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Vistula

Vistula: Encyclopedia - Vistula

The Vistula (Polish: Wisła) is the longest river in Poland. It is 1,047 kilometers (678 miles) long and drains about 192,000 square kilometers (74,000 sq. miles), or almost two thirds of Poland's surface. The Vistula has its source in the south of the country, at Barania Góra (1220 m high) in the Beskidy Mountains where it starts with the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka) and the Black Little Vistula (Czarna Wisełka). It then continues to flow over the vast Polish plains, passing several large Polis ...

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Vistula - History

Vistula - Navigation

Vistula - Towns and tributaries

Vistula - Right tributaries

Vistula - Left tributaries

Vistula, Vistula - History, Vistula - Left tributaries, Vistula - Navigation, Vistula - Right tributaries, Vistula - Towns and tributaries, Rivers of Poland, Geography of Poland, Vistulan Country

Vistula: Encyclopedia - Vistula

Vistula

The Vistula (Polish: Wisła) is the longest river in Poland. It is 1,047 kilometers (678 miles) long and drains about 192,000 square kilometers (74,000 sq. miles), or almost two thirds of Poland's surface.

The Vistula has its source in the south of the country, at Barania Góra (1220 m high) in the Beskidy Mountains where it starts with the White Little Vistula (Biała Wisełka) and the Black Little Vistula (Czarna Wisełka). It then continues to flow over the vast Polish plains, passing several large Polish cities along its way, including Kraków, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Płock, Włocławek, Toruń, Świecie, Tczew and Gdańsk. With a delta and several branches (Leniwka, Przekop, Śmiała Wisła, Martwa Wisła, Nogat and Szkarpawa) it empties into the Vistula Lagoon and Gdańsk Bay of the Baltic Sea.

Vistula - History

It is not known whether the name Vistula is Indo-European or pre-Indo-European. The name was first recorded by Pliny in AD 77 in his Natural History. He uses Vistula (4.52, 4.89) with an alternative spelling, Vistillus (3.06). The Vistula River ran into the Mare Suebicum, which we know as the Baltic Sea. From all the sources one can deduce that near the delta lived the tribes of the Suebi and Burgundians, and on both banks the Goths (see also Gothiscandza and Wielbark culture). The Goths, at least, spoke East Germanic. East of them or possibly in their domain (as a subject population) were the Aestians, Galindians, Sudovians, Borusci, Veneti, and more. A people on the eastern part of the Mare Suebicum were the Fenni.

However, Tacitus' knowledge of the different peoples was second-hand at best; its accuracy is not certain. He also used the term "Germans" for describing people that probably did not speak Germanic, for example when describing Wenets (Veneds, Venets), Peucyns and Fenns he wrote, that he isn't sure if he should call them Germans, since they have settlements and they fight on foot, or rather Sarmats since they have some similar customs to them.

Ptolemy also records the tribes around the Vistula River, which he regards as the border between Germany and Sarmatia. He uses the Greek spelling, Ouistoula. Pomponius Mela refers to the Visula (Book 3) and Ammianus Marcellinus to the Bisula (Book 22), both of which names lack the -t-. The definitive reference is probably Jordanes (Getica 5 & 17), who uses Viscla. This word may be related to the ancestor of German Weichsel, which indicates that the Germanics must have retained a foothold at the mouth of the Vistula, in the Danzig/Elbing region.

The Vistula river used to be connected to the Dnieper River, and thence to the Black Sea. What later became the city of Kyiv in Ukraine was earlier known by its Gothic name of Danapirstadir "City on the Dnieper". The Baltic Sea-Vistula-Dnieper-Black Sea water route was one of the most ancient trade-routes, the Amber Road, on which amber and other items were traded from Northern Europe to Greece, Asia, Egypt, and elsewhere.

Rivers of Poland, Geography of Poland, Vistulan Country

Vistula - Navigation

The Vistula is navigable, but over large parts of its course the standards do not entirely meet the requirements of modern inland navigation. From the Baltic Sea to Bydgoszcz (where the Bydgoszcz Kanal or Bromberg canal connects to the river) the Vistula can accommodate modest river vessels of CEMT class II. Further upstream the river does not have enough depth to allow river barges to navigate.

Upstream of Warsawa, a project was undertaken to enlarge the capacity of the river by the building of a number of locks in the Cracow area; this project was never prolongued further downstream, so that the navigability of the Vistula remains problematic. The potential of the river in the decades to come would increase considerably if a restauration of the East-West connection via the Narew - Bug - Mukhovets - Pripyat - Dnjepr waterways would be considered. The shifting economic importance parts of Europe may make this option interesting. (Source: NoorderSoft Waterways Database)