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How many world famous people, whose homeland is Poland can you mention? If the number is less than five – you should definitely read this chapter! Poland is a birthplace of lots of really well known people – the scientists, artists, composers, poets, saints or... businessmen. All of them contributed to the science or culture. Some of the names have become well recognized symbols of their fileds!

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

 Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun. He is one of the most famous scientists: a mathematician, doctor, lawyer, economist, but first of all the greatest astronomer. He has become world famous for its work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium revealing the revolutionary heliocentric theory of the universe. He died in Frombork and was buried in the local Cathedral.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934)

Maria Skłodowska-Curie was born in Warszawa and was one of the greatests European scintists. She announced the theory of radioactivity and discovered the two new chemical elements: radium and polonium. For her discoveries in the chemistry she was twice awarded the Nobel Prize – till today Maria Skłodowska-Curie is the only women who has got this prize twice. In Warszawa, in the are of the Old Town there is the Musuem of Maria Sklodowska-Curie.

Fryderyk Chopin (1810 – 1849)

Fryderyk Chopin was one of the greatest composers in the history of music and the piano virtuoso. He used to be called the Poet of the Piano. He wrote countless music pieces, among them famous mazurkas or the Etude of Revolituion. He was born in Zelazowa Wola nearby Warszawa, where till today there is his family house. It was changed into a small musuem of the composer.Fryderyk Chopin did in Paris, in exile (beacuse of the politial situation in Poland he had to leave the country). Hiis heart however was buried in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warszawa.

Artur Rubinstein (1887 - 1982)

Artur Rubinstein was one of the most famous pianists, who gave more than 6000 concerts having tournees around Europe, and Americas. His career lasted almost 80 years. He was born in Lodz in Central Poland.  He left the country with his family in 1939 and settled down in USA, where he was given citizenship. In Lodz, his hometown there is a beautiful monument commemorating the pianist. In the famous Blikle cake shop in Warszawa one can see the photographs from his last visit to Warszawa (1979).

Lech Walesa (born 1943)

Lech Walesa was born in Popowo in 1943. A winner of the Peace Nobel Prize (1983), leader of the Solidarity movement who contributed to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. He was working as an electrician in a Shipyard in Gdansk, leading the workers strikes against the communists. He was elected the first president of independent Poland (1990-95).

Irena Sendlerowa (1910 – 2008)

Irena Sendlerowa - one of the Righteous Among the Nations for helping Jewish children during World War II in Poland. As a symbol of empathy with Jewish people during the war she was also wearing a band with a Star of David around her arm (she had no Jewish origins). Irena Sendlerowa was smuggling the Jewish children out of the ghetto in Warszawa, finding the hiding places for them and the new families – due to her heroism she saved about 2500 Jewish children from Holocaust. She has her own tree in Yad Vashem.

John Paul II (1920 – 2005)

 John Paul II seems to be one of the most famous Popes in the history. His name was Karol Wojtyla. He was the Krakow's bishop, cardinal, after the election in 1979 the Pope John Paul II. He has become the great apostle of the reconciliation of the nations and religions. In Poland there is a special route of John Paul II retracing his life and mission.

St. Sister Faustina (1905 – 1938)

Faustyna Kowalska was canonized by John Paul II in 2000, known as the Apostle of God's Mercy. She was buried in Krakow in Lagiewniki, where the world famous shrine of Divine Mercy is.

Wisława Szymborska (born in 1923)

Wisława Szymborska is one of the world famous Polish poets. She is alsothe literature translator and the literature critic. In 1996 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2001 she received the diploma of the American Academy od Art and Literature, the most important award given by this institution to the prominent artists.

Roman Polański (born 1933)

Roman Polański – one of the world famous directors, the autor of e. g. Oliver Twist, The Ninth Gate, or Frantic. Born in 1933 in a Polish Jewish family in Paris, in 1937 he moved to Krakow, were he survived the World War II (in a village Wysoka, nearby Krakow). In 2003 he was given Oscar award for his film The Pianist.

Helena Rubinstein (1870 - 1965)

Helena Rubinstein, known as Queen of Cosmetics, was born in 1870 in Krakow, in the Jewish town called Kazimierz (her family house is there till today). She has become one of the most famous cosmetics industrialist and the founder of eponym of Helen Rubinstein company. In 1902 she moved to Australia and then to London, where she started her international career producing creams based on her mum's receipt. She died in New York.

Max Factor (1872 - 1938)

Max Factor – the inventor of the cosmetics and the founder of the Max Factor company. He was born in 1872 in a poor Jewish family in Lodz. As a small boy he was working in a pharmacy and at the dentists, making his first experiments with mixing the creams and medicines. When he was 20 he opened his first shop in Moscow – very soon he started working for the Tzars court providing cosmetics. In 1904 he moved to USA to start his great career.