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The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Poland 2017, Statistics Poland, p. 85-86
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in the south of Poland, above sea level in the Silesian Beskids (western part of Carpathian Mountains), where it begins with the White Little Vistula ( Biała Wisełka) and the Black Little Vistula ( Czarna Wisełka). Barania Góra - Tam, gdzie biją źródła Wisły at PolskaNiezwykla.pl It flows through Poland's largest cities, including Kraków, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Płock, Włocławek, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Świecie, Grudziądz, Tczew and Gdańsk. It empties into the Vistula Lagoon ( Zalew Wiślany) or directly into the Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea with a river delta of six main branches (Leniwka, Przekop, Śmiała Wisła, Martwa Wisła, Nogat and Szkarpawa).
The river has many associations with Polish culture, history and national identity. It is Poland's most important waterway and natural symbol, flowing through its two main cities (Kraków and Warsaw), and the phrase "Land on the Vistula" () can be synonymous with Poland.Jerzy Bartmiński (2006). 9788322725030, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej. . ISBN 9788322725030 Historically, the river was also important for the Balts and German () peoples.
The Vistula has given its name to the last glacial period that occurred in northern Europe, approximately between 100,000 and 10,000 BC, the Weichselian glaciation.
In writing about the river and its peoples, Ptolemy uses Greek spelling: Ouistoula. Other ancient sources spell the name Istula. Ammianus Marcellinus referred to the Bisula (Book22) in the 380s. In the sixth century Jordanes ( Getica5 & 17) used Viscla.
The Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith refers to the Wistla. 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),Długosz, Jan. Annales seu cronicae incliti regni Poloniae a nationibus orientalibus Polonis vicinis, ob aquae candorem Alba aqua ... nominatur perhaps referring to the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka).
In the course of history the river has borne similar names in different languages: ; ; ; ; and .
The Vistula river basin covers (in Poland ); its average altitude is above sea level. In addition, the majority of its river basin (55%) is 100 to 200 m above sea level; over of the river basin ranges from in altitude. The highest point of the river basin is at (Gerlach Peak in the Tatra mountains). One of the features of the river basin of the Vistula is its asymmetry—in great measure resulting from the tilting direction of the Central European Lowland toward the northwest, the direction of the flow of glacial waters, and considerable predisposition of its older base. The asymmetry of the river basin (right-hand to left-hand side) is 73–27%.
The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene, which ended around 10,000 BC, is called the Vistulian glaciation or Weichselian glaciation in regard to north-central Europe.
| Wisła (Silesian Voivodeship) | river source: Biała Wisełka and Czarna Wisełka |
| Ustroń | |
| Skoczów | Brennica |
| Strumień | Knajka |
| Goczałkowice-Zdrój | |
| Czechowice-Dziedzice | Biała |
| Brzeszcze | Vistula, Soła |
| Oświęcim | Soła |
| Zator | Skawa |
| Skawina | Skawinka |
| Kraków (Cracow) | Sanka, Rudawa, Prądnik, Dłubnia, Wilga (most are canalized streams) |
| Niepołomice | |
| Nowe Brzesko | |
| Nowy Korczyn | Nida |
| Opatowiec | Dunajec |
| Szczucin | |
| Połaniec | Czarna |
| Baranów Sandomierski | Babolówka |
| Tarnobrzeg | |
| Sandomierz | Koprzywianka, Trześniówka |
| Zawichost | |
| Annopol | Sanna |
| Józefów nad Wisłą | |
| Solec nad Wisłą | |
| Kazimierz Dolny | Bystra |
| Puławy | Kurówka |
| Dęblin | Wieprz |
| Magnuszew | |
| Wilga | Wilga |
| Góra Kalwaria | Czarna |
| Karczew | |
| Otwock, Józefów | Świder |
| Konstancin-Jeziorna | Jeziorka |
| Warsaw | Żerań canal (incl. several smaller streams) |
| Łomianki | |
| Legionowo | |
| Modlin | Narew |
| Zakroczym | |
| Czerwińsk nad Wisłą | |
| Wyszogród | Bzura |
| Płock | Słupianka, Rosica, Brzeźnica, Skrwa Lewa, Skrwa Prawa |
| Dobrzyń nad Wisłą | |
| Włocławek | Zgłowiączka |
| Nieszawa | Mień |
| Ciechocinek | |
| Toruń | Drwęca, Bacha |
| Solec Kujawski | |
| Bydgoszcz | Brda River (canalized) |
| Chełmno | |
| Świecie | Wda |
| Grudziądz | |
| Nowe | |
| Gniew | Wierzyca |
| Tczew | |
| Mikoszewo, Gdańsk (Sobieszewo Island) | Szkarpawa, Martwa Wisła |
Various causes (rain, snow melt, ) 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 Drausen See.
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.
| 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 | |||
Right tributaries
| Left tributaries
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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 Eastern European Plain, Western Europe, and the Alpine zone to which the Alps and the Carpathians belong. The Vistula begins in the Carpathian mountains. The run and character of the river were shaped by ice sheets flowing down from the Scandinavian peninsula. The last ice sheet entered the area of Poland about 20,000 years ago. During periods of warmer weather, the ancient Vistula, "Pra-Wisła", searched for the shortest way to the sea—thousands of years ago it flowed into the North Sea somewhere at the latitude of contemporary Scotland. The climate of the Vistula valley, its plants, animals, and its very character changed considerably during the process of glacial retreat.R. Mierzejewski, Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna I Teatralna im. Leona Schiller w Łodzi, Narodziny rzeki
Vistula is the northern part of the proposed E40 waterway, continuing eastward into the Bug River, linking the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
Vistula River used to be connected to the Dnieper River, and thence to the Black Sea via the Augustów Canal, a technological marvel with numerous contributing to its aesthetic appeal. It was the first waterway in Central Europe to provide a direct link between the two major rivers, the Vistula and the Neman River. It provided a link with the Black Sea to the south through the Oginski Canal, Dnieper River, Berezina Canal, and Daugava River. The Baltic Sea– Vistula– Dnieper– Black Sea route with its rivers was one of the most ancient trade routes, the Amber Road, on which amber and other items were traded from Northern Europe to Greece, Asia, Egypt, and elsewhere.
