The culture of Poland ( or kultura polska) is the product of its geography and distinct historical evolution, which is closely connected to an intricate thousand-year history.Adam Zamoyski, The Polish Way: A Thousand Year History of the Poles and Their Culture. Published 1993, Hippocrene Books, Poland, Poland has a Roman Catholic majority, and religion plays an important role in the lives of many Polish people. The unique character of Polish culture developed as a result of its geography at the confluence of various European regions.
Ethnic Poles are generally understood to have developed from West Slavic populations native to the region, alongside the assimilation of earlier and neighboring groups, including Celts, Balts, and Germanic tribes. This process gave rise to a distinct Polish identity, particularly following Poland’s Christianization in the 10th century under the influence of the Catholic Church, with Polish culture thereafter developing as a continuous tradition shaped primarily by its internal evolution and, over time, by contact with neighboring societies and broader European cultural currents.Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, 2002–2007, An Overview of Polish Culture. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
The people of Poland have traditionally been seen as hospitable to artists from abroad and eager to follow cultural and artistic trends popular in other countries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Polish focus on cultural advancement often took precedence over political and economic activity. These factors have contributed to the versatile nature of Polish art, with all its complex nuances.
Poland has made significant contributions to the art, music, philosophy, mathematics, science, politics and literature of the Western World. The term which defines an individual's appreciation of Polish culture and customs is Polonophilia.
History
Cultural history of Poland can be traced back to the Middle Ages. In its entirety, it can be divided into the following historical, philosophical artistic periods: Culture of medieval Poland (from the late 10th to late 15th century), Renaissance (late 15th to the late 16th century), Baroque (late 16th to the mid-18th century), Enlightenment (second half of the 18th century), Romanticism (from around 1820 until the suppression of the 1863 January uprising against the Russian Empire), Positivism (lasting until the turn of the 20th century), Young Poland (between 1890 and 1918), Interbellum (1918–1939), World War II (1939–1945), People's Republic of Poland (until the 1989 Autumn of Nations), and Modern.
Language
Polish (język polski, polszczyzna) is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages (also spelled Lechitic) composed of Polish, Silesian, Kashubian and its archaic variant Slovincian, and the extinct Polabian language. All these languages except Polish and Silesian are sometimes classified as a Pomeranian subgroup. The West Slavic Languages are a subfamily of the Slavic Languages, a descendant of the Indo-European Languages. In the early Middle Ages, before their speakers had become Germanized, Pomeranian languages and dialects were spoken along the Baltic in an area extending from the lower Vistula River to the lower Oder River." used throughout Poland (being that country's official language) and by Polish minorities in other countries. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which corresponds to the Latin alphabet with several additions. Despite the pressure of non-Polish administrations in Poland, who have often attempted to suppress the Polish language, a rich literature has developed over the centuries. The language is currently the largest, in speakers, of the West Slavic group. It is the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian and ahead of Ukrainian. Polish is mainly spoken in Poland. Poland is one of the most linguistically homogeneous European countries; nearly 97% of Poland's citizens declare Polish as their mother tongue.
Cuisine
Polish foods include kiełbasa, pierogi (filled with meat, potatoes, cabbage, cheese or holiday fruits), pyzy (meat-filled dough balls), kopytka, gołąbki (meat and rice stuffed cabbage), śledzie (herring), bigos, schabowy, oscypek and much more. Traditionally, food such as soups flaki, rosół, zupa ogórkowa, zupa grzybowa (mushroom soup), żurek, zupa pomidorowa (tomato soup) have been prepared in large vessels intended for groups, often necessitating the use of devices such as oars in their preparation. Traditionally, hospitality is very important.
In the Middle Ages, as the cities of Poland grew larger in size and the food markets developed, the culinary exchange of ideas progressed & people got acquainted with new dishes and recipes. Some regions became well known for the type of sausage they made and many sausages of today still carry those original names. The peasants acknowledged their honorable judgment, allowing them to remain nourished for longer periods of time.
The first known written mention of vodka was in 1405 in Akta Grodzkie, the court documents from the Palatinate of Sandomierz in Poland. At the time, the word vodka (wódka), referred to chemical compounds such as medicines and cosmetics' cleansers, while the popular beverage was called gorzałka (from the Old Polish gorzeć meaning to burn), which is also the source of Ukrainian horilka (горілка). The word vodka written in Cyrillic appeared first in 1533, in relation to a medicinal drink brought from Poland to Russia by the merchants of Kievan Rus'.
According to a 2009 Ernst & Young report, Poland is Europe's third largest beer producer: Germany with 103 million hectolitres, UK with 49.5 million hl, Poland with 36.9 million hl. Following consecutive growth in the home market, Polish Union of the Brewing Industry Employers (Związek Pracodawców Przemysłu Piwowarskiego), which represents approximately 90% of the Polish beer market, announced during the annual brewing industry conference that consumption of beer in 2008 rose to 94 litres per capita, or 35,624 million hectolitres sold on domestic market. Statistically, a Polish consumer drinks some 92 litres of beer a year, which places it a third behind Germany. Drinking beer as a basic drink was typical during the Middle Ages. Wine is recently becoming more popular. In fact, Polish mead, a honey wine was a traditional drink dating back also to the Middle Ages.
