Wałbrzych County ( Polish : powiat wałbrzyski ; German : Waldenburg ) is a unit of territorial administration and local government ( powiat ) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship , south-western Poland . It was created on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. The county covers an area of 514.2 square kilometres (198.5 sq mi). Its administrative seat is the city of Wałbrzych , which is located outside of the county, and it also contains the towns of Boguszów-Gorce , Głuszyca , Szczawno-Zdrój , Jedlina-Zdrój and Mieroszów .
33-471: When the county came into being in 1999, the city of Wałbrzych was not part of its territory, although it served as the county seat. As of 2003 the city county ( powiat grodzki ) of Wałbrzych was incorporated into Wałbrzych County. Wałbrzych became again a separate city county starting from 1 January 2013 and is no longer part of the Wałbrzych County (powiat wałbrzyski). As of 2019 the total population of
66-461: A county , district or prefecture ( LAU-1 [formerly NUTS-4 ]) in other countries. The term " powiat " is most often translated into English as "county" or "district" (sometimes "poviat"). In historical contexts, this may be confusing because the Polish term hrabstwo (an administrative unit administered/owned by a hrabia ( count ) is also literally translated as "county". A powiat is part of
99-684: A "province" ( prowincja ). According to the argument, such a prowincja (for example, Greater Poland) cannot consist of a number of subdivisions (" województw a ", the plural of " województw o ") that are likewise called "provinces". This, however, is an antiquarian consideration, as the word "province" has not been used in Poland in this sense of a region for over two centuries; and those former larger political units, all now obsolete, can now be referred to in English as what they actually were: "regions". The Polish województwo , designating
132-603: A greater resemblance (in territory, but not in name) to the voivodeships that existed between 1950 and 1975. Today's voivodeships are mostly named after historical and geographical regions, while those prior to 1998 generally took their names from the cities on which they were centered. The new units range in area from under 10,000 km (3,900 sq mi) ( Opole Voivodeship ) to over 35,000 km (14,000 sq mi) ( Masovian Voivodeship ), and in population from nearly one million (Opole Voivodeship) to over five million (Masovian Voivodeship). Administrative authority at
165-432: A larger unit, the voivodeship ( Polish województwo ) or province . A powiat is usually subdivided into gminas (in English, often referred to as " communes " or " municipalities "). Major towns and cities, however, function as separate counties in their own right, without subdivision into gmina s. They are termed " city counties " ( powiaty grodzkie or, more formally, miasta na prawach powiatu ) and have roughly
198-429: A powiat is vested in an elected council ( rada powiatu ), while local executive power is vested in an executive board ( zarząd powiatu ) headed by the starosta , elected by the council. The administrative offices headed by the starosta are called the starostwo . However, in city counties these institutions do not exist separately – their powers and functions are exercised by the city council ( rada miasta ),
231-455: A second-tier Polish or Polish–Lithuanian administrative unit, derives from wojewoda , (etymologically, a ' warlord ', 'war leader' or 'leader of warriors', but now simply the governor of a województwo ) and the suffix -ztwo (a "state or condition"). The English voivodeship , which is a hybrid of the loanword voivode and -ship (the latter a suffix that calques the Polish suffix -ztwo ), has never been much used and
264-603: Is a loanword - calque hybrid formed on the Polish " województwo ". Some writers argue against rendering województwo in English as "province", on historical grounds: before the third, last Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , in 1795, each of the main constituent regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth — Greater Poland , Lesser Poland , Lithuania , and Royal Prussia —was sometimes idiosyncratically referred to as
297-550: Is absent from many dictionaries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary , it first appeared in 1792, spelled "woiwodship", in the sense of "the district or province governed by a voivode." The word subsequently appeared in 1886 also in the sense of "the office or dignity of a voivode." Poland's Commission on Standardization of Geographic Names outside the Republic of Poland, prefers the form which omits
330-475: Is subdivided into eight gminas (three urban, two urban-rural and three rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population. 50°47′N 16°17′E / 50.783°N 16.283°E / 50.783; 16.283 Powiat A powiat ( [ˈpɔvjat] ; pl. powiaty ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland , equivalent to
