karol Szymanowski

Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...

, and others.

Between the wars, a group of composers formed the Association of Young Polish Musicians; these included Grażyna Bacewicz

Grazyna Bacewicz

Grażyna Bacewicz was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.- Life :Bacewicz was born in Łódź...

, Zygmunt Mycielski

Zygmunt Mycielski

Zygmunt Mycielski was a Polish composer and music critic. He was born in Przeworsk and completed his childhood education in Kraków, where he was taught by Bernardino Rizzi. In 1928, Mycielski moved to Paris, where he studied composition at École Normale de Musique with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger...

, Michał Spisak and Tadeusz Szeligowski

Tadeusz Szeligowski

Tadeusz Szeligowski was a Polish composer, educator, lawyer and music organizer. His works include the operas The Rise of the Scholars, Krakatuk and Theodor Gentlemen, the ballets The Peacock and the Girl and Mazepa ballets, two violin concertos, chamber and choral works.As a music teacher he was...

.

The music of Fryderyk Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

, influenced by Polish folklore, conveys the essence of Polish Romanticism. Since 1927, the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition

International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition

The International Chopin Piano Competition , often referred to as the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland to honour the name of Frédéric Chopin. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious music competitions in the world...

 has been held every five years in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

.

Following World War II, some composers, such as Roman Palester

Roman Palester

Roman Palester was a Polish composer of classical music. Palester composed his most significant work during the 1960s, and in 1964 was the first Polish musician to be awarded the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize. His work was individual in style, and not noticeably Polish in character.Palester was born in...

 and Andrzej Panufnik

Andrzej Panufnik

Sir Andrzej Panufnik was a Polish composer, pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra after World War II...

, fled the country and remained in the exile. In the early 1960s, however, a number of composers known as the Polish Composers' School arose, characterized by the use of sonorism

Sonorism

Sonorism is an approach to musical composition that focuses on the characteristics and qualities of sound. Emphasis is placed on a search for new types of sounds on individual instruments, as well as the creation of textures by combining different instrumental sounds in unusual and unique ways.In...

 and dodecaphonism. The style emerged out of the political crisis in 1956, following Stalin's death; that same year saw the Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn is the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music. Indeed, for many years, it was the only festival of its type in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1956 by two composers, Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki, and officially established by the Head Board...

 music festival

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

 inaugurated, from whence came additional popularity for the Polish Composers' School. Composers included Tadeusz Baird

Tadeusz Baird

Tadeusz Baird was a Polish composer.He was born in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, to Scottish immigrant parents. He studied composition, piano and musicology in Warsaw with, among others, Kazimierz Sikorski. In 1956, with Serocki, he founded the Warsaw Autumn international contemporary music festival...

, Boguslaw Schaeffer

Boguslaw Schaeffer

Bogusław Julien Schaeffer is a Polish composer, musicologist, and graphic artist, member of the avantgarde "Cracow Group" of Polish composers alongside Krzysztof Penderecki and others...

, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Witold Szalonek, Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...

, Witold Lutosławski, Wojciech Kilar

Wojciech Kilar

Wojciech Kilar ; b. 17 July 1932 in Lwów, Poland) is a Polish classical and film music composer.-Biography:Wojciech Kilar is one of Poland’s esteemed composers. Born in 1932 in Lwów . His father was a gynecologist and his mother was a theater actress...

, Kazimierz Serocki

Kazimierz Serocki

Kazimierz Serocki was a Polish composer and one of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival.-Life:...

 and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

Henryk Górecki

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki was a composer of contemporary classical music. He studied at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice between 1955 and 1960. In 1968, he joined the faculty and rose to provost before resigning in 1979. Górecki became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during...

.

More modern composers include Krzysztof Meyer

Krzysztof Meyer

Krzysztof Meyer is a Polish composer, pianist and music scholar.-Biography:Meyer was born in Cracow. As a boy he played piano and organ. He began his composition study early – in 1954, with Stanisław Wiechowicz...

, Paweł Szymański

Pawel Szymanski

Paweł Szymański is a Polish composer. His music is based on strict technical discipline and the initial sound material of Szymański’s pieces has roots in past conventions but is always processed and composed from the beginning...

, Krzesimir Dębski

Krzesimir Debski

Krzesimir Dębski is a Polish composer, conductor and jazz violinist. His music career as an musician has been that of a performer as well as composer of classical music, opera, television and feature films.-Professional career:...

