LOWER
SILESIA
According to analysts worldwide, Lower Silesia ranks among
Poland's fastest-developing regions.
The factors making it attractive to business are the following:
Lower Silesia is one of Poland’s border provinces, it has very good
home and international rail, road and air connections, its local
market is large, while at the same time the potential of the local
industry is significant and the human resources are ample and
varied. Since the early Middle Ages, the region has been a crossing
point of the main European trade routes. During the
industrialisation era, Lower Silesia housed a large number of
Europe’s first factories in many branches of industry. The modern
industry of the region is varied, the trade and services
well-developed, which makes Lower Silesia immune to fluctuations of
economy and gives plenty of cooperation opportunities. Favourable
climate and good quality soils in the central part of the region
foster the development of agriculture and the food processing
industry. The natural conditions – the Sudeten, large forests,
areas with favourable microclimate and plenty of spas – as well as
many historical buildings and rich cultural life make Lower Silesia
particularly attractive for tourists. Wrocław, the capital of Lower
Silesia, is considered by EU spatial planning institutions one of
the most significant centres of development and innovation in the
nascent new European space. The prospect of Poland’s integration
with the European Union makes the region all the more economically
attractive, a good testimony to which are numerous investments made
in the region by renowned international companies.
For the most part of its history Lower Silesia was a frontier land,
and at the same time one of the richest regions of whichever
country it happened to belong to. In the previous millennium, Lower
Silesia passed through the hands of many rulers. It was under the
rule of the Piast princes since 990, was taken over by the Czech
kings in 1335, then by the Austrian emperors from the Hapsburg
dynasty in 1526, and the Prussian kings in 1741. In the first half
of the 20th century it belonged to Germany, and after the fall of
the Third Reich in 1945 it became part of Poland again. Today, on
the threshold of the 21st century and of Poland’s integration with
the European Union, Lower Silesia wants to carry on with its
mission of being the meeting point of cultures and traditions and a
consolidator of different civilisations; as the Polish driving
force of development among European regions it certainly has the
potential to do so.
Area and climate
Located in south-western Poland and occupying 6.4% of its area,
Lower Silesia is one of the country's 16 provinces.
The Lower Silesia Province (województwo dolno?lšskie) borders on
the Czech Republic in the south (state border length - 432 km) and
Germany (Saxony) in the west (state border length - 80 km). The
neighbouring provinces are the Lubusz, Great Poland and Opole
Provinces (województwo lubuskie, wielkopolskie and opolskie). The
region has a varied landscape and three distinctive zones: the
lowland occupied by the Lower Silesian Forests (Bory Dolno?lšskie)
and the humid Milicz Forests (Lasy Milickie) in the north of the
region; the Silesian Lowland (Nizina ?lšska) along the proglacial
stream valley of the Oder River in the central part; and the rugged
foothills of the picturesque Sudeten mountains in the southern
part. The region's main river is the Oder (Poland's second biggest
river, over 700 kilometres long), and the highest peak is ?nieżka
(1602 m above sea level). The capital of the Province is Wrocław,
one of the country's main economic, scientific and cultural centres
of international significance. One of the features characteristic
of the Lower Silesian climate is the changeability of the weather.
It is here that masses of oceanic and continental air come
together. Despite that, the climate of Lower Silesia is mild, and
the lowlands of the Province are the warmest area of Poland. The
climate of the mountainous and submontane regions is different: in
terms of temperature, the climate of the Giant Mountains
(Karkonosze), the highest range of the Sudeten, is similar to that
of sub-polar regions. The average annual temperature here is low,
the winter long, and the summer short and cold. The mountainous
regions of the Province are famous for their strong winds, with
?nieżka being one of the most windy places in Europe.
The People
Lower Silesia is inhabited by almost 3 million people, or 7.7 % of
Poland's population.