363-457: Is the highest-level administrative division of Poland , corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term has been in use since the 14th century and is commonly translated into English as " province ". The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999, reduced the number of voivodeships to sixteen. These 16 replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975, and bear
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#1732791504097396-469: Is to translate the names as "(something County)", as in the examples above. (This system is the standard used in Misplaced Pages.) Thus in most cases, the English name for a powiat consists of the name of the city or town which is its seat, followed by the word County . Different counties sometimes have the same name in Polish, since the names of different towns may have the same derived adjective. For example,
429-815: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were based on the administrative structure that existed in the Duchy prior to the Commonwealth's formation, from at least the early-15th century. They were: While the Duchy of Livonia was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, approximately 1569–1772, in various periods it comprised the following voivodeships in varying combinations: From 1816 to 1837 there were 8 voivodeships in Congress Poland . The administrative division of Poland in
462-475: The 'e', recommending the spelling "voivodship", for use in English. Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode (governor), the sejmik (regional assembly) and the marshal . In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivode's offices are in a different city from those of the executive and
495-541: The German-governed Grand Duchy of Poznań , as the Polish equivalent of the German Kreis . After Poland regained independence in 1918 , the powiats were again the second-level territorial units. Powiats were abolished in 1975 in favour of a larger number of voivodeships but were reintroduced on 1 January 1999. This reform also created 16 larger voivodeships. Legislative power within
528-755: The Masovian Voivodeship at 33,500 EUR) and the poorest per capita (being the Lublin Voivodeship at 14,400 EUR). The following is a list of the Voivodeships within Greater Poland at various points over the period from the mid-16th century until the late 18th century: The following is a list of the Voivodeships within Lesser Poland over the period of the mid-16th century until the late 18th century: Voivodeships of
561-645: The counties with their seats at Grodzisk Wielkopolski and Grodzisk Mazowiecki are both called powiat grodziski , and those with seats at Brzeg and Brzesko are both called powiat brzeski . In English, this ambiguity either does not occur ( Brzeg County and Brzesko County ) or can be avoided by using the complete name of the seat ( Grodzisk Wielkopolski County and Grodzisk Mazowiecki County ). Voivodeships of Poland A voivodeship ( / ˈ v ɔɪ v oʊ d ʃ ɪ p / VOY -vohd-ship ; Polish : województwo [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ] ; plural: województwa [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfa] )
594-1105: The country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 (+2) voivodeships, then 17 (+5). The voivodeships in the east that had not been annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. The newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the new voivodeships of Szczecin , Wrocław and Olsztyn , and partly joined to Gdańsk , Katowice and Poznań voivodeships. Two cities were granted voivodeship status: Warsaw and Łódź . In 1950, new voivodeships were created: Koszalin (previously part of Szczecin ), Opole (previously part of Katowice ), and Zielona Góra (previously part of Poznań , Wrocław and Szczecin voivodeships). In 1957, three more cities were granted voivodeship status: Wrocław , Kraków and Poznań . Collapsed list of car registration plates from 1956 – please use table-sort buttons Poland's voivodeships 1975–1998 Administrative division of Poland between 1979 and 1998 included 49 voivodeships upheld after
627-462: The county is 55,820. The most populated towns are Boguszów-Gorce with 15,368 inhabitants and Głuszyca with 6,361 inhabitants. Wałbrzych County is bordered by Kamienna Góra County to the west, Jawor County to the north, Świdnica County to the north-east, Dzierżoniów County to the east and Kłodzko County to the south-east. It also borders the Czech Republic to the south. The county
660-525: The directly elected mayor ( burmistrz or prezydent ), and the city office/town hall ( urząd miasta ). Sometimes, a powiat has its seat outside its territory. For example, Poznań County ( powiat poznański ) has its offices in Poznań , although Poznań is itself a city county, and is therefore not part of Poznań County. Powiats have relatively limited powers since many local and regional matters are dealt with either at gmina or voivodeship level. Some of
693-515: The establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 for another decade. This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of local government reform acts of 1973–1975. In place of the three-level administrative division (voivodeship, county, commune), a new two-level administrative division was introduced (49 small voivodeships, and communes). The three smallest voivodeships— Warsaw , Kraków and Łódź —had