The Vistula estuary was settled by early Slavs in the seventh and eighth century. p.29 Based on archeological and linguistic findings, it has been postulated that these settlers moved northward along the Vistula River. This however contradicts another hypothesis supported by some researchers saying the Veleti moved westward from the Vistula delta.
A number of West Slavs 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 Polish folklore are connected with the Vistula river and the beginnings of Polish statehood. One of the most enduring is that about Princess Wanda co nie chciała Niemca ( who rejected the German). According to the most popular variant, popularized by the 15th-century historian Jan Długosz, p.84 Wanda, daughter of King Krak, became queen of the Poles upon her father's death. She refused to marry a German prince Rytigier (Rüdiger), who took offence and invaded Poland, but was repelled. Wanda however committed suicide, drowning in the Vistula River, to ensure he would not invade her country again.
In the 14th century the lower Vistula was controlled by the Teutonic Knights Order, invited in 1226 by Konrad I of Masovia to help him fight the pagan Prussians on the border of his lands. In 1308 the Teutonic Knights captured the Gdańsk castle and murdered the population. Since then the event is known as the Gdańsk slaughter. The Order had inherited Gniew from Sambor II, thus gaining a foothold on the left bank of the Vistula. Many granaries and storehouses, built in the 14th century, line the banks of the Vistula. In the 15th century the city of Gdańsk gained great importance in the Baltic area as a centre of merchants and trade and as a port city. At this time the surrounding lands were inhabited by Pomeranians, but Gdańsk soon became a starting point for German settlement of the largely fallow Vistulan country.
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. a: p. 6, b: p. 7, c: p. 5, d: p. 5
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. Other towns were negatively affected by Gdańsk's near-monopoly in foreign trade. During the reign of Stephen Báthory Poland ruled two main Baltic Sea ports: Gdańsk controlling the Vistula river trade and Riga controlling the Daugava River trade. Both cities were among the largest in the country. Around 70% the exports from Gdańsk were of grain.
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 folwark usually signed a contract with the merchants of Gdańsk, who controlled 80% of this inland trade, to ship the grain to Gdańsk. Many rivers in the Commonwealth were used for shipping, including the Vistula, which had a relatively well-developed infrastructure, with and granary. Most river shipping travelled north, with southward transport being less profitable, and barges and rafts often being sold off in Gdańsk for lumber.
In order to arrest recurrent flooding on the lower Vistula, the Prussian government in 1889–95 constructed an artificial channel about east of Gdańsk (German name: Danzig)—known as the Przekop (German: Weichseldurchstich; Polish: Przekop Wisły)—that acted as a huge sluice, diverting much of the Vistula flow directly into the Baltic Sea. As a result, the historic Vistula channel through Gdańsk lost much of its flow and was known thereafter as the Dead Vistula (German: Tote Weichsel; Polish: Martwa Wisła). German states acquired complete control of the region in 1795–1812 (see: Partitions of Poland), as well as during the World Wars, in 1914–1918 and 1939–1945.
From 1867 to 1917, after the collapse of the January Uprising (1863–1865), the Russian tsarist administration called the Congress Poland the Vistula Land."The name of the kingdom was changed to Privislinsky Krai, which was reduced to a tsarist province; it lost all autonomy and separate administrative institutions".
Almost 75% of the territory of interbellum Poland was drained northward into the Baltic Sea by the Vistula (total area of drainage basin of the Vistula within boundaries of the Second Polish Republic was , the Niemen (), the Oder () and the Daugava River ().
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.
The Auschwitz complex of concentration camps was at the confluence of the Vistula and the Soła rivers.the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, Auschwitz Environs, Summer 1944, online map Ashes of murdered Auschwitz victims were dumped into the river. Auschwitz-Birkenau: History & Overview Jewish Virtual Library
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.
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. However, the Soviets let down the Poles, stopping their advance at the Vistula and branding the insurgents as criminals in radio broadcasts."The Uprising remained the ultimate symbol of Communist betrayal and bad faith for Poles." "The Warsaw Rising was termed a 'criminal organization
In early 1945, in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, the Red Army crossed the Vistula and drove the German Wehrmacht back past the Oder river in Germany.
After the war in late 1946, the former Austrian Schutzstaffel member Amon Göth was sentenced to death and hanged 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.
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. Salt, timber, grain, and building stone were among goods shipped via that route between the 10th and 13th centuries.
(1978). 9780710086471, Routledge. ISBN 9780710086471 p.35
World War II
The Polish September campaign included battles over control of the mouth of the Vistula, and of the city of Gdańsk, close to the river delta. During the Invasion of Poland (1939), after the initial battles in Pomerelia, the remains of the Polish Army of Pomerania withdrew to the southern bank of the Vistula. After defending Toruń for several days, the army withdrew further south under pressure of the overall strained strategic situation, and took part in the main battle of Bzura.
See also
External links
Categories: Cieszyn Silesia, Rivers Of Kuyavian-pomeranian Voivodeship, Rivers Of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Rivers Of Lublin Voivodeship, Rivers Of Masovian Voivodeship, Rivers Of Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Rivers Of Poland, Rivers Of Pomeranian Voivodeship, Rivers Of Silesian Voivodeship, Rivers Of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Waterways In Poland
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