For the past 50 years, Lower Silesians have been perceived as an
exceptional 'melting pot' of different nations, whose mixing led to
the creation of a completely new culture. This is due to the fact
that the region was settled between 1945 and 1947 by completely new
inhabitants. Immigrants came to Lower Silesia from different
regions of pre-war Poland, mostly from its eastern territories,
which after the new political division of Europe after World War II
became part of the Soviet Union (nowadays Lithuania, Belarus and
Ukraine). Thus, the present-day Lower Silesians form a relatively
young, well-educated, open and enterprising community. Most of them
inhabit the 89 towns of the Province. More than 30% of the region's
population inhabits its four biggest cities, with an equal
percentage living in the region's 2,930 villages. The region's
capital, Wrocław, is Poland's fourth most populated (640,000
inhabitants) and fifth biggest (292,000 square km) city. Other
major cities of the region include Legnica (109,000 inhabitants),
Wałbrzych (137,000 inhabitants) and Jelenia Góra (93,000
inhabitants). The towns of over 50,000 inhabitants include Głogów
(74,300 inhabitants), Lubin (82,700 inhabitants) and ?widnica
(65,000 inhabitants). There are 11 towns in the region populated by
more than 20,000 people. Smaller settlements are particularly
numerous in the Sudeten foothills and the Sudeten mountains
themselves, where there are many towns with fewer than 20,000
inhabitants in the inter-montane valleys. Many of these towns are
famous spas and holiday resorts.
Administrative division
The Lower Silesia Province is divided into 30 counties (powiat),
including four municipal counties, and 169 communes (36 municipal
communes, 54 communes of mixed municipal and rural character and 79
rural communes).
A province is Poland's largest administrative unit and the seat of
the local government. The local government of a province, the
regional assembly, is elected every four years in direct elections.
The regional assembly performs legislative and control functions
and is responsible for public undertakings on the regional level.
The regional assembly nominates members of the province executive
board, who work under the supervision of the chief executive
officer. Counties and communes are independent of the regional
assembly which does not supervise and control them in any way;
neither are they subordinate to any other authorities in
administrative procedures. The county is the second level in the
administrative division. A county council is elected every four
years in direct elections. The county councillors elect the county
executive board, whose activities are supervised by the county
governor. The responsibilities of the county include all public
administration activities that are outside the scope of communes'
authority, such as education, public transport, fighting
unemployment, etc. The commune is the basic administrative division
unit in which the legislative and control functions are performed
by the commune council elected every four years in direct
elections. Depending on the size of a commune, its executive
officer is called either prezydent (in larger cities), burmistrz
(in smaller towns) or wójt (in villages) and is also elected in
direct elections. The central government is represented in a
province by the province governor, who makes sure the decisions
made in the communes and counties are legitimate and supervises the
central government institutions, such as the police, the fire,
sanitary, epidemiological and veterinary inspection departments,
etc. A province's chief executive officer and the province governor
work independently of one another, implementing their respective
public administration tasks.
Transport
Lower Silesia's strategic location and excellent
transport network provide a perfect business and investment
environment.
There are four major international routes passing through Lower
Silesia: the E40 from Calais, via Brussels, Aachen, Dresden,
Legnica, Wrocław (the A4 motorway) to Opole and Cracow, and further
east to Lviv and Kiev; the E36 to Berlin, which joins the E40 near
Legnica; the E65 from Malmö via Ystad, ?winouj?cie, Legnica and
Jelenia Góra to Prague, Brno and further south to Athens; the E67
from Prague via Wrocław and Warsaw and further north to the Baltic
States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). There are also
international railroads crossing Lower Silesia. These include the
E30 from Germany to Ukraine and the E59 connecting the Szczecin-
?winouj?cie ports (offering connections to Scandinavia) with the
south of Europe. The well-developed Lower Silesian railroad system
makes Wrocław Poland's biggest rail communications centre for
passenger and goods trains. There are also regular flights from the
Wrocław International Airport to Frankfurt am Main, Munich, London,
Copenhagen, Vienna and Berlin, as well as regular domestic flights
to and from Warsaw. The airport has modern navigation equipment
which makes it possible for both passenger and cargo flights to
land and take off in any weather conditions. The significance of
the region in terms of transport is also boosted by the Oder
waterway that connects Lower Silesia with the Szczecin-?winouj?cie
sea ports and, through a network of channels, with Berlin and the
entire European inland navigation network.
The Economic Profile
In terms of economy, the Lower Silesia Province is one of Poland's
best developed regions.
