
Lesser Poland
The images and text displayed here originate from the Wikipedia article "Lesser Poland", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
About this region
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska (Latin: Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate culture featuring diverse architecture, folk costumes, dances, cuisine, traditions and a rare Lesser Polish dialect. The region is rich in historical landmarks, monuments, castles, natural scenery and UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The region should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only the southwestern part of Lesser Poland. Historical Lesser Poland was much larger than the current voivodeship that bears its name. It reached from Bielsko-Biała in the southwest as far as to Siedlce in the northeast. It consisted of the three voivodeships of Kraków, Sandomierz and Lublin.
It comprised almost 60,000 km2 in area; today's population in this area is about 9,000,000 inhabitants. Its landscape is mainly hilly, with the Carpathian Mountains and Tatra Mountain Range in the south; it is located in the basin of the upper Vistula river. It has been noted for its mighty aristocracy (magnateria) and wealthy nobility (szlachta).Between the 14th and 18th century, the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown also encompassed the historical region of Red Ruthenia. In the era of partitions, the southern part of Lesser Poland became known as Galicia, which was under Austrian control until Poland regained its independence in 1918. As a result of this long-lasting division, many inhabitants of the northern part of Lesser Poland (including those in such cities as Lublin, Radom, Kielce and Częstochowa) do not recognize their Lesser Polish identity.
However, while Lublin (Lubelskie) was declared an independent Voivodeship as early as 1474, it still has speakers of the Lesser Polish dialect.
Across history, many ethnic and religious minorities existed in Lesser Poland as they fled persecution from other areas or countries. Poland's once tolerant policy towards these minorities allowed them to flourish and create separate self-governing communities. Some minorities still remain, but are on the verge of extinction, most notably Wymysorys-speaking Vilamovians, Halcnovians, Gorals, Lemkos, Uplanders, and once Polish Jews and Walddeutsche Germans.

Amount of visits (Lesser Poland)

Amount of routes verified by RouteXperts (Lesser Poland)

Amount of downloaded routes (Lesser Poland)

Route collections
The route collections by MyRoute-app are collections of multiple routes that belong to each other and checked by MRA RouteXperts. All routes are identical for TomTom, Garmin and MyRoute-app Navigation.

11
Routes

2504.19
Kilometers

58.96
Hours
View route collection
Tour Poland Slovakia and the Czech Republic
About this route collection
This collection of routes is based on a 3-week vacation that I rode with my partner in June 2018.
The journey goes through Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and a piece of Germany. In total there are 11 driving days, a combination of touristic tours and routes from A to B. All routes avoid the highway and go exclusively on the smaller roads, which makes it a beautiful and varied journey.
Along the way you regularly come across sights, where you can stop to look around. These vary from beautiful viewpoints, to museums and special buildings. You also visit various national nature parks along the way, such as the Tatra Mountains, the Giant Mountains, Eagle Mountains, Krkonoše and Bohemian Switzerland. Because the overnight places are often also located in these areas, you can alternate the driving days with days with wonderful hiking trips.
If you only want to ride a motorcycle, then this collection can also be done in 2 weeks (including a return trip from the Netherlands).
The routes themselves can be challenging from time to time, particularly because the quality of the road surface in Eastern Europe - especially on the small country roads - is not always good. In June 2018 all routes were on paved roads.
The journey goes through Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and a piece of Germany. In total there are 11 driving days, a combination of touristic tours and routes from A to B. All routes avoid the highway and go exclusively on the smaller roads, which makes it a beautiful and varied journey.
Along the way you regularly come across sights, where you can stop to look around. These vary from beautiful viewpoints, to museums and special buildings. You also visit various national nature parks along the way, such as the Tatra Mountains, the Giant Mountains, Eagle Mountains, Krkonoše and Bohemian Switzerland. Because the overnight places are often also located in these areas, you can alternate the driving days with days with wonderful hiking trips.
If you only want to ride a motorcycle, then this collection can also be done in 2 weeks (including a return trip from the Netherlands).
The routes themselves can be challenging from time to time, particularly because the quality of the road surface in Eastern Europe - especially on the small country roads - is not always good. In June 2018 all routes were on paved roads.