, Hanna Kulenty

Hanna Kulenty

Hanna Kulenty is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. Since 1992, she has worked and lived both in Warsaw and in Arnhem .- Musical education :...

, Eugeniusz Knapik

Eugeniusz Knapik

Eugeniusz Knapik is a Polish pianist and composer of classical music best known for his 1980 chamber piece String Quartet No. 1. Knapik studied composition and piano with Henryk Górecki and Czesław Stańczyk at the University of Music in Katowice...

 and Paweł Mykietyn.

Poland has always been a very open country to new music genres and even before the fall of the communism, music styles like rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

, metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, electronic

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

, polka music,and New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 were well-known. Since 1989, the Polish scene has exploded with new talents and a more diverse style. Contrary to most European countries, pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 is not dominant in Poland.

Every year, a huge gathering of young Poles meet to celebrate the rock and alternative music in Jarocin

Jarocin

Jarocin Jarocin Jarocin ( is a town in central Poland with 25,700 inhabitants (1995). Since 1999 Jarocin has been located in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, prior to that it was located in the Kalisz Voivodeship (1975–1998).- History :...

 or Żary

Zary

Żary is a town in western Poland with about 39,900 inhabitants , situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship...

. These events often attract more than 250,000 people and are comparable to the gatherings in Woodstock

Woodstock Festival

Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...

 and Roskilde

Roskilde

Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....

.

Poland has a very active underground extreme metal

Extreme metal

Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...

 music scene. Some of the bands that have heralded and helped the cause are Vader

Vader (band)

Vader is a Polish death metal band from Olsztyn, formed in 1983. According to Piotr Wiwczarek, the band's founding singer and guitar player, the band's name was inspired by Darth Vader from the Star Wars film series. Lyrical themes include stories by H. P. Lovecraft, WW2, horror and anti-christian...

, Behemoth

Behemoth (band)

Behemoth is a Polish blackened death metal band from Gdańsk, formed in 1991. They are considered to have played an important role in establishing the Polish extreme metal underground, alongside bands such as Vader, Decapitated, Vesania and Hate....

, Yattering, Decapitated

Decapitated (band)

Decapitated is a death metal band that formed in Krosno, Poland in 1996. The group comprises guitarist, founder and composer Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka, vocalist Rafał Piotrowski and Austrian drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner. Decapitated have gained recognition as one of the genre's most widely respected...

, Graveland

Graveland

Graveland is a Polish black metal band which was formed in 1992 by Rob Darken . The lyrics of Graveland are strongly inspired by nature, paganism and nationalism.-History:...

, Baphomets Throne, and Dissenter. This has paved ground for a large underground movement. One of the biggest record labels of death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 in Poland is Empire Records.

In jazz music, polish musicians created a specific style, which was most famous in 60s and 70s. Most famous polish jazz artists are: Krzysztof Komeda

Krzysztof Komeda

Krzysztof Komeda was a Polish film music composer and jazz pianist. Perhaps best-known for his work in film scores, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s films Rosemary’s Baby, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Knife in the Water and Cul-de-sac...

, Adam Makowicz

Adam Makowicz

Adam Makowicz born Adam Matyszkowicz is a Polish-Canadian pianist and composer living in Toronto. He performs jazz and classical piano pieces, as well as his own compositions...

, Tomasz Stańko

Tomasz Stanko

Tomasz Stańko is a Polish trumpeter, composer and improviser. Often recording for ECM, Stańko is strongly associated with free jazz and the avant-garde....

, Michał Urbaniak.

Two contemporary big Polish music festivals are Opole Festival and Sopot Festival.

Museums and festivals

Poland offers a wide spectrum of cultural experience. Those interested in high culture will enjoy the renowned music festivals like Wratislavia Cantans

Wratislavia Cantans

Wratislavia Cantans, also referred to as the International Festival of Oratorio and Cantata Music, is held every September in Wrocław...

 and the Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn is the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music. Indeed, for many years, it was the only festival of its type in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1956 by two composers, Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki, and officially established by the Head Board...

. Polish museums exhibit remarkable art collections - masterpieces including Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

's Lady with an Ermine

Lady with an Ermine

Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, from around 1489–1490. The subject of the portrait is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably painted at a time when she was the mistress of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the service of the Duke.The painting is...

 at the Czartoryski Museum

Czartoryski Museum

The Czartoryski Museum and Library is a museum located in Kraków, Poland, founded in Puławy in 1796 by Princess Izabela Czartoryska. The Puławy collections were partly destroyed after the November uprising of 1830–1831 and the subsequent confiscation of the Czartoryskis' property by the Russians...

 in Kraków; the Veit Stoss

Veit Stoss

Veit Stoss was a leading Bavarian sculptor, mostly in wood, whose career covered the transition between the late Gothic and the Northern Renaissance. His style emphasized pathos and emotion, helped by his virtuoso carving of billowing drapery; it has been called "late Gothic Baroque"...

