1. Famous Polish men and women www.poland.gov.pl

2. Magdalena Abakanowicz

3. Magdalena Abakanowicz (born 1930) - sculptor, professor at the College of Fine Arts in Poznan, lecturer at the University of California. She has some 100 one-woman exhibitions to her name.

4. She has received many awards, including the Grand Culture Foundation Prize in 2001.

5. Adam Małysz

6. Adam Malysz (born 1977) - ski jumper
Adam Malysz (born 1977) - ski jumper. In the 2000/2001 season he had a wide array of astounding victories

7. In Predazzo in 2003 he won both gold medals.

8. He won the World Cup in 2000/2001, 2001/2002, and 2002/2003.

9. He brought back two medals from the Olympics in Salt Lake City: a silver and a bronze.

10. Agnieszka Holland

11. Agnieszka Holland (born 1948) - film, theatre and television director.

12. She is a member of the European Film Academy and was nominated for an Oscar for ‘Bitter Harvest’

13. Her best known films are: ‘To Kill a Priest’ (1988), ‘Europa, Europa’ (1990, Golden Globe), ‘The Secret Garden’ (1994),

14. Andrzej Wajda

15. Andrzej Wajda (born 1926) - director, member of the ‘Immortal Circle’ of the French Academy of Fine Arts.

16. His best films are: ‘Canal’ 1957, won the Silver Palm award at Cannes, ‘Promised land’ 1974, nominated for an Oscar, won awards in Gdansk and Moscow

17. ‘Man of Iron’ (1981, Golden Palm at Cannes)

18. In 1996 he was awarded the Silver Bear award in Berlin
In he was awarded the Silver Bear award in Berlin. In the German president awarded him the Great Cross of Merit.

19. Czeslaw Milosz

20. Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) - poet, prose writer, essayist, translator.

21. Nobel Prize -winner in 1980 and Polish Nike Prize -winner in 1998 for ‘The little wayside dog’.

22. His most important collections of poetry are: ‘Rescue’ 1945, ‘Daylight’ 1953, ‘A Treatise on Poetry,’ 1957, ‘The City Without a Name’ ‘That’ 2000

23. Fryderyk Chopin

24. Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) - pianist and the greatest Polish composer.

25. Spent most of his life abroad, amongst other places, in France.

26. He wrote his works especially for the piano, including concerts, sonatas, etudes, preludes, polonaises, mazurkas and waltzes.

27. His works had an enormous influence on the music of the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

28. Nicolaus Copernicus

29. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) - renowned astronomer.

30. He studied in Torun, Cracow and then in Bologna, Padova and Ferrara, where he earned a doctorate in canonical law.

31. As the first in modern times he developed a heliocentric theory of the Solar System.

32. He published his discoveries in the year of his death in the work ‘On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres’

33. Krzysztof Kieslowski

34. Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996) - film director and script writer.

35. ‘Ten Commandments I - X’ made in marked his permanent position in the film world (FIPRESCI award).

36. He had similar successes with ‘The double life of Veronique’ 1991,

37. ‘Three Colours: Blue’ won the Golden Lion in Venice, ‘Three Colours: White’ Silver Bear in Berlin and ‘Three Colours: Red’ nominated for an Oscar)

38. He won dozens of awards and distinctions for his work in film, for example the ‘Felix’ from the European Film Academy

39. Marek Kaminski

40. Marek Kaminski (born 1964) - traveller, in 1995 he was the first person to reach both poles: the North Pole on 23rd May 1995 and the South Pole on 27 Dec

41. Roman Polański

42. Roman Polanski (born 1935) - actor, director, script writer, graduate of the Łódź Film School.

43. ‘Knife in Water’1962, Oscar nomination, FIPRESCI at Venice, Grand Prix at Prades

44. ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ 1968 Oscar nomination, ‘Chinatown’ 1974, Golden Globe in Hollywood,

45. ‘Tess’ 1980, Caesar Award for film and director,

46. ‘Pirates’ 1986, ‘Frantic’ 1988, ‘The Pianist’ 2001, Golden Palm at Cannes.

47. He has been a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts since 1999.

48. Robert Korzeniowski

49. Robert Korzeniowski (born 1968) - athlete
Robert Korzeniowski (born 1968) - athlete. Twice Olympic 50 km walking champion, in 1996 and 2000, and 20 km champion in 2000.

50. Twice world 50 km walking champion (1997, 2001)
Twice world 50 km walking champion (1997, 2001). A Council of Europe ambassador for tolerance and fair play.

51. Wislawa Szymborska

52. Wislawa Szymborska (born 1923) - poet and literary critic.

53. Awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1996

54. In 2001 she became an honorary member of the American Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, the most important American distinction awarded to renowned artists.

55. Her most important collections of verses are: ‘View of a Grain of Sand’ 1996, ‘Beginning and End’ and ‘A Hundred Verses, a Hundred Joys’ 1997

56. Aleksander Wolszczan

57. Aleksander Wolszczan (born 1946) - astronomer.

58. He is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Toruń University.

59. In he was the first to prove the existence of a planetary system in the Universe outside of our solar system.

60. John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła (1920-2005)

61. He was the first in the history of the Church to hold prayer meetings with all religions.

62. He opened up dialogue with the Jews.

63. He was on more than 200 foreign trips, several times to Poland.