The Great Polish History - in pictures.

Pictures and paintings, i feel it would be dull to post them in any given order so i'll just drop them at random.

Panorama Racławicka - this enormous painting 25x120m displayed in a rotunda hall built specifically to house it in Wrocław shows the Battle of Racławice, the first major battle in the first of the great polish uprisings during the partitions, the Kościuszko Uprising.

The battle was fought on 4th april 1794, while small in scale it secured the initial development of the uprising by destroying the russian forces.

Also who's an idiot who limited pictures to 100kb and 4 pics per post? It makes posting stuff really difficult and i have to make a bloody milion posts just to attach pictures.

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  wroclaw panorama
  
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More pictures of Panorama.

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Kościuszko's Uprising.

After Poland was defeated in the war defending its constitution (second modern constitution in the world, first in Europe by the way) and the second partition of Poland was enacted the remainder of Poland became a russian dominion.

Russians demanded that the vast majority of the remaining polish regular forces were disbaned, however there would be one last attempt at resistance.

In 1794 when the Russians demanded that a polish national cavalry brigade be disbanded its commander Madaliński refused and began his march towards Kraków in clear defiance of russian orders.

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  Russian colaborators who fled during the insurrection have their portraits hanged instead
  
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  Kościuszko - the commander of the uprising swearing an oath.
  
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  Poles battle with Russians for the crossing.
  

Keep it coming! piękne! :)

Stańczyk - one of the most peculiar figures in polish history.

Living between 1480 and 1560, during the absolute height of polish power he was a royal fool on the courts of three polish king, Aleksander the Jagiellon, Zygmunt the Old and Zygmunt II August.

Presumably of noble birth Stańczyk was known for both his sharp tongue and wise comments, respected by the nobility and kings alike, viewed as a great and dedicated patriot, he died veiled in mystery, to this day no one knows his real name but his brilliant (and often courageous - you try and flame a king) comments, poems and jokes ensured him a lasting fame among Poles, even half a millenium later.

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Eagles nests.

A series of fortresses built atop rocky hills and mountain tops on the Krakowian Plain by polish king Casimir the Great meant to protect Poland from the Czech invasions.

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Do you have the locations for them? Are they open to the public? Looks neat.

A full list, not sure if all are intact though, you can google the name of the town and it'll usually pop up with a wiki article and a dot on a map to place it in, many are in Lesser Poland

Castle in Będzin.
Castle in Bobolice
Castle in Brzeżnica
Castle in Krzepice.
Castle in Lejów
Castle in Ojców
Castle in Olkusz
Castle in Olsztyn
Castle in Ostrężnik
Castle in Rabsztyn
Castle in Żarnowiec

There's more but i recommend the caste at Pieskowa Skała, yes they're open to tourists, most are ruined but still very worth seeing.

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  Castle in Olsztyn
  
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  Castle in Pieskowa Skała
  
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  Castle in Ojców
  
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  Inside Pieskowa Skała castle.
  

Seriously the 100kb limit is killing me, who came up with this and what was the logic behind that?

The Eaglets.

When in 1919 Poland started retaking its territories from its former partitioners, Prussia, Russia and Austria in Lwów an ethnic conflict erupted, the newly formed ukrainian army saw the polish city of Lwów as its own, the inhabitants of Lwów having a long standing military tradition rose up, among then 1500 students and pupilis, as young as 14 years old, dozens of whom died, hundreds were wounded before the regular polish army relieved the besieged city to which defence its young polish citizens contributed so greatly.

Dubbed The Eaglets (young eagles) they've been honoured in polish history ever since and Lwów (today in Ukraine) hosts a maginificent cemetary in which they were buried.

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  The cemetary of Lwów Eaglets. Dubbed The Eaglets (young eagles) they've been honoured in polish history ever
  
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  Polish students defending the Życzykowski cemetary during the siege of Lwów.
  
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  In combat.
  

Thanks for the names...day trip coming up..


Spite.

Just link to the original images with button to the left of the youtube button.

Pieskowa Skała

Convex, is it an original photo? I don't remember any river there and I've been there a few times.

Not original, but from other pictures it looks like a pond next to the road in the valley.

Jeez, I'm getting senile ...

Jadwiga, the youngest daughter of Louis I the Great, became the ruler of Poland on October 16, 1384.
Thanks to a quirk in Polish law, however, the young girl, also known as Hedwig, was crowned a king, not a queen.
She is one of only approximately five women in history to take on the masculine title.
Hedwig, ascended the throne at the age of 10 after the death of her father, Louis the Great, who was also the king to both Hungary and Poland.

Very interesting to me.