Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland (Polish: Małopolska, Latin: Polonia Minor) is a historical region (dzielnica) of Poland; its capital is the city of Kraków.

It should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only the south-western part of Lesser Poland. Historical Lesser Poland is much bigger than the current voivodeship which bears its name, stretching from Bielsko-Biała in the south-west as far as to Siedlce in the north-east. It consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Kraków, Sandomierz and Lublin. It has almost 60,000 km² and about 9,000,000 inhabitants. Its landscape is mainly hilly, with Karpaty mountains in the south; it is located it the basin of upper Vistula. It has been famous for its mighty aristocracy (magnateria) and rich nobility (średnia szlachta).

In the wider sense (see Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown), Lesser Poland encompassed from the 14th century also Ruś Czerwona, and from 16th century Podlasie and Ukraine.

In the era of partitions its southern part was Galicia, which sometimes used to be called incorrectly Lesser Poland. As a result of this long-lasting division, many inhabitants of the northern part of the pre-partition region of Poland (with such cities as Lublin, Radom, Kielce and Częstochowa) have lost their Lesser Poland's identity.