What are the Provinces of Poland?

Poland is divided into 16 provinces, called voivodeships (województwa). Each has a voivode appointed by the national government and an elected regional assembly (sejmik) led by a marshal. The name comes from the medieval title of voivode, a military commander who governed a region on behalf of the king. Poland's provinces have been redrawn many times. The current 16 were created on 1 January 1999 in a major reform that replaced the 49 smaller provinces set up in 1975. The new provinces were designed to be large enough to manage regional development and were largely named after Poland's historic regions, such as Masovia, Silesia, Pomerania and Lesser Poland.