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Pomeranian Voivodeship Województwo pomorskie (Polish) Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò (Kashubian)
Voivodeship
FlagCoat of armsBrandmark
Location within Poland
Coordinates: 54°12′N 18°01′E / 54.200°N 18.017°E / 54.200; 18.017
Country	Poland
Capital	Gdańsk
Counties	20, including four city counties Gdańsk Gdynia Słupsk Sopot Bytów County Chojnice County Człuchów County Gdańsk County Kartuzy County Kościerzyna County Kwidzyn County Lębork County Malbork County Nowy Dwór Gdański County Puck County Słupsk County Starogard County Sztum County Tczew County Wejherowo County
Government
• Body	Pomeranian Voivodeship executive board
• Voivode	Beata Rutkiewicz (KO)
• Marshal	Mieczysław Struk (KO)
Area
• Total	18,293 km (7,063 sq mi)
Population
• Total	2,337,769
• Density	130/km (330/sq mi)
• Urban	1,486,267
• Rural	851,502
GDP
• Total	€34.497 billion
• Per capita	€15,000
ISO 3166 code	PL-22
Vehicle registration	G
HDI (2019)	0.892 very high · 3rd
Highways
Website	pomorskie.eu
Further divided into 123 gminas

Pomeranian Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo pomorskie [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ pɔˈmɔrskʲɛ] ; Kashubian: Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò [pvɛˈmvɛrst͡ʃi vɛjɛˈvut͡stfɔ]) is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk.

The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk, Elbląg and Słupsk, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1997. It is bordered by West Pomeranian Voivodeship to the west, Greater Poland and Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeships to the south, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship to the east, and the Baltic Sea to the north. It also shares a short land border with Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast), on the Vistula Spit. The bulk of the voivodeship is located in the historic region of Pomerania, with the territories on the eastern bank of the Vistula being part of Powiśle. The Pomeranian part of the region comprises most of Pomerelia (the easternmost part of Pomerania) with its subregions of Kashubia and Kociewie, whereas the western part, around Słupsk, is part of Farther Pomerania.

The province is one of rich cultural heritage. The Tricity urban area, consisting of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot, is one of the main cultural, commercial and educational centres of Poland. Gdańsk and Gdynia are two of the major Polish seaports, the first erected by Mieszko I of Poland in the Middle Ages, the latter built in the interwar period. Amongst the most recognisable landmarks of the region are the historic city centre of Gdańsk filled with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces, the Museum of the National Anthem in Będomin, located at the birthplace of Józef Wybicki, poet and politician, author of the national anthem of Poland, the largest medieval churches of Poland (the St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk and the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Pelplin) and the Malbork Castle. The voivodeship also includes the narrow Hel Peninsula and the Polish half of the Vistula Spit. Other tourist destinations include Wejherowo, Sopot, Jurata, Łeba, Władysławowo, Puck, Krynica Morska, Ustka, Jastarnia, Kuźnica, Bytów and many fishing ports, lighthouses, and marinas.

Etymology

The name Pomerania derives from the Slavic po more, meaning "by the sea" or "on the sea".

Cities and towns

The voivodeship contains 7 cities and 35 towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (official 2019 figures).

1. Gdańsk (468,158)
2. Gdynia (246,244)
3. Słupsk (90,769)
4. Tczew (60,120)
5. Wejherowo (49,652)
6. Starogard Gdański (47,775)
7. Sopot (35,827)

Towns:

1. Rumia (49,160)
2. Chojnice (39,890)
3. Malbork (38,465)
4. Kwidzyn (38,444)
5. Lębork (35,333)
6. Pruszcz Gdański (31,135)
7. Reda (26,011)
8. Kościerzyna (23,776)
9. Bytów (16,918)
10. Ustka (15,460)
11. Kartuzy (14,536)
12. Człuchów (13,649)
13. Puck (11,213)
14. Miastko (10,439)
15. Sztum (9,940)
16. Władysławowo (9,930)
17. Czersk (9,910)
18. Nowy Dwór Gdański (9,905)
19. Prabuty (8,695)
20. Pelplin (7,784)
21. Skarszewy (6,994)
22. Gniew (6,707)
23. Żukowo (6,691)
24. Czarne (5,932)
25. Dzierzgoń (5,364)
26. Brusy (5,188)
27. Debrzno (5,096)
28. Nowy Staw (4,248)
29. Łeba (3,644)
30. Skórcz (3,625)
31. Kępice (3,580)
32. Hel (3,267)
33. Czarna Woda (2,786)
34. Jastarnia (2,704)
35. Krynica Morska (1,303)

Administrative division

Pomeranian Voivodeship is divided into 20 counties (powiats): 4 city counties, and 16 land counties. These are further divided into 123 gminas (communes).

The counties are listed below in order of decreasing population.

Governors

Economy

The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 29.2 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 5.9% of Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 20,800 euros or 69% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 74% of the EU average.

Major corporations

Transport

• Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport
• Obwodnica Trójmiejska

The A1, S6 and S7 highways pass through the province.

Railway

• Pomorska Kolej Metropolitalna
• SKM

The three busiest railway stations of northern Poland, and three of ten busiest railway stations of Poland overall, are located in the voivodeship. Those are Gdynia Główna, Gdańsk Główny and Gdańsk Wrzeszcz.

Education

Higher education

Protected areas

Protected areas in Pomeranian Voivodeship include two National Parks and nine Landscape Parks. These are listed below.

• Słowiński National Park (a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve)
• Tuchola Forest National Park (part of a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve)
• Coastal Landscape Park
• Iława Lake District Landscape Park (partly in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship)
• Kashubian Landscape Park
• Słupia Valley Landscape Park
• Tricity Landscape Park
• Tuchola Landscape Park (partly in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship)
• Vistula Spit Landscape Park
• Wdydze Landscape Park
• Zaborski Landscape Park

Sports

Football, basketball, motorcycle speedway and volleyball enjoy the largest following in the voivodeship. The Arka Gdynia and Lechia Gdańsk football clubs contest the Tricity Derby, the fiercest football rivalry in northern Poland.

Since the establishment of the province, several major international sports competitions were co-hosted by the province, including the EuroBasket 2009, UEFA Euro 2012, 2013 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, 2016 European Men's Handball Championship, 2017 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, 2021 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2023 World Men's Handball Championship.

Curiosities

• There are two spa towns in the province: Sopot and Ustka.
• The provincial capital of Gdańsk was the largest city of Poland for over 250 years, from the mid-15th century to the early 18th century, when it was surpassed by the national capital of Warsaw. Gdańsk has five sites listed as Historic Monuments of Poland, a joint record with Kraków, including its historic city center.
• There are numerous castles in the province, and the Kwidzyn and Malbork castles are listed as Historic Monuments of Poland, with the latter also designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The longest wooden pier in Europe, the Sopot Pier, is located in the voivodeship.
• In 1380, the first Scots settled in Gdańsk, founding what would eventually become a significant Scottish diaspora in Poland, and later on, Scots also lived in Chojnice, Czarne, Człuchów, Debrzno, Gniew, Kościerzyna, Puck, Starogard Gdański, Tczew. The Stare Szkoty neighbourhood of Gdańsk is named after the Scottish settlers.
• One of the three parish churches of the Armenian Catholic Church in Poland is located in Gdańsk (see also: Armenians in Poland).
• The voivodeship features several places where major international treaties were signed in the past, i.e. the Dano-Polish truce of 1458 and Polish-Swedish alliance of 1677, both signed in Gdańsk, the Polish-Swedish truces of 1629 and 1635 signed in Stary Targ and Sztumska Wieś, respectively, and the peace treaty ending the Second Northern War of 1655–1660.
• Sztutowo is the location of the former Stutthof concentration camp, the first Nazi German concentration camp established outside of pre-war Germany during World War II.
• The Westerplatte peninsula in Gdańsk was the site of the Battle of Westerplatte, the first battle of the German invasion of Poland and World War II, and is now designated a Historic Monument of Poland.
• During World War II, the Stalag II-B and Stalag XX-B major prisoner-of-war camps for Polish, British, French, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Soviet, Italian, American, Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, Senegalese, Malagasy, Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian and other Allied POWs were operated in the territory by Nazi Germany. There are cemeteries of the POWs at the sites in Czarne and Malbork.
• There are numerous memorials at the sites of Nazi massacres of Poles from World War II, including the largest massacres in Piaśnica, Szpęgawsk and Chojnice.
• The Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of four first-level administrative divisions containing the name of the region of Pomerania, the other being the neighbouring West Pomeranian Voivodeship and Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany.

