A localization

The “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria”, together with the Grand Duchy of Krakow and the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator, lay on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains, between 20 and 26 degrees east longitude and 48 and 50 degrees north latitude. Its geographical location is closely linked to the historical development of Europe in the second half of the 18th century. Galicia stretched over a length of more than 500 km along the north-eastern slopes of the Beskids and Forest Carpathians. It was bordered to the south by the Carpathian Mountains against Hungary (Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine), to the west by Prussian Silesia and Austria with the border towns of Bielitz and Myslowitz and to the east by the river Zbrucz, a natural border against Russia (Volhynia). In the north of Galicia, from west to east, are the Kielc Hills and the Lublin region (Congress Poland, which later became part of Russia).

Galicia was the easternmost and at the same time the largest crown land of the Habsburg Monarchy with the capital Lviv.

After the First World War, the name Galicia disappeared from the maps. After 1918, western Galicia and, from 1921, eastern Galicia belonged to Poland until both were destroyed in World War II. The Poles called it “Lesser Poland” (Malopolska). Administratively, it was divided into four voivodeships (Krakow, Lviv, Stanislau and Tarnopol). Today, the eastern part of the former Galician territory, up to the so-called Curzon Line, is part of Ukraine, while the rest belongs to Poland.