Poland The Crooked Forest in Poland is home to one of the biggest mysteries in nature: a grove of about four hundred pine trees with trunks bent and twisted at mind boggling angles. The weirdest part of these unique trees is whether or not it is a natural phenomenon or if it was done purposely by man, and if the latter, what was the purpose? Scientists and layman alike have … [Read more...]
BATTLE OF TANNENBERG (TANNENBERG BATTLEFIELD)
Olsztyn, Poland (1914 AD) The Battle of Tannenberg was one of the few truly great German victories of the First World War. More importantly for the Germans, it was one of the few battles of the war that did not also drain the victor of manpower through the loss of major casualties. This was due in large part to the fact that it took place at the very outset of the conflict, … [Read more...]
BATTLE OF GRUNWALD (GRUNWALD BATTLEFIELD)
Olsztyn, Poland (1410 AD) The Battle of Grunwald, also known as the First Battle of Tannenburg, was one of the largest and most famous medieval engagements to have taken place in Eastern Europe. It pitted armies of an alliance between Poland and Lithuania against an invading army from Germany under the leadership of the Teutonic Knights. It essentially ended the German … [Read more...]
CATHEDRAL OF VILNIUS
Vilnius, Lithuania From the late Middle Ages until the early 17th century, the realm of Poland-Lithuania sprawed across Northeastern Europe. Wedged between Orthodox Russia to the East and what would become Protestant Prussia and Scandinavia, this vast kingdom and its survivor states was, and remains, a bastion of Catholicism. Its rulers became staunch defenders of … [Read more...]
CATHEDRAL OF WAWEL
Krakow, Poland The Cathedral of Wawel is the great national Catholic shrine of Poland and one of the most important and historic Catholic churches in Northeastern Europe. During the years of the Kingdom of Poland it was the country’s royal cathedral, with most of Poland’s kings coronated here and a large number buried here. Its most famous burial is Stanislaus the Martyr, … [Read more...]
WAWEL CASTLE
Krakow, Poland Wawel Castle is the historic, Romantic royal fortress of the medieval Kingdom of Poland. It looms large in the memory of all Poles as the capital of a mighty empire that once stretched across much of northeastern Europe. Renovated on numerous occasions, and still in official use between the two world wars, Wawel Castle has been home to one of Poland’s great … [Read more...]
TRAKAI ISLAND CASTLE
Trakai, Lithuania Trakai Island Castle is possibly the most magnificent surviving fortress in the Baltic states of Northeastern Europe. Also known as Little Marienburg because of its resemblance to Malbork Castle in Poland, it almost completely encompasses a large, rocky island in the middle of Lake Galve and is one of the most stunning waterfront castles anywhere. It is the … [Read more...]
KRAKOW NATIVITY SCENE COMPETITION
Krakow, Poland Nativity scenes may have been introduced in Italy and popularized in France, but no one takes their Nativity scenes more seriously than the innovative and enthusiastic residents of Krakow in Poland. The idea of the Nativity scene arrived in Poland sometime in the late Middle Ages in the form of local plays and, in child-friendly adaptation, puppet shows. The … [Read more...]
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU DEATH CAMP
Osweicim, Poland Throughout history, one of the saddest and darkest realities of religious and ethnic fundamentalism has been genocide. Jews, Christians, Muslims and others have all been victims of religious massacres at each other’s hands, but no such chapter of history has reached the heights of infamy as the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany under Hitler. Between … [Read more...]
PAWIAK MUSEUM
Warsaw, Poland By the beginning of the 20th century, the idea of confinement to a ghetto as a way of life for Jews had been all but abolished. However, the concept was reintroduced and took on a whole new meaning under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. In the Third Reich, the ghettos of Europe went from being thriving Jewish neighborhoods to virtual prisons from which Jews … [Read more...]