Soft drinks include "napoje gazowane" (carbonated drinks), "napoje bezalkoholowe" (non-alcoholic drinks) like water, tea, juice, coffee or kompot. Kompot is a non-alcoholic beverage made of boiled fruit, optionally with sugar and spices (clove or cinnamon), served hot or cold. It can be made of one type of fruit or a mixture, including apples, peaches, pears, strawberries or sour cherries. Also, Susz is type of kompot made with dried fruits, most commonly apples, apricots, figs. Traditionally served on Christmas Eve.
Among holiday meals, there is a traditional Christmas Eve supper called Wigilia. Another special occasion is Fat Thursday ("Tłusty Czwartek"), a Catholic feast celebrated on the last Thursday before the Lent. Traditionally it is a day when people eat large amounts of pączki and other sweets and cakes that are afterwards forbidden until Easter day (see also: the Polish traditional Easter Breakfast).
Architecture
Polish cities and towns reflect the whole spectrum of European styles. Poland's (along with Hungary's) eastern frontiers used to mark the outermost boundary of Western architecture on the continent, with strong influences derived from Italy, Germany and the Low Countries.
History has not been good to Poland's architectural monuments. However, ancient structures have survived: castles, churches, and stately buildings, often unique in the regional or European context. Some of them have been painstakingly restored, like Wawel Castle, or completely reconstructed after being destroyed in the Second World War, including the Old Town and Royal Castle in Warsaw, as well as the Old Towns of Gdańsk and Wrocław.
The architecture of Gdańsk is mostly Hanseatic, common in cities along the Baltic Sea and in the northern part of Central Europe. The architectural style of Wrocław is representative of German architecture, since it was a part of the German states for centuries. The center of Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula is a good example of a well-preserved medieval town, also local variation of Renaissance architecture has been developed called Lublin Renaissance it has preserved in Lublin as Lublin Old Town and Old City of Zamość in Zamość. Poland's ancient capital, Kraków, ranks among the best-preserved Gothic and Renaissance urban complexes in Europe. Meanwhile, the legacy of the Kresy Marchlands of Poland's eastern regions with Wilno and Lwów (now Vilnius and Lviv) as two major centres for the arts played a special role in these developments with Roman-Catholic church architecture deserving special attention. In Vilnius (Lithuania) there are about forty baroque and Renaissance churches. In Lviv (Ukraine) there are Gothic, Renaissance, and baroque urban churches with influences of the orthodox and Armenian church.
One of the best-preserved examples of the Modernist architecture in Europe is located in Katowice, Upper Silesia, designed and built in the 1930s. Interesting buildings were also constructed during the Communist era in the style of Socialist Realism; some remarkable examples of modern architecture were erected more recently.
Art
Polish art has always reflected European trends while maintaining its unique character. The Kraków school of Historicist painting developed by Jan Matejko produced monumental portrayals of customs and significant events in Polish history. Stanisław Witkiewicz was an ardent supporter of Realism in Polish art, its main representative being Jozef Chełmoński.
The Młoda Polska (Young Poland) movement witnessed the birth of modern Polish art and engaged in a great deal of formal experimentation led by Jacek Malczewski (Symbolism), Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, and a group of Polish Impressionists. Artists of the 20th century Avant-garde represented various schools and trends. The art of Tadeusz Makowski was influenced by Cubism; while Władysław Strzemiński as well as Henryk Stażewski worked within the Constructivist idiom, and Tamara de Lempicka in the Art Deco style. Distinguished contemporary artists include Monika Sosnowska, Roman Opałka, Leon Tarasewicz, Jerzy Nowosielski, Mirosław Bałka, and Katarzyna Kozyra and Alicja Kwade in the younger generation. The most celebrated Polish sculptors include Xawery Dunikowski, Katarzyna Kobro, Alina Szapocznikow and Magdalena Abakanowicz. Since the inter-war years, Polish art and documentary photography has enjoyed worldwide recognition. In the 1960s, the Polish Poster School was formed, with Henryk Tomaszewski and Waldemar Świerzy at its head.
Dance
Dance in Poland consists of a diverse array of traditional and contemporary forms of dance. Traditional dances are often an important part of cultural celebrations, and these dances vary across regions of the country. The national dances of Poland are krakowiak (cracovienne), oberek, polonaise, kujawiak and mazur (mazurka).
Music
Artists from Poland, including composers like Karol Lipiński, Frédéric Chopin or Witold Lutosławski and traditional, regionalised folk musicians, create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as sung poetry. Today in Poland, one may find trance, techno, house music, and heavy metal.