Drone's Eye Views of Poland

The literally glowing beauty of Poland's capital Warsaw in the evening hours is showcased brilliantly by drone pilot Damian, earning him a Drone Video of the Week nomination for this video. The city, once known as the "Paris of the East", literally rose from the ashes after being nearly destroyed in World War II.  Today, the city on the Vistula has seen much of its Old City restored to pre-war condition and has sprouted a thoroughly modern skyline alongside its historical core.  

Krakow is Poland's "second city" after Warsaw.  It's situated in southern Poland, at the base of the Carpathian Mountains.  Having survived World War II with less physical damage than Warsaw, it is arguably the most important cultural and historical city in the country.  AirVuz star contributor iDrone Aerials used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to take us on an incredible aerial tour of this ancient city.  The Old Town of Krakow, shown in the video, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site.  

Poland has a long Baltic Sea coast, which includes seaport city of Gdansk, Poland's fourth largest.  Parts of the coastline are much less densely inhabited and include spits or sand dune islands which run parallel to the mainland for great distances.  Contributor XL Creations traveled along the Polish Baltic Sea coast with his DJI Inspire 1 drone and caught these amazing aerial views of some of the coastline's most beautiful spots around Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot, and Hel. 

Poznan is the largest city in western Poland and the fifth largest in the country.  At one point, the city had a large German population, and it was incorporated into Germany in World War II.  Poznan was the scene of some of the earliest unrest over the Soviet Union's hegemony in the 1950's, a role later taken by Gdansk.  In this video, contributor Dronujemy gives us a  fascinating aerial tour of Poznan, which includes aerial footage of the Poznan Cathedral.

Situated in the center of Poland, Lodz is the the country's third largest city after Warsaw and Krakow.  It was once home to one of the largest Jewish population centers in Europe, a community which was almost entirely destroyed in Nazi death camps during World War II.  In this video, contributor Smartfilms.pl uses a drone to give us an aerial view of a gigantic new construction effort remaking the center of this extraordinary Central European city.  

Gdansk, once part of Germany and known as Danzig, is Poland's most important seaport and its fouth largest city.  Situated on the Baltic Sea, it was the site of the Solidarity Movement, which brought on martial law in Poland in 1979 but was ultimately responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall ten years later.  Contributor Castenoid brought a drone on a family trip, and the video he created gives a marvelous aerial view of this amazing city, now one of Poland's top tourist destinations.

While Poland has become much more heavily urbanized, until recently it was far more of a rural society compared to countries like Germany and France.  In this video, a compilation of drone footage from the north-south length of the country, provides a good glimpse of the rural Poland that still exists far from its metropolitan centers.  It's a land of small towns, fields, forests, and lakes, and is a beautiful sight to behold from an aerial perspective. 

Mark's Mavic 2 used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to shoot this video of Malbork Castle in Poland.  It's located in the northern part of the country, not far from the coastline on the Baltic Sea.  Built by the Teutonic Knights in the 15th century, it served as a Polish royal residence until the country was partitioned out of existence in the late 18th century.  This magnificent landmark is believed to be the world's largest castle by area, and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

If you move inward from the Baltic Sea in northeastern Poland, what you'll encounter is a world of lakes, forests, and canals.  The Masurian Lakes district is one of Europe's best spots for activities like kayaking, canoeing, and sailing, where travelers can access hundreds of lakes, dotted across vast forests, with many lakes connected by canal.  In this video, Splendid Films uses ground camera and drone footage to show you what this famed district has to offer for outdoors enthusiasts.

Poland was the scene of some of the worst violence of World War II, seeing about 25% of its population killed.  Some of the most concentrated and horrific violence occurred at the Auschwitz concentration/death camp in Galicia in southern Poland, where over a million holocaust victims perished.  Contributor Blagoy Momchoy flew a drone over the camp complex, creating an deeply moving aerial view of this important historical site, which was abandoned in early 1945 before being overrun by the Red Army.  

Contributor Splendid Films used a drone to give us a bird's eye view of one of the more notable geographic features of the Baltic Sea.  Hel is an narrow sand bar which juts out about 35 km (20 mi) in a southeastern direction from Puck County to the town of Puck at the tip.  Due to its military significance, Hel heavily fortified by Germany during its Polish occupation in World War II, and the troops stationed there were amongst the last to surrender, several days after VE Day.

The landscape of Poland's long southern border region varies along its length but it's mostly hilly-to-mountainous, covered by parts of several different ranges.  In this drone video by contributor Ludoweet, you'll get a bird's eye view of the westernmost part of this border, in Karkonosze National Park.  Here is a beautiful landscape which features the tallest points of the Sudetes, a range which covers parts of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.  

Passenger21 created this beautiful aerial video of two towns in the Warmian-Masurian province of northern Poland.  Fromborg is a small town on the Vistula Lagoon, a lagoon on the Baltic Sea which is demarcated by the Vistula Spit.  Elblag is a considerably larger town, with a population of over 120,000.  It lies on the Elblag River, which flows into the Vistula Lagoon.  Elblag is one of the oldest cities in northern Poland, and was a member of the Hanseatic League.  

Katowice is one of the largest cities in southern Poland.  It's part of the province of Silesia, to the west of Krakow.  It lies near the Silesian coal fields, one of Poland's most important natural resource bases.  The region had been part of Prussia (the core of modern Germany) but came under Polish control after World War I, where it's remained but for six years of occupation in World War II when it was annexed to the Third Reich.  Check out Katowice from above in this drone video, captured by a DJI Phantom 4. 

