Blog

May 5, 2023
Coronations in Poland and plundered crowns

As the UK has celebrated the accession of King Charles III to the throne, I’m looking back at Polish coronations, the crowns used and particularly to the lavish coronation of a...

April 2, 2023
Easter the Polish Way

As we gear up for Easter week, I've put together a few articles you might enjoy about Polish traditions. Starting with this weekend, when for Palm Sunday we weave palms...

March 30, 2023
Young Poland artists shaping the future through nature and rural life

I've always loved this poster by Teodor Axentowicz for the 1898 Society of Polish Artists exhibition. I took inspiration from it for Polish at Heart’s brand colours. The woman’s head...

February 10, 2023
Objects tell the truth of deportations of Poles to Russia

10 February - Hundreds of thousands, possibly up to 1.6 million people interrogated, detained and forcibly deported to isolated regions of the far east of Russia. This would have been the...

January 26, 2023
Lions of their time – the forgotten first Polish women in power

 Few people today can name any one of the first eight women in 1919 who were elected to the first Polish Sejm of the II Republic following women receiving the vote.  The female Poselki...

January 5, 2023
5 reasons decluttering is so hard in a Polish home

Among my New Year's resolutions, is one to carry on getting a grip on my tidying abilities - in fact, to relearn how to tidy. Tidying a home (particularly if...

December 23, 2022
Where do your Wigilia (Christmas Eve) dishes come from?

As we gather for our Wigila (Christmas Eve) supper, the dishes we prepare are a mixture of traditions from our families. By repeating these customs, we create memories for future generations...

November 29, 2022
Kraków Szopki – the perfect Polish Christmas centrepiece

We all love crinkly sweet wrappers in dazzling colours at Christmas. I remember the delicious sweets we would string and hang on our tree as children. Poles in Kraków, however,...

October 21, 2022
The Pole behind your smartphone

I'm no scientist but mobile phones, laptops, computers and a host of other electronic devices wouldn't exist without semiconductors and the level of miniaturisation required, relies on a method developed...

September 30, 2022
How much do you know about the Polish National Anthem?

The Polish National Anthem - Mazurek Dąbrowski - has a rich heritage drawn from battles throughout Poland's history. It's 225 years since it was written by Józef Wybicki in northern...

August 31, 2022
Polish Resettlement Camps on British soil link us all

In our search to find out our Polish families' lives both in Poland and in exile, one key element for the Polish soldiers, for their families and also displaced people...

July 30, 2022
Polish protest and flower power

  Many years ago in a small town in the south of England, I bought a ‘Polish Spirit’ clematis for my father-in-law. At the time I had no idea that...

June 30, 2022
150 years of Moniuszko, the Father of Polish Opera

Stanisław Moniuszko’s songs and music are very closely entwined with Polish folk music and history and have accompanied me throughout my life. "You can reach the high notes", I was told as a...

May 6, 2022
Take part in our Polish Heritage campaign

Polish at Heart is celebrating its 5th birthday this month. It's been an absolute whirl of activity in all those years: there is just so much to write about and it's...

March 31, 2022
Polish travels in western Ukraine

The plight of people caught up in war in our lifetime is so difficult to watch, given what our parents and grandparents experienced. Poles and Ukrainians have a difficult history...