Geographical Names of the Republic of Poland

The Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography initiated at the end of seventies publication of national gazetteer, offering financial support for its preparation and printing. In 1991 as a result of multiyear works volume Geographical names of the Republic of Poland (Nazwy geograficzne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), ordered by the Surveyor General of Poland, was prepared by a group of editors from the State Cartographic Publishing House. It contains about 28000 names established by the Commission on Standardization of Names of Localities and Physiographic Objects, affiliated at the Ministers Council Office.

The 782-page gazetteer consists of three parts. First part comprises names of voivodships, communes and districts of larger cities. Second part includes names of 22800 localities having more than 1000 inhabitants (and other more important); each name is accompanied by geographical coordinates, name of voividship (division before 1998) and name of commune, where it is situated. Third part contains names of 5200 physiographic objects (including 2000 names of rivers and 1800 names of water bodies); they are also accompanied by location. The gazetteer was equipped with 7 colour maps of Poland at scales 1:1.500.000 and 1:6.000.000: Administrative division (2 maps), Natural regions (3 maps), Historical and ethnographic regions and Forests, national and landscape parks. All titles, prefaces, introductions and explanations were given in Polish and English.