Vistula
Vistula | |
---|---|
Native name | Wisła (Polish) |
Location | |
Country | Poland |
Towns/Cities | Kraków, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Płock, Włocławek, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Tczew, Gdańsk |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Barania Góra, Silesian Beskids |
• coordinates | 49°36′21″N 19°00′13″E / 49.60583°N 19.00361°E |
• elevation | 1,106 m (3,629 ft) |
Przekop channel near Świbno, Poland | |
• coordinates | 54°21′42″N 18°57′07″E / 54.36167°N 18.95194°E |
• elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Length | 1,047 km (651 mi) |
Basin size | 193,960 km2 (74,890 sq mi) |
Discharge | |
• location | Gdańsk Bay, Baltic Sea, Mikoszewo |
• average | 1,080 m3/s (38,000 cu ft/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Nida, Pilica, Bzura, Brda, Wda |
• right | Dunajec, Wisłoka, San, Wieprz, Narew, Drwęca |
The Vistula (/ˈvɪstjʊlə/; Polish: Wisła, Polish pronunciation: [ˈviswa] ⓘ, German: Weichsel) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at 1,047 kilometres (651 miles) in length.[1][2] Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers 193,960 km2 (74,890 sq mi), of which 168,868 km2 (65,200 sq mi) is in Poland.[3]
The Vistula rises at
The river has many associations with Polish culture, history and national identity. It is Poland's most important waterway and natural symbol, flowing notably through Kraków and the capital Warsaw, and the phrase "Country upon Vistula" (Polish: kraj nad Wisłą) can be synonymous with Poland.[5][6][7] Historically, the river was also important for the Baltic and German (Prussian) peoples.
The Vistula has given its name to the last glacial period that occurred in northern Europe, approximately between 100000 and 10000 BC, the Weichselian glaciation.
Etymology
The name Vistula first appears in the written record of
In writing about the river and its peoples,
The Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to the Wistla.[9] The 12th-century Polish chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek Latinised the river's name as Vandalus, a form presumably influenced by Lithuanian vanduõ 'water'. Jan Długosz (1415–1480) in his Annales seu cronicae incliti regni Poloniae contextually points to the river, stating "of the eastern nations, of the Polish east, from the brightness of the water the White Water...so named" (Alba aqua),[10] perhaps referring to the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka)[citation needed].
In the course of history the river has borne similar names in different languages:
: Висла.Sources
The Vistula rises in the southern Silesian Voivodeship close to the tripoint involving the Czech Republic and Slovakia from two sources: the Czarna ("Black") Wisełka at altitude 1,107 m (3,632 ft) and the Biała ("White") Wisełka at altitude 1,080 m (3,540 ft).[11] Both are on the western slope of Barania Góra in the Silesian Beskids in Poland.[12]
Geography
The Vistula can be divided into three parts: upper, from its sources to
The Vistula river basin covers 194,424 square kilometres (75,068 square miles) (in Poland 168,700 square kilometres (65,135 square miles)); its average altitude is 270 metres (886 feet)
The most recent glaciation of the
Major cities
Delta
The river forms a wide delta called
Various causes (rain, snow melt, ice jams) have caused many severe floods of the Vistula over the centuries. Land in the area was sometimes depopulated by severe flooding, and later had to be resettled.
See (Figure 7, on page 812 at History of floods on the River Vistula) for a reconstruction map of the delta area as it was around the year 1300: note much more water in the area, and the west end of the Vistula Lagoon (Frisches Haff) was bigger and nearly continuous with the
Channel changes
As with some aggrading rivers, the lower Vistula has been subject to channel changing.
Near the sea, the Vistula was diverted sideways by coastal sand as a result of longshore drift and split into an east-flowing branch (the Elbing (Elbląg) Vistula, Elbinger Weichsel, Szkarpawa, flows into the Vistula Lagoon, now for flood control closed to the east with a lock) and a west-flowing branch (the Danzig (Gdańsk) Vistula, Przegalinie branch, reached the sea in Danzig). Until the 14th century, the Elbing Vistula was the bigger.
- 1242: The Stara Wisła (Old Vistula) cut an outlet to the sea through the barrier near Mikoszewo where the Vistula Cut is now; this gap later closed or was closed.
- 1371: The Danzig Vistula became bigger than the Elbing Vistula.