Since Lower Silesia is also one of the country's most
industrialized regions, its contribution to Polish GNP has for some
time been at a constant and relatively high level. The companies
seated in Lower Silesia are numerous and the scope of their
business activities is very diversified. The region's leading
industry sectors include electrical machinery, electronics, motor
vehicle, power, construction, chemical and food-processing
industries, while the traditional industries include coal, copper
ore and mineral resources mining and the production of clothes,
fabrics and china. The Lower Silesia Province is Poland's leading
supplier of many types of industrial goods. The region ranks: - 1st
in the production of electrical turbo-machines, domestic
refrigerators, deep freezers, washing machines, spin-driers and
cookers, table porcelain and china, and crystal glass; - 2nd in the
production of cotton and cotton-like fabrics, machinery and tools
for the construction industry, machinery and tools for road
construction and land improvement industries, as well as detergents
and washing-up liquids. Tourism also plays an important role in the
region's economy. Thanks to favourable natural conditions,
ampleness of historical buildings and the relatively well-developed
infrastructure, Lower Silesia is one of Poland's main tourist
regions.
The Economy
Lower Silesia is one of Europe's richest mineral
deposit regions.
The minerals found in Lower Silesia are the basis for the
development of mining, as well as for many other branches of the
region's industry. The most important minerals include lignite
(Bogatynia), copper ore (Legnica-Głogów), paving and building
stone, fire-resistant clay (Rusko-Jaroszów) and hard coal
(Wałbrzych-Nowa Ruda). Mining of the last one has been
discontinued. The copper deposits are extracted by KGHM "Polska
Miede" SA in Lubin (approx. 400,000 tonnes per year), one of
Poland's largest companies. The company employs close to 21,000
people and is quoted at the Warsaw and London Stock Exchanges.
Apart from copper, KGHM "Polska Miede" also extracts gold, silver
(in quantities affecting its world prices) and salt. The company
has been going through a restructuring process and is currently
investing in other sectors in the region, not directly related with
the copper industry, e.g. in telecommunications. Turów SA (power
plant) in Bogatynia (2105 MW) fuelled by lignite excavated in the
nearby strip mine is one of the leading Polish power plants. As a
result of the modernisation process performed in the 1990s (being
one of the largest operations of its kind in Europe) the power
plant currently meets the EU green policy requirements and is a
perfect example of the coexistence of the natural environment and
industry. The natural resources such as clay, aggregate or rock are
extracted and processed by numerous Lower Silesian companies.
Construction ceramics (bricks and roof tiles), for instance, is
produced by the manufacturing plant in ?roda ?lšska being one of
Poland's biggest Röben plants. Ceramic tiles are produced by
"Przyborsk" and "Polcolorit" near Jelenia Góra, top quality china
by "Ksi±ż" and "Karolina" in the vicinity of Wałbrzych, rocks and
road construction aggregates are processed by Wrocławskie
Przedsi´biorstwo Surowców Mineralnych SA, granite is extracted by a
number of companies near Strzegom, and marble is found in the
Kłodzko region.
The Wrocław-based ABB Dolmel factory, a leading producer of
turbines and power generators, has for many years been the
showpiece of Lower Silesian industry. The most significant
producers of electric machinery include PAFAL in ?widnica, Alstom
REFA in ?wiebodzice, FAREL in Z±bkowice ¦l±skie and Elektromontaż
in Wrocław. Other significant producers include Zakłady Mechaniczne
LEGMET (LEGMET Mechanical Plant) in Legnica and Archimedes SA in
Wrocław - the only Polish producer of pneumatic tools. Machines for
the paper industry are produced by Beloit Polska in Jelenia Góra -
one of the world's leaders in this line of business. Fabryka Maszyn
Górnictwa Odkrywkowego FAMAGO SA, the world's largest producer of
strip mining machines, is located in Zgorzelec, while Wrocław seats
Poland's leading producers of household equipment: "Wrozamet" and
"Polar", which supply 50-80% of the country's washing machines,
refrigerators and cookers. Zakłady Samochodowe "Jelcz" SA (Jelcz
Automotive Factory) has a long tradition of producing buses;
additionally, it also produces MAN engines. In the 1990s, a truck
assembly plant, and later a bus factory was established in Wrocław
by Volvo, while WABCO, one of the world's leaders in the production
of braking systems, set up a greenfi eld factory in the city.
Volkswagen, for its part, has been producing engines in a new
factory in Polkowice, while Toyota started the production of gear
boxes in °arów near Wałbrzych. There are also other signifi - cant
manufacturers of car parts, components and accessories in the Lower
Silesia Province. Wrocław's outstanding achievements in electronics
and data-processing industry (the first Polish computers were
produced here in the 1980s) were the basis of the success story of
JTT Computer SA, currently one of Poland's major producers of
computer hardware.