 High Altar in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków; and the Last Judgement by Hans Memling

Hans Memling

Hans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...

 (The National Museum in Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

). Ethnographic museums and open-air site-seeing museums also hold attractive collections. The panorama of Polish culture is completed by a medley of local festivals

Cuisine

Notable foods in Polish cuisine

Polish cuisine

Polish cuisine is a style of cooking and food preparation originating from Poland. It has evolved over the centuries due to historical circumstances. Polish national cuisine shares some similarities with other Central European and Eastern European traditions as well as French and Italian...

 include Polish sausage, red beet soup

Borscht

Borscht is a soup of Ukrainian origin that is popular in many Eastern and Central European countries. In most of these countries, it is made with beetroot as the main ingredient, giving it a deep reddish-purple color...

, Polish dumplings

Pierogi

Pierogi are dumplings of unleavened dough - first boiled, then they are baked or fried usually in butter with onions - traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit...

, flaczki (tripe

Tripe

Tripe is a type of edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.-Beef tripe:...

 soup), cabbage rolls, Oscypek

Oscypek

Oscypek, Oszczypek is a smoked cheese made of salted sheep milk exclusively in the Tatra Mountains region of Poland .Oscypek is a protected trade name under the EU's Protected Designation of Origin geographical indication.A similar...

, Polish pork chops, Polish traditional stew

Bigos

Bigos , known as a Hunter's Stew, is a traditional meat stew typical of Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusians and Ukrainian cuisine, considered to be the Polish and Ukrainian national dish....

, various potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

 dishes, a fast food sandwich zapiekanka

Zapiekanka

Zapiekanka is a Polish halved baguette or bread topped mainly with mushrooms and cheese, also ham or other types of meat, and vegetables. Beside some basic version there are several recipes like Zapiekanka "Hawaiian" with pineapple, "Greek" with olives and feta cheese etc. They are usually placed...

, and many more. Traditional Polish desserts include Polish doughnuts

Paczki

Pączki are pastries traditional to Polish cuisine . Pączki is the plural form of the Polish word pączek , though many English speakers use paczki as singular and paczkis as plural. In English, the common pronunciation imitates the Polish pronunciation, but some speakers pronounce the word or...

, Polish gingerbread

Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a term used to describe a variety of sweet food products, which can range from a soft, moist loaf cake to something close to a ginger biscuit. What they have in common are the predominant flavors of ginger and a tendency to use honey or molasses rather than just sugar...

 and others.

Sports

Many sports are popular in Poland

Sport in Poland

Poland's sports include almost all sports, in particular: track & field, basketball, boxing, fencing, football, American football , handball, ice hockey, swimming, volleyball, and weightlifting. The first Polish Formula One driver, Robert Kubica, has also brought awareness of Formula One Racing to...

. Football (soccer) is the country's most popular sport, with a rich history of international competition. Track & field, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

, fencing

Fencing

Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...

, handball

Team handball

Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

, ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

, swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

, volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, and weightlifting

Powerlifting

Powerlifting is a strength sport. It resembles the sport of Olympic weightlifting, as both disciplines involve lifting weights in three attempts. Powerlifting evolved from a sport known as 'odd lifts' which followed the same three attempt format but used a wide variety of events akin to Strongman...

 are other popular sports. The first Polish Formula One driver, Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica

Robert Józef Kubica is the first Polish racing driver to compete in Formula One. Between 2006 and 2009 he drove for the BMW Sauber F1 team, promoted from test driver to race driver during 2006...

, has brought awareness of Formula One Racing to Poland. Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob

Tomasz Gollob

Tomasz Gollob is a Polish motorcycle speedway rider who has appeared in every Speedway Grand Prix series since its inaugural season in 1995. His brother Jacek is also a speedway rider.-Career summary:...

, a highly successful Polish rider. The Polish mountains are an ideal venue for hiking, skiing and mountain biking and attract millions of tourists every year from all over the world. Baltic

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

beaches and resorts are popular locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking and a broad-range of other water-themed sports.

Modern Polish society

...on modern Polish society...