- 1540 and 1543: Huge floods depopulated the delta area, and afterwards the land was resettled by Mennonite Germans, and economic development followed.[15]
- 1553: By a plan made by Danzig and Elbing, a channel was dug between the Vistula and the Nogat at Weissenberg (now Biała Góra). As a result, most of the Vistula water flowed down the Nogat, which hindered navigation at Danzig by lowering the water level; this caused a long dispute about the river water between Danzig on one side and Elbing and Marienburgon the other side.
- 1611: Great flood near Marienburg.
- 1613: As a result, a royal decree was issued to build a dam at Biała Góra, diverting only a third of the Vistula's water into the Nogat.
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War and 1655–1661 Second Northern War: In wars involving Sweden the river works at Biała Góra were destroyed or damaged.
- 1724: Until this year the Vistula in Danzig flowed to sea straight through the east end of the Westerplatte. This year it started to turn west to flow south of the Westerplatte.
- 1747: In a big flood the Vistula broke into the Nogat.
- 1772: First Partition of Poland: Prussia got control of the Vistula delta area.
- 1793: Second Partition of Poland: Prussia got control of more of the Vistula drainage area.
- 1830 and later: Cleaning the riverbed; eliminating meanders; re-routing some tributaries, e.g. the Rudawa.
- 1840: A flood caused by an ice-jam[15] formed a shortcut from the Danzig Vistula to the sea (shown as Durchbruch v. J 1840 (Breakthrough of year 1840), on this map[14]), a few miles east of and bypassing Danzig, now called the Śmiała Wisła or Wisła Śmiała ("Bold Vistula"). The Vistula channel west of this lost much of its flow and was known thereafter as the Dead Vistula (German: Tote Weichsel; Polish: Martwa Wisła).
- 1848 or after: In flood control works the link from the Vistula to the Nogat was moved 4 km (2.5 miles) downstream. In the end, the Nogat got a fifth of the flow of the Vistula.
- 1888: A large flood in the Vistula delta.[15]
- 1889 to 1895: As a result, to try to stop recurrent flooding on the lower Vistula, the Prussian government constructed an artificial channel about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) east of Danzig (now named Gdańsk), known as the Vistula Cut (German: Weichseldurchstich; Polish: Przekop Wisły) (ref map [14]) from the old fork of the Danzig and Elbing Vistulas straight north to the Baltic Sea, diverting much of the Vistula's flow. One main purpose was to let the river easily flush floating ice into the sea to avoid ice-jam floods downstream. This is now the main mouth of the Vistula, bypassing Gdańsk; Google Earth shows only a narrow new connection with water-control works with the old westward channel. The name Dead Vistula was extended to mean all of the old channel of the Vistula below this diversion.
- 1914–1917: The Elbing Vistula (Szkarpawa) and the Dead Vistula were cut off from the new main river course with the help of locks.
- 1944–1945: Retreating WWII German forces destroyed many flood-prevention works in the area. After the war, Poland needed over ten years to repair the damage.
Nogat | Leniwka | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Town | Tributaries | Remarks | Town | Tributaries | Remarks |
Sztum | Tczew | ||||
Malbork | Gdańsk | Motława, Radunia, Potok Oliwski | in the city the river divides into several separate branches that reach the Baltic Sea at different points, the main branch reaches the sea at Westerplatte | ||
Elbląg | Elbląg
|
shortly before reaching Vistula Bay
|
Tributaries
List of right and left tributaries with a nearby city, from source to mouth:
Right tributaries
|
Left tributaries
|
Climate change and the flooding of the Vistula delta
According to flood studies carried out by Zbigniew Pruszak, who is the co-author of the scientific paper Implications of SLR[16] and further studies carried out by scientists attending Poland's Final International ASTRA Conference,[17] and predictions stated by climate scientists at the climate change pre-summit in Copenhagen,[18] it is highly likely most of the Vistula Delta region (which is below sea level[19]) will be flooded due to the sea level rise caused by climate change by 2100.
