Travel Tips

Karol Józef Wojtyla
He was born on 18 May in 1920 in Wadowice. He liked the theatre very much. His friends called him ‘Lolek’. He became alone, without parents and brother, when he was very young. First, he was a priest, then a bishop and cardinal. After John Paul’s I sudden death, he went to Watykan with his friend Stefan Wyszyński. On 16 October 1978 Karol Wojtyla became the first pope who wasn’t an Italian. He adopted the name – John Paul II. He is an authority for young people. He taught them how to live. Karol Wojtyla died on 2 April 2005 in Vatican City.

Wislawa Szymborska

She was born on 2 July in 1923 in Bnina (near Poznań). She is a polish poet, essayist and a literary critic. Wislawa Szymborska received the Goethe Prize in 1991 and later The Nobel Prize for her poems. She wrote for example ‘Koniec i poczatek’, ‘Wolanie do Yeti’, ‘Dlatego zyjemy’ and ‘Sto pociech’. She is the member of Association of Polish Writers.

Maria Sklodowska – Curie
She was born on 7 November in 1867 in Warsaw. She got married with Piere Curie. She had a daughter – Irena Joliot Curie. Maria Sklodowska – Curie was a chemist and physicist. Most of her life she spent in France and she developed her scientific career. Maria Skłodowska – Curie worked out a theory about radioactivity. She discovered two new elements – polonium and radium too. She got The Nobel Prize twice. Firstly, in 1903, Maria Sklodowska – Curie with his husband got this prize for research about radioactive phenomenon. The second prize she received for secrete pure radium. Maria Sklodowska – Curie died on 4 July in 1934 in Sancellmoz.

Mikolaj Kopernik
He was born on 19 February in 1773 in Toruń. He was a polish astronomer, lawyer, economist, doctor, strategist, poet, astrologer and translator. Mikolaj’s most important work is ‘De revolutionibus orbium coelestium’. It describes the heliocentric vision of the world. Mikolaj Kopernik died on 24 May in 1543 in Frombork.

Fryderyk Chopin

He was born on 1 March in 1810 in Żelazowa Wola. He was a polish composer and pianist. He created in Romanticism. Chopin wrote piano concertos, ballads, mazurkas and polonaises. He was the son of Justyna Krzyżanowska and Mikolaj Chopin. He had three sisters – Ludwika, Izabela and Emilia. He died on 17 October in 1849 in Paris. He is buried on the Cementary Pére Lachaise in Paris and his heart is in St. Cross Church in Warsaw.

Henryk Sienkiewicz

He is the most famous polish writer (1846 - 1916). He wrote historical novels set during the Rzeczpospolita. He wrote many popular books: “The Trilogy”, “With Fire and Sword”, “The Deluge” and “The Quo Vadis” and many other novels. Many of his novels were first serialised in newspapers, and even today they are still in print. In Poland, he is best known for his historical novels (The Trilogy) set during the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and elsewhere he is known for Quo Vadis, set in Nero's Rome. He received Nobel Prize in 1905.