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#1732791504097726-406: The functioning of local government, coordinates actions in the field of public safety and environment protection, and exercises special powers in emergencies. The voivode's offices collectively are known as the urząd wojewódzki . The sejmik is elected every five years. (The first of the five-year terms began in 2018; previous terms lasted four years.) ) Elections for the sejmik fall at
759-403: The interwar period included 16 voivodeships and Warsaw (with voivodeship rights). The voivodeships that remained in Poland after World War II as a result of Polish–Soviet border agreement of August 1945 were very similar to the current voivodeships. Collapsed list of car registration plates from 1937, please use table-sort buttons. After World War II, the new administrative division of
792-426: The main areas in which the powiat authorities have decision-making powers and competences include: The Polish the name of a county, in the administrative sense, consists of the word powiat followed by a masculine-gender adjective (because powiat is a masculine noun ). In most cases, this is the adjective formed from the name of the town or city where the county has its seat . Thus the county with its seat at
825-433: The noun only ( powiat makowski ). There are also a few counties whose names are derived from the names of two towns (such as powiat czarnkowsko-trzcianecki , Czarnków-Trzcianka County ), from the name of a city and a geographical adjective ( powiat łódzki wschodni , Łódź East County ), or a mountain range ( powiat tatrzański , Tatra County ). There is more than one way to render such names into English . A common method
858-461: The resolutions of the sejmik , manages the voivodeship's property, and deals with many aspects of regional policy, including management of European Union funding. The marshal's offices are collectively known as the urząd marszałkowski . According to 2017 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably and there is a large gap between the richest per capita voivodeship (being
891-516: The same status as former county boroughs in the UK . The other type of powiat s are termed "land counties" ( powiaty ziemskie ). As of 2018, there were 380 powiat -level entities: 314 land counties, and 66 city counties. For a complete alphabetical listing, see " List of Polish counties ". For tables of counties by voivodeship, see the articles on the individual voivodeships (e.g., Greater Poland Voivodeship ). The history of Polish powiats goes back to
924-406: The same time as that of local authorities at powiat and gmina level. The sejmik passes by-laws , including the voivodeship's development strategies and budget. It also elects the marszałek and other members of the executive, and holds them to account. The executive ( zarząd województwa ), headed by the marszałek drafts the budget and development strategies, implements
957-546: The second half of the 14th century. They remained the basic unit of territorial organization in Poland, then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , until the latter's partitioning in 1795. In the 19th century, the powiats continued to function in the part of Poland that had been incorporated into the Russian Empire and in the confederated " Congress Kingdom of Poland "—the equivalent of the Russian uyezd –and, in
990-468: The sejmik. Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below. The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the regional representative of the central government. The voivode acts as the head of central government institutions at regional level (such as the police and fire services, passport offices, and various inspectorates), manages central government property in the region, oversees
1023-483: The smallest administrative divisions of Poland . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Some English-language sources, in historical contexts, speak of " palatinates " rather than "voivodeships". The term " palatinate " traces back to the Latin palatinus , which traces back to palatium ("palace"). More commonly used now is province or voivodeship . The latter
Wałbrzych County - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-466: The town of Kutno is named powiat kutnowski ( Kutno County ). (In modern Polish both parts of the name are written in lower case ; however, names of powiats in the Grand Duchy of Poznań were written in upper case .) Suppose the name of the seat comprises a noun followed by an adjective, as in Maków Mazowiecki (" Mazovian Maków"). In that case, the adjective will generally be formed from
1089-409: The voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed governor called a voivode ( wojewoda ), an elected assembly called a sejmik , and an executive board ( zarząd województwa ) chosen by that assembly, headed by a voivodeship marshal ( marszałek województwa ). Voivodeships are further divided into powiats ('counties') and gminas ('communes' or 'municipalities'),
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