Rokita SA in Brzeg Dolny, the supplier of approximately 25% of
Polish raw materials for the production of plastics and a
pesticides producer is the biggest chemical plant in Lower Silesia.
A number of companies that further process its products have been
founded nearby, such as Vita Polymers Polska, a producer of
polyurethane foam used in furniture making and in the automotive
industry. The Wrocław-based Polifarb Cieszyn - Wrocław S.A. is the
country's leader in the production of paints for the construction
industry, while the Wrocław Cussons factory (previously called
Pollena) is leading the fi eld of household cleansing. Jelfa SA
from Jelenia Góra has for many years been the leader in the
pharmaceutical industry; other companies in this fi eld include the
fast-developing Hasco-Lek from Wrocław founded in the 1990s,
Wrocławskie Zakłady Zielarskie Herbapol SA, a producer of herbal
medicines and health supplements of 50 years standing, and Wrocław
Viscoplast-3M SA, a leading producer of dressings and bandages.
Also many Lower Silesian food-processing companies are at the
forefront in their fi eld. The "Piast" beer is the product of the
Browary Dolno¶l±skie brewery, sweets and confectionery are produced
by ¦nieżka from ¦wiebodzice and Cadbury-Wedel SA located near
Wrocław, Cargill's factory of glucose syrup is also located in the
vicinity of the city, while McCain Foods produces potato chips in
Strzelin. The Lower Silesian weaving industry has a very long
tradition. Today, the leaders of the textile industry include the
producers of cotton fabrics such as Bielbaw SA and Bieltex SA, and
the world-famous producers of linen from Kamienna Góra and
Mysłakowice. The Wrocław-based Intermoda S.A. is one of Poland's
five largest producers of men's wear.
Special Economic Zones
The authorities of Lower Silesia have been striving to provide
investors with favourable business environment through the creation
of special economic zones and districts of economic activity.
At present, there are three Special Economic Zones and the Wrocław
Technology Park. Investors in any of those areas are offered tax
allowances and simplifi ed administrative procedures while setting
up their activities. At the end of 2000, as many as 102 companies
were licensed to conduct business activity in the Special Economic
Zones, along with 28 production plants employing 5,300 people. The
Legnica Special Economic Zone was founded in the most
industrialized part of the Province, in the Legnica-Głogów Copper
Basin (Legnicko-Głogowskie Zagłębie Miedziowe). The idea behind its
foundation was to create an alternative for the dominant copper
industry and to develop the areas degraded by the Soviet troops
during their stationing in Poland. The Wałbrzych Special Economic
Zone was created in a region where coal mining and textile industry
had dominated for many years. The closing down of the coal mines in
the 1990s led to a signifi - cant deterioration of the economic
condition of many companies that used to cooperate with the mines,
which resulted in a massive increase in the rate of unemployment.
The Kamienna Góra Small Business Special Economic Zone was founded
in the Sudeten region, where traditional branches of industry have
been disappearing along with many companies, while the region
itself has a lot of development potential for the tourist industry.
In Wrocław, the Technology Park is under construction which
provides conditions for taking full advantage of the scientifi c
and industrial capacity of the city. The Technology Park was
designed for high-tech companies as well as for laboratories and
scientific, research and development institutions.
Foreign Investment
The Lower Silesia Province is among Poland’s leading regions in
terms of the number of companies with foreign capital and the
amount of the foreign capital invested.
Over 4,600 companies with foreign capital are registered in Lower
Silesia; they account for over 30% of all commercial companies
registered in the Province. In the 1990s, direct foreign investment
in Lower Silesia exceeded 1.7 billion US dollars. 170 companies
invested more than 1 million US dollars here. The biggest investors
in Lower Silesia come from: • Great Britain, 21 companies, includ-
ing: Cadbury Schweppes, Cussons Group Ltd., British Vita, BOC, Coca
Cola, Tesco, Shell, BP, GKN; • USA, 27 companies, including:
PepsiCo, Cargill, McDonald’s, Ameri- can Retail System (American
Interna- tional Group Inc.), Armstrong, Gerber Comp., 3M; •
Germany, 53 companies, including: BTR Automotive, Siemens, Röben,
Tonbaustoffe, Bayerische Hypo und Vereinsbank AG, Metro, Mercedes
(Zasada Group), Flessner, Volkswa- gen, HIT, Makro, Selgros, OBI,
Aral, Schöller, Schneider, DEA, Real, Auto- motive, Petri, Mini
Mal; • France, 17 companies, including: Castorama, Carrefour,
Géant, Alsthom; • Sweden and Switzerland, 6 compa- nies, including:
ABB, Volvo, IKEA, SCA; • the Netherlands, 8 companies, includ- ing:
SCA Molnlycke, Boart Longyer; • Canada, 4 companies, including:
McCain, Northern Telecom. So far, the biggest investment in the
Province was the acquisition of 80% of shares in Bank Zachodni SA
by Allied Irish Bank PLC for 582 million
dollars.