References

1. "EU regions by GDP". Eurostat. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
2. "Sub-national HDI - Subnational HDI". Global Data Lab. Radboud University Nijmegen. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
3. Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie "Land am Meer". Archived 2020-08-19 at the Wayback Machine (Pommersches Landesmuseum, German)
4. "Statistics Poland - National Censuses".
5. GUS. "Population. Size and structure and vital statistics in Poland by territorial division in 2019. As of 30th June". stat.gov.pl. Archived from the original on 2021-04-19. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
6. "Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018". Eurostat. Archived from the original on 2022-10-10.
7. "Economy" (PDF). The Province of Pomerania. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-12-31. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
8. "Wymiana pasażerska na stacjach". Portal statystyczny UTK (in Polish). Retrieved 19 May 2024.
9. Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 września 1994 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii., M.P., 1994, vol. 50, No. 415
10. Rozporządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 20 kwietnia 2018 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii "Kwidzyn - zespół katedralno-zamkowy", Dz. U., 2018, No. 930
11. Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 września 1994 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii., M.P., 1994, vol. 50, No. 420
12. Wijaczka, Jacek (2010). "Szkoci". In Kopczyński, Michał; Tygielski, Wojciech (eds.). Pod wspólnym niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (in Polish). Warszawa: Muzeum Historii Polski, Bellona. pp. 201–202. ISBN 978-83-11-11724-2.
13. "Kalendarz dat: 1458". Dzieje.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 22 August 2024.
14. Jonasson, Gustav (1980). "Polska i Szwecja za czasów Jana III Sobieskiego". Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka (in Polish). XXXV (2). Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk: 240. ISSN 0037-7511.
15. Rozporządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 22 sierpnia 2003 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii, Dz. U., 2003, vol. 148, No. 1448

External links

• Information about Pomeranian Voivodeship - official website (pl, en, ru)
• Economy brochure (en)
• The Pomorskie Voivodeship. The Greatest Tourist Attractions - Brochure (en)
• Pomerania Development Agency Co. (en)

v t e Places adjacent to Pomeranian Voivodeship
Baltic Sea Gotland and Kalmar,  Sweden  Kaliningrad Oblast,  Russia  West Pomeranian Voivodeship  Pomeranian Voivodeship  Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship  Greater Poland Voivodeship  Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship

v t e Counties of Pomeranian Voivodeship
City counties	Gdańsk (capital) Gdynia Słupsk Sopot
Land counties	Bytów Chojnice Człuchów Gdańsk Kartuzy Kościerzyna Kwidzyn Lębork Malbork Nowy Dwór Gdański Puck Słupsk Starogard Sztum Tczew Wejherowo

v t e Voivodeships of Poland
Greater Poland Kuyavian–Pomeranian Lesser Poland Łódź Lower Silesian Lublin Lubusz Masovian Opole Podlaskie Pomeranian Silesian Subcarpathian Świętokrzyskie Warmian–Masurian West Pomeranian

• Pomeranian Voivodeship
• Pomerania
• 1999 establishments in Poland
• States and territories established in 1999