Geological history
The history of the River Vistula and its valley spans over 2 million years. The river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place. In the last million years, an ice sheet entered the area of Poland eight times, bringing along with it changes of reaches of the river. In warmer periods, when the ice sheet retreated, the Vistula deepened and widened its valley. The river took its present shape within the last 14,000 years, after the complete recession of the Scandinavian ice sheet from the area. At present, along with the Vistula valley, erosion of the banks and collecting of new deposits are still occurring.[20]
As the principal river of Poland, the Vistula is also in the centre of Europe. Three principal geographical and geological land masses of the continent meet in its river basin: the
-
Biała Wisełka
-
Vistula in southern Poland with the Silesian Beskids
-
Vistula in northern Poland
-
"Vistula Shore" painted by Bogdan Cierpisz in 1898, oil on canvas
The Vistula is navigable from the Baltic Sea to
The Vistula is the northern part of the proposed
Historical relevance
Large parts of the Vistula Basin were occupied by the Iron Age Lusatian and Przeworsk cultures in the first millennium BC. Genetic analysis indicates that there has been an unbroken genetic continuity[clarification needed] of the inhabitants over the last 3,500 years.[24] The Vistula Basin along with the lands of the
The Vistula River used to be connected to the
The Vistula estuary was settled by Slavs in the seventh and eighth century.[28] Based on archeological and linguistic findings, it has been postulated that these settlers moved northward along the Vistula River.[28] This however contradicts another hypothesis supported by some researchers saying the Veleti moved westward from the Vistula delta.[28]
A number of West Slavic Polish tribes formed small dominions beginning in the eighth century, some of which coalesced later into larger ones. Among the tribes listed in the Bavarian Geographer's ninth-century document was the Vistulans (Wiślanie) in southern Poland. Kraków and Wiślica were their main centres.
Many
Main trading artery
For hundreds of years the river was one of the main trading arteries of Poland, and the castles that line its banks were highly prized possessions.
In the 14th century the lower Vistula was controlled by the
Before its peak in 1618, trade increased by a factor of 20 from 1491. This factor is evident when looking at the tonnage of grain traded on the river in the key years of: 1491: 14,000; 1537: 23,000; 1563: 150,000; 1618: 310,000.[37]
In the 16th century most of the grain exported was leaving Poland through Gdańsk, which because of its location at the end of the Vistula and its tributary waterway and of its Baltic seaport trade role became the wealthiest, most highly developed, and by far the largest centre of crafts and manufacturing, and the most autonomous of the Polish cities.
Grain was also the largest export commodity of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The volume of traded grain can be considered a good and well-measured proxy for the economic growth of the Commonwealth.
The owner of a
In order to arrest recurrent flooding on the lower Vistula, the Prussian government in 1889–95 constructed an artificial channel about 12 kilometres (7 miles) east of Gdańsk (German name: Danzig)—known as the
From 1867 to 1917, the Russian tsarist administration called the Kingdom of Poland the Vistula Land after the collapse of the January Uprising (1863–1865).[41]
Almost 75% of the territory of interbellum Poland was drained northward into the Baltic Sea by the Vistula (total area of
In 1920 the decisive battle of the Polish–Soviet War Battle of Warsaw (sometimes referred to as the Miracle at the Vistula), was fought as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and nearby Modlin Fortress by the river's mouth.[citation needed]
World War II
The
The
During World War II prisoners of war from the Nazi Stalag XX-B camp were assigned to cut ice blocks from the River Vistula. The ice would then be transported by truck to the local beer houses[citation needed].
The 1944 Warsaw Uprising was planned with the expectation that the Soviet forces, who had arrived in the course of their offensive and were waiting on the other side of the Vistula River in full force, would help in the battle for Warsaw.[46] However, the Soviets let down the Poles, stopping their advance at the Vistula and branding the insurgents as criminals in radio broadcasts.[46][47][48]
In early 1945, in the
After the war in late 1946, the former Austrian SS member Amon Göth was sentenced to death and hung on 13 September at the Montelupich Prison in Kraków, not far from the site of the Płaszów camp the camp of which he was Commandant throughout The Holocaust. His remains were cremated and the ashes thrown in the Vistula River.[49]
See also
- Rivers of Poland
- Geography of Poland
- Vistula Lagoon
- Vistula Spit
References
- ^ "Vistula River". pomorskie.travel. Archived from the original on 13 August 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
Vistula - the most important and the longest river in Poland, and the largest river in the area of the Baltic Sea. The length of Vistula is 1047 km.