Human Resources
The high qualifications of the Lower Silesians are
one of the driving forces of the region’s economic
development.
Lower Silesia is characterized by a high percentage of people with
college and university diplomas (7.1%), while approximately 55% of
its inhabitants are secondary school graduates. There are 26
schools of higher education in the Province, with over 131,000
students (8.3% of the total of students in Poland). With its 21
schools of higher education and 96,000 students, Wrocław is the
most signifi cant academic centre of the region and one of Poland’s
most important academic centres. Wrocław’s universities employ
6,500 full-time lecturers, including 1,150 professors. The biggest
higher education schools are the University of Wrocław, the Wrocław
University of Technology, the Wrocław School of Economics and the
Medical School. The most signifi cant achievements of the Wrocław
scientists include pioneering research on strong magnetic fi elds,
low temperatures and the phenomenon of superconductivity as well as
immunology and experimental therapy. Higher education schools in
other cities and towns of the region can be found in Legnica,
Wałbrzych, Âwidnica, Kłodzko and Jelenia Góra. Most of them are
private vocational schools and business schools or local branches
of the Wrocław universities. The courses offered refl ect the
market needs of the local communities. In Jelenia Góra, for
instance, courses dedicated to the tourist industry are offered,
while in Legnica it is possible to work for the MBA degree. The
high qualifi cations of the Lower Silesians gain recognition of
foreign investors. A good example of such appreciation is the fact
that after its buses had been produced in Wrocław for a couple of
years, Volvo Bus Corporation decided to open its Industrial Centre
here. One of the company’s brochures reads: “The vehicles produced
in the Wrocław plant are very high quality, while the Polish
engineering staff and assembly line workers proved to be fl exible,
well-educated and fully capable of performing the tasks they were
entrusted with.
Business Environment
The dynamic development of the Lower Silesian economy is
accompanied by an even faster development of institutions fostering
entrepreneurship, companies providing services for businesses and
government and non-governmental business agencies and
organisations.
The financial infrastructure in the region is also very well
developed: four banks have their head offices here, there are also
over 200 branches of commercial and 106 branches of cooperative
banks. Poland’s largest leasing company has its head office in
Wrocław. The region’s development is supported by 5 consulting and
training centres, 2 local loan and guarantee and loan funds, 5
business incubators and technology parks and 1 venture capital
fund. Business is also assisted by agencies for regional and local
development, three Special Economic Zones and numerous business
organizations and associations for the business people. Services
for businesses are also available from some of the higher education
schools in the Province, including the Wrocław School of Economics,
the Wrocław University of Technology, the Wałbrzych College of
Business and Management and the Wrocław Centre for Technology
Transfer whose task is to look for innovative projects among
scientifi c and research institutions. Wrocław is also an important
trade fair and show centre. The most important events include
TARBUD International Construction Fair, TASPOL Food Processing
Industry Fair, and the International Fair of Electronics,
Telecommunications and Electrical Engineering. Lower Silesia, and
Wrocław in particular, has a very good hotel and offi ce
infrastructure along with a modern network of shopping centres.
Most of them were constructed over the last 10 years by renowned
companies and in accordance with the EU standards
Agriculture and Forestry
Although not a typically agricultural area, Lower Silesia has a
climate conducive to farming.
The central, lowland part of the Province offers perfect conditions
for agriculture. Fertile soils, predominantly class I and II,
provide good crops of cereals, potatoes and sugar beet. The
vegetation season, when the mean daily temperature remains above
5°C, is the longest in Poland and lasts more than 245 days in a
year, which makes the local farming very productive. There are more
than 65 thousand farms registered in Lower Silesia. An average farm
occupies approximately 10 ha (30% more than the national average).
