Mazovia

Mazovia

*Mazowsze*
Mazovia Mazowsze
Historical region
	Coat of arms
	Three historical Mazovian voivodeships in comparison with contemporary Polish voivodeships
Country	Poland
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Mazovia or Masovia (Polish: Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It goes across the North European Plain. It is between Łódź and Białystok. Warsaw is the unofficial capital city. Warsaw is also the largest city in the region. Throughout the centuries, Mazovia made a different culture than other Polish cultures.

Historical Mazovia existed from the Middle Ages until the partitions of Poland. It was made up of three voivodeships with the capitals in Warsaw, Płock and Rawa. The main city of the region was Płock.^[1] At the time, Płock was the capital of Poland. Later, however, Płock lost its importance to Warsaw. Warsaw then became the capital of Poland. From 1138, Mazovia was led by a branch of the Piast dynasty. When the last ruler of the independent Duchy of Mazovia died, it became fully part of the Polish Crown in 1526. The Mazovian Governorate was made in 1816. It had land in the south part of the region along with Łęczyca Land and south-eastern Kuyavia. The Mazovian Governorate lasted until 1844. The old ethnic group of Mazovia are the Masurians. They settled in Masuria in southern Prussia in the Late Middle Ages. There they converted to Protestantism in the Reformation era.

Historical lands of Mazovia

The Mazovian Voivodeship was created in 1999. The borders of this voivodeship are not the same as the region of Mazovia. This is because the borders do not have the Mazovian cities of Łomża and Łowicz, but do have the Lesser Polish cities of Radom and Siedlce.

Main cities and towns[change | change source]

The following table lists the cities in Mazovia with a population greater than 20,000 (2015):

	City	Population (2015)^[2]	Voivodeship in 1750	Voivodeship in 2016	Additional information
1.	Warsaw	1 724 404	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Capital of Poland, former royal city of Poland.
2.	Płock	122 815	Płock Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Historical capital of Masovia, former capital of Poland, former royal city of Poland.
3.	Łomża	62 711	Masovian Voivodeship	Podlaskie Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
4.	Pruszków	59 570	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
5.	Legionowo	54 231	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
6.	Ostrołęka	52 917	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
7.	Skierniewice	48 634	Rawa Voivodeship	Łódź Voivodeship	Former private bishop town of Poland.
8.	Otwock	45 044	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
9.	Piaseczno	44 869	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland, part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
10.	Ciechanów	44 797	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
11.	Żyrardów	41 096	Rawa Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship
12.	Mińsk Mazowiecki	39 880	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
13.	Wołomin	37 505	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
14.	Sochaczew	37 480	Rawa Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
15.	Ząbki	31 884	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
16.	Mława	30 880	Płock Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
17.	Grodzisk Mazowiecki	29 907	Rawa Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former private town of the Mokronoski family, part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
18.	Łowicz	29 420	Rawa Voivodeship	Łódź Voivodeship	Temporary de facto capital of Poland in years 1572–1573, former private bishop town.
19.	Marki	29 032	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
20.	Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki	28 287	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former private town, part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
21.	Wyszków	27 222	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former private bishop town of Poland.
22.	Piastów	22 826	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.
23.	Ostrów Mazowiecka	22 796	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
24.	Płońsk	22 494	Płock Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
25.	Zambrów	22 451	Masovian Voivodeship	Podlaskie Voivodeship	Former royal city of Poland.
26.	Grajewo	22 246	Masovian Voivodeship	Podlaskie Voivodeship	Northernmost and easternmost town of Mazovia. It borders the regions of Podlachia and Masuria.
27.	Kobyłka	20 855	Masovian Voivodeship	Masovian Voivodeship	Part of the Warsaw metropolitan area.