- ^ "Top Ten Longest Rivers in Europe". www.top-ten-10.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- Statistics Poland, p. 85-86
- ^ Barania Góra - Tam, gdzie biją źródła Wisły at PolskaNiezwykla.pl
- ISBN 978-83-240-3074-3– via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-83-227-2503-0– via Google Books.
- ^ Trawkowski, StanisŁaw Trawkowski (30 March 1966). "Jak powstawaŁa Polska". Wiedza Powszechna – via Google Books.
- ^ D.Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (London: Fitzroy–Dearborn, 1997), 207.
- ^ William Napier (20 November 2005). "Building a Library: The Fall of Rome". findarticles.com. Independent Newspapers UK Limited. Retrieved 1 April 2009.[dead link]
- ^ Długosz, Jan. Annales seu cronicae incliti regni Poloniae a nationibus orientalibus Polonis vicinis, ob aquae candorem Alba aqua ... nominatur
- ^ Żaneta Kosińska: Rzeka Wisła.
- ISBN 978-83-239-9607-1.
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- ^ a b c "map dated 1899 of parts of Poland". Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
- ^ S2CID 214652302.
- S2CID 130427456.
- ^ "Final International ASTRA conference in Espoo, Finland, 10–11 December 2007". www.astra-project.org. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
- ^ Matt McGrath (12 March 2009). "Climate scenarios 'being realised'". BBC News. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
- ^ "Hydrology and morphology of two river mouth regions (temperate Vistula Delta and subtropical Red River Delta)" (PDF). www.iopan.gda.pl. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
- ^ Państwowy Instytut Geologiczny (State Geological Institute), Warsaw, "Geologiczna Historia Wisły"
- ^ R. Mierzejewski, Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna I Teatralna im. Leona Schiller w Łodzi, Narodziny rzeki
- ^ Weston, Phoebe (23 December 2020). "Chernobyl fears resurface as river dredging begins in exclusion zone". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ Alexandra St John Murphy (4 May 2020). "The E40 Waterway: The Polish Dimension". Eurasia Daily Monitor. 17 (61). The Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ a b Jędrzej Giertych. "Tysiąc lat historii narodu polskiego" (in Polish). www.chipublib.org. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ^ "De Origine et Situ Germanorum Liber by Tacitus Latin Text". 12 November 2007. Archived from the original on 12 November 2007.
- ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "The Augustów Canal (Kanal Augustowski) - UNESCO World Heritage Centre". whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ "Suwalszczyzna - Suwalki Region". www.suwalszczyzna.pl. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-83-906184-8-7. p.29
- ^ a b Paul Havers. "The Legend of Wanda". www.kresy.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
- ^ Leszek Paweł Słupecki. "The Krakus' and Wanda's Burial Mounds of Cracow" (PDF). sms.zrc-sazu.si. Retrieved 31 March 2009. p.84
- ^ a b "Wanda". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
- ^ Władysław Parczewski; Jerzy Pruchnicki. "Vistula River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ^ "History of the City Gdańsk". www.en.gdansk.gda.pl. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-521-36289-4.
- ^ Krzysztof Mikulski. "Dzieje dawnego Torunia" (in Polish). www.mowiawieki.pl. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-7100-8647-1. p.35
- ^ a b Krzysztof Olszewski (2007). The Rise and Decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth due to Grain Trade. a: p. 6, b: p. 7, c: p. 5, d: p. 5
- ^ Jerzy S. Majewski (29 April 2004). "Most Zygmunta Augusta" (in Polish). miasta.gazeta.pl. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
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- ISBN 978-1-57607-800-6. p. 19
- ^ "SEPTEMBER 13, 1944". www.1944.pl. Archived from the original on 23 May 2006. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7391-0484-2.
- ^ the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, Auschwitz Environs, Summer 1944, online map Archived 6 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Auschwitz-Birkenau: History & Overview Jewish Virtual Library
- ^ a b "Warsaw Uprising of 1944". www.warsawuprising.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
- ^ The Uprising remained the ultimate symbol of Communist betrayal and bad faith for Poles. John Radzilowski. "Warsaw Uprising". ww2db.com. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
- .
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External links
- Geographic data related to Vistula at OpenStreetMap
- Vistula at GEOnet Names Server
- History of floods on the River Vistula History of floods on the River Vistula (Hydrological Sciences Journal)