Lubusz Voivodeship: Map

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Lubusz Voivodeship (also known as Lubusz Province, or by its Polish name of województwo lubuskie or simply Lubuskie) is a voivodeship (province) in western Poland

.

It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra Voivodeships, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province's name recalls the historic Lubusz Land (Lebus or Lubus), although part of the voivodeship in fact belongs to the historic region of Silesia.

The functions of regional capital are shared between two cities: Gorzów Wielkopolski

and Zielona Góra

. Gorzów serves as the seat of the centrally appointed voivode or governor, while Zielona Góra is the seat of the elected regional assembly (sejmik) and the executive elected by that assembly, headed by the marszałek.

The region is mainly flat, with many lakes and woodlands. In the south, around Zielona Góra

, grapes are cultivated.

Lubusz Voivodeship borders West Pomeranian Voivodeship

to the north, Greater Poland Voivodeship

to the east, Lower Silesian Voivodeship

to the south, and Germany

(Brandenburg

and Saxony

) to the west.

History

By conquest the first leaders of the Polans, Mieszko I and especially Boleslaw I added a number of surrounding territories to the newly established core Polish state, and Lebus Land or Lubusz in Lusatia came under Polish rule. Part of the historic province was located on the western bank of the Oder River, where the main settlement Lubusz, later known as the German town of Lebus

, was located.

In 1226 Lebus Land came under direct jurisdiction of the empire, and around 1250 it was acquired by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg

. It was thus sometimes referred to by Polish communists as "the first Polish province to fall to German expansionism" (see Drang nach Osten).

In 1945, the conquest of eastern Germany by the Soviet Union was followed by the redrawing of Poland's borders. The east part of the Lubusz (Lebus) region was transferred to Poland, which refers to it as part of the "Regained" or "Recovered Territories". That part of the population which had not fled east of the Oder or been killed was rapidly expelled, and replaced by Poles from central and former eastern Poland.

In the administrative reforms of 1998, the original proposals made no provision for a separate Lubusz voivodeship – Gorzów would have been part of West Pomeranian Voivodeship

, Zielona Góra would have been in Lower Silesian Voivodeship

, and other parts of the region were assigned to Greater Poland Voivodeship

. However, as a result of popular protests, these proposals were eventually amended to increase the number of voivodeships to 16, leading to the creation of Lubusz Voivodeship.

Cities and towns

The voivodeship contains 42 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006 ):

Administrative division

Lubusz Voivodeship is divided into 14 counties (powiats): 2 city counties and 12 land counties. These are further divided into 83 gminas.

The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population).

English and Polish names	Area (km²)	Population (2006)	Seat	Other towns	Total gminas
City counties
Gorzów Wielkopolski	86	125,204			1
Zielona Góra	58	118,201			1
Land counties
Żary County powiat żarski	1,393	98,929	Żary	Lubsko , Jasień , Łęknica	10
Zielona Góra County powiat zielonogórski	1,571	89,543	Zielona Góra *	Sulechów , Nowogród Bobrzański , Babimost , Czerwieńsk , Kargowa	10
Nowa Sól County powiat nowosolski	771	86,773	Nowa Sól	Kożuchów , Bytom Odrzański , Nowe Miasteczko	8
Żagań County powiat żagański	1,131	82,226	Żagań	Szprotawa , Iłowa , Małomice , Gozdnica	9
Gorzów County powiat gorzowski	1,213	65,546	Gorzów Wielkopolski *	Kostrzyn nad Odrą , Witnica	7
Międzyrzecz County powiat międzyrzecki	1,388	58,335	Międzyrzecz	Skwierzyna , Trzciel	6
Krosno Odrzańskie County powiat krośnieński	1,390	56,463	Krosno Odrzańskie	Gubin	7
Świebodzin County powiat świebodziński	937	55,989	Świebodzin	Zbąszynek	6
Strzelce-Drezdenko County powiat strzelecko-drezdenecki	1,248	50,151	Strzelce Krajeńskie	Drezdenko , Dobiegniew	5
Słubice County powiat słubicki	1,000	46,777	Słubice	Rzepin , Ośno Lubuskie , Cybinka	5
Wschowa County powiat wschowski	625	38,958	Wschowa	Sława , Szlichtyngowa	3
Sulęcin County powiat sulęciński	1,177	35,329	Sulęcin	Torzym , Lubniewice	5
* seat not part of the county