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construction purposes (limcstonc, marł, gypsum, granite, and sandstonc) have cnablcd Polami not only to satisfy her own nccds for thc development of Polish industry but havc also permittcd her to csport considerable quantities of raw materials. Materials importcd in large quantitie$ include petroleum, iron ore and phosphorites.

ARTS

The traditions of Polish culture and scholarship go back to thc Middle Ages. The Jagicllonian Univcrsity in Kraków, founded in 1364, is among the five oldest acadcmic establishments in Europę. Its graduatcs include thc grcat astronomer Nicolaus Copemicus.

Major monumcnts of the past include the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków or thc Renaissance town of Zamość in the east of thc country. But it is thc spiritual heritage that is primarily responsible for the historical continuity and universal relcvancc of Polish culture.

The composer Frederic Chopin was bom in Poland; he began composing while still in Poland and Polish folk musie motifs permeate his work. Chopin piano competilions are organized in Warsaw every five years, attracting talented young musicians from all over the world. Polish contemporary musie flourishes as well, with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Panufnik, Witold Lutosławski and Henryk Górecki. Poland also has a vibrant jazz community (jazz became immensely popular in the 1950's just after the end of the Stalinist period). Leading Polish jazz musicians include Michał Urbaniak or the late Krzysztof Komeda, who has scored a number of Roman Polański's films.

Polish film is currently in an evolving period, which may still come to match the great days of Polish cinema in the late 50‘s. "The Decalogue", a scries of films by Krzysztof Kieślowski, won the European Cesar Award, Andrzej Wajda's 'Man of Iron', a film aboul the 1970 and 1980 workers' strikes in Gdańsk won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 1981, while at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival the Polish actress Krystyna Janda was awarded a prize for her main role in Ryszard Bugajski's 'Interrogation'.

Polish experimental theater has also won a permanent place on the stages of the world thanks to the work of Tadeusz Kantor and Jerzy Grotowski. Sławomir Mrożek is the best know contemporary Polish playwright.Three Polish writers were awarded the Nobel prize for literaturę: the novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, the author of ’Quo Vadis?\ Władysław Reymont (both in the first ąuarter of this century) and most recently, the poet Czesław Miłosz (1981).

Today, Poland is a country at a European crossroads, where a variety of cultures and cultural spheres converge.

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