Arable land accounts for 58% of the Province’s area. Close to 165
thousand people (15% of the total number of the working population
of the region) work in agriculture and forestry. The Lower Silesian
Agricultural and Foodstuffs Wholesale Market was established in
Wroc?aw. It is one of the eight commodity exchanges of
supra-regional importance, whose technical facilities make it
possible to monitor the prices of foodstuffs and agricultural
products quoted by other exchanges in Poland and abroad. Forests
occupy close to 30% of the area of the Province. The prevailing
part of the woodland are protected areas (in total, they comprise
approx. 20% of the Province’s area). Timber stock of the Lower
Silesian forests ise forests her sectorsocessing an are protected
areas er Silesia estimated at 110 million cubic metres and it is
used as raw material by the timber industry and by timberprocessing
plants in other sectors. The Lower Silesian forests enhance the
tourist attractiveness and health resort aspects of the region.
Special protection is provided for the woodland areas located in 2
national parks (Giant Mountains National Park and Table Mountains
National Park), 12 landscape parks and 14 protected landscape
areas, as well as in the vicinity of Lower Silesian numerous health
resorts.
Culture
Lower Silesia houses numerous arts institutions and is home of many
outstanding artists.
The cultural capital of the region is Wrocław which, beside Warsaw
and Cracow, is among Poland’s most signifi cant cultural centres.
Wrocław boasts two theatres, an operetta, a pantomime theatre, a
puppet theatre, a philharmonic, 10 museums, numerous galleries,
three arts colleges and a large group of artists. Cultural life is
also vibrant in other towns of the region that have excellent arts
institutions: there are theatres, philharmonics and museums in
Legnica, Jelenia Góra and Wałbrzych. The sprouting of numerous
informal arts groups is a new phenomenon observed recently in the
region’s smaller towns and villages, where what can be termed ‘arts
colonies’ (e.g. in the village of Michałowice near Jelenia Góra)
and alternative culture centres are being founded. In the 1960s and
70s Wrocław was viewed as Poland’s capital of the theatre and one
of the world’s capitals of avantgarde theatre. Wrocław was the home
of the Laboratory Theatre led by Jerzy Grotowski, an outstanding
producer and reformer of the 20th century theatre. Avant-garde
tendencies are also characteristic of the Lower Silesian visual
artists, many of whom boast outstanding achievements including
works in glass, ceramics, poster and industrial design. Music also
plays a signifi cant role in the cultural life of Lower Silesia.
Many outstanding composers live in the region, and plenty of music
festivals, a Lower Silesian speciality, are organized here. The
most signifi cant of those is the 40-year-standing “Wratislavia
Cantans” held in the historical churches in Wrocław and in a number
of other towns of the region. Each year, the festival hosts a few
thousand artists from all over the world.
Tourism
Lower Silesia abounds in tourist attractions and leisure
facilities.
The Sudeten and their foothills, the Kłodzko Valley, numerous
castles, Cistercian monasteries, historical churches, many places
of worship, spas, relics of technology, Gothic and Baroque
treasures of Wroc?aw and other Lower Silesian towns are a real
magnet for both Polish and foreign tourists; it is estimated that
Lower Silesia hosts an average 4 million tourists a year. The
diversity of the region’s relief (ranging from mountainous areas in
the south to lowland, densely forested areas with plenty of ponds
in the north), numerous tourist trails, picturesque landscapes,
historical treasures and the climate make Lower Silesia a place
where even the most demanding tastes will be satisfi ed. Visitors
to the health resorts, holidaymakers, hikers, skiing and mountain
bikes enthusiasts, climbers, canoeists, and even gliders and
hang-gliders will find the local climate conditions and tourist
facilities more than satisfactory. Lower Silesia is also famous for
its spas; there are 12 health resorts in the region. The region’s
spas have been known since the Middle Ages and they attracted many
visitors from all over Europe already in the 18th and 19th
centuries. The Lower Silesian spas are also popular holiday
destinations. Due to the relatively mild climate, snow in the vast
expanses of the Silesian Lowland is rare. However, just a few dozen
miles to the south the region is a real skiing paradise where
abundant snow is guaranteed. The fi rst snow covers the peaks of
the Giant Mountains as early as October and often stays there until
May. In the Sudeten the skiers and snowboarders will have a lot of
famous skiing resorts to choose from, as well as numerous ski runs
and tourist trails in small, peaceful holiday
resorts. |