Poland's capital Warsaw is one of the world's most fascinating cities.  Once known as the Paris of the East for its beauty, Warsaw was nearly destroyed in World War II, with large sections leveled including its famed Old City.  Much of the damage was repaired during the Cold War era, and since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a very modern city has emerged on the Vistula River.  As you will see in this amazing drone video by KG Airview, Warsaw seamlessly blends the old and the new.

Krecik Turbo used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this aerial of a cruise ship docked in the Baltic Sea port of Gdynia, Poland.  It's the second largest city in the Pomerania region after Gdansk, which lies to its south.  It's located on the western shores of the Bay of Gdansk, just south of the area which is partly divided from the rest of the bay by the Hel Peninsula.  Gdynia is a significant leisure travel destination and an important port for cruise ships plying the waters of the Baltic.  

Dunajec Castle, also known as Niedzica Castle, sits at the very southern edge of Poland near the foothills of the Carpathians.  Built in the 14th century, it is one of the most well known castles in the country.  Ownership of the castle changed several times over the centuries between Polish and Hungarian owners.  In this video, contributor Dronujemy flies a DJI Phantom over the castle, giving us a bird's eye view of this amazing structure.  The castle lies in the province of Lesser Poland (Małopolska).

Warsaw is the capital of Poland and its largest city.  It suffered more physical damage during World War II than any other city in Europe, much of it in retribution for the Warsaw Uprising.  The city has seen a rebirth following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  In this video, contributor Drone Grand Tour Team takes us on an aerial tour of this resilient city, giving us bird's eye views of the Polish capital's gothic and neoclassical architecture, the Old Town, and the Royal Castle.

The Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944 was a seminal event in World War II as well as for the Polish nation.  Although Germany had no chance of winning the war by this point, troops under control of the German SS brutally suppressed an uprising by the people of Warsaw, mercilessly killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and razing the city.  In this video, contributor Mackox flew a drone over the celebration marking the 74th anniversary of this important historical event.

Southern Poland is mountainous, covered by a series of different ranges. Towards the eastern end is the Pieniny range, a sub-chain of the Carpathian Mountains.  In this region, you'll find a land of green rolling mountains, the magnificent Dunajec River,  and medieval landmarks like Niedzica Castle which overlooks Czorsztyn Lake.  Contributor Droneujemy used a DJI drone to create an amazing aerial tour of this spectacular region, which contrasts sharply with the plains of central and northern Poland.

If you want to see one of the world's most well known lakes district looks like in the dead of winter, check out this drone video by contributor Lukasbudzinski.  He flew a drone over Giżycko, a small town in the northeastern part of Poland known as the Masurian Lakes District.  Once the home of outposts of the Teutonic Knights, the town is now a popular tourist destination in the summer.  As you'll see in this video, the area's lakes become a frozen playground for all sorts of winter activities.  

Contributor MaXcoRp used a combination of drone and ground camera footage to create this indelible memory of a trip to Poland in the summer of 2016.  Watch it and be taken all over this fascinating Central European country.  Locations featured include some of the top spots of the capital Warszaw (Zoo, National Stadium, Vistula river, Palace of Culture and Science, and Łazienki Park), Malbork Castle (the largest in Europe), Molo Resort in Osiek (in southern Poland), and the Baltic port city of Gdansk.

Contributor Lemelpictures used a DJI Inspire 2 drone to create this stunning video of a rural area of northwestern Poland in the Fall season.  The area is the Pomeranian Voivodeship (province) west of Gdansk, the provincial capital.  It's the heart of the historical region of Pomerania, which covers most of northwestern Poland and a part of northeastern Germany.  The area anchors the eastern end of the great North European Plain, which runs across the northern part of the continent.

Contributor Dronujemy created this magnificent drone video of one of the newest landmarks in Poland.  The Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń is a massive Catholic church built in the village of Licheń Stary in central Poland.  Completed in 2004, it's the largest church structure in Poland, a country which is known in part for its churches.  The church, which is about an hour's drive east of Posnan, was built to accommodate the Virgin Mary icon which attracts over a million visitors per year.

Contributor FLYRES4K POLAND created this amazing drone video of a little-known but important historical site in Stępina in southern Poland.  The Anlage Süd was a system of two underground rail tunnels built by Nazi Germany during its occupation of Poland in World War II.  In August, 1941, Adolph Hitler and the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini met here to discuss the progress of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which was just then reaching a critical point. 

Check out this drone video of Toruń, an important city in the north-central part of Poland, compliments of contributor Johny Kondakjian Photography.  The city is situated on the province of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, the heart of the historical region of Pomerania.  It's situated on the Vistula River, Poland's most important waterway.  Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland, with roots to the 8th century.  It is also considered one of the most beautiful, both for its river setting as well as its architecture.   

Here is an amazing demo reel from one of the top commercial drone piloting and video production companies in Poland.  Volatus Media's compilation demonstrates the range of the services they provide, which includes some of the most difficult to film action shots.  Their work also shows off the beauty of this Central European country.  It features footage of the capital city Warsaw on the Vistula River, the beautiful Masurian Lakes District, medieval castles, the plains of Pomerania, and more.