POLAND TRAVELOGUE 1933 KRAKOW, KATOWICE, GDANSK, WARSAW 56554

This 1933 short film, “A Flying Visit to Poland,” produced by the Gdynia-America Line, gives an overview of visiting Poland, touching on many of Poland’s places of interest. The film begins in Krakow (or Kracow) with ancient city’s highlights: the Trumpeter of Krakow (01:00); St. Mary’s Church (01:17); the Wawel, a national shrine also referred to as Poland’s tower of London (01:23); the old cobbled streets of Krakow (01:27); the Barbican, Krakow’s old circular fort (01:34); and an ancient chapel carved out of salt at the entrance of the Wieliczka salt mines (1:40). The next stop on the tour is Katowice (02:05), an industrial city dubbed the Pittsburg of Poland. With its massive iron and steel industry (02:10), it provides the steel needed to build Poland’s own railroad equipment and locomotives (02:25), as well as Poland’s own bridges (02:33). Coal is another major resource harvested from Katowice and the larger Silesian province (02:40). Lumber is another major resource of Poland, and lumberjacks chop trees down (03:12) and then floated downriver (03:29) to Gdansk and Gdynia for export; Poland is also an oil producer (03:40). The film then turns to coastal city of Gdynia (03:59). The city quickly grew into a modern city with its massive harbor (04:14). The film’s next stop is Czestochowa (04:35), home to the famous Jasna Gora monastery and its international religious procession celebrating the feast day of Our Lady of Czestochowa (04:41). Religious processions occur all over, such as in Lowicz, complete with the national costumes of Poland (05:02). The film then looks at rural society (05:28), dominated by agriculture. Farmers grow and harvest a number of different crops and, accordingly, celebrate the Harvest Festival (05:48). Part of that entails presenting part of the harvest to President Ignacy Moscicki (05:55). The film then shows a traditional wedding ceremony with Polish customs (06:10), followed by traditional Polish dancing (06:55). The viewer is then taken to Warsaw (07:28), home to the Opera House in Theatre Square (07:44), the Prince Poniatowski Bridge (08:00), Czapski Palace featuring the statue of Prince Joseph Poniatowski (08:05), the building of the Ministry of Industry (08:12), the modern architecture of the Polish Printing Office (08:19), the Aviator’s Monument (08:26), and the birthplace of Frederic Chopan (08:37). Next is a trip to Starego Miasta, Warsaw’s medieval marketplace, for a visit to Fukier, Europe’s oldest wine shop and one of the most famous (08:45). Fukier is home to thousands of bottles of wine and vintages that are several centuries old. Next is a stop at the celebrations of the 250th Anniversary of John Sobieski’s victory over the Ottomans at the 1683 Battle of Vienna (09:27), complete with presentations of Poland’s army. Marshal Jozef Pilsudski presides over the festivities (09:54), before returning to Belveder Palace (10:06) where Pilsudski is greeted by children who celebrate his contribution to the creation of modern Poland. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.“ This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit