Poland marks 1,000th anniversary of first royal coronation
Polish state officials have paid tribute to the nation's early rulers as they arrived in Gniezno, western Poland, to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the coronation of the country's first king.
On Friday, officials including President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the speakers of the Senate and Sejm, the upper and lower houses of parliament, as well as senators and MPs gathered in Gniezno, Poland's first capital, to celebrate 1,000 years since the nation's first royal coronation.
In 1025, Boleslaw I the Brave was crowned as the country's first king. His coronation marked a pivotal point in Polish history, symbolising the country as an independent Christian state within Europe.
"Today, we are commemorating the symbolic and legal confirmation of the fact that our country became a sovereign state and as a sovereign state was respected by centres of imperial and papal power and other European royals," Duda said on Friday.
"We are manifesting our ties with the great tradition of Polish statehood and our respect for the achievements of the past generations of Poles that unites us," he added.
"When wearing the crown, Boleslaw the Brave said that the Kingdom of Poland was becoming a part of the West, as a political community, a community of values, and a community of religion," Tusk said after taking the stage.
He also proposed to announce a new national concept, which had strength as its main pillar. "The doctrine is based on strength, not on illusions, not only on dreams, not only on aspirations, but also on strength," Tusk said.
The Prime Minister added that he was confident that modern Poland would keep up with the world's most advanced economies, like Germany or Japan. "We're one step away from this. We just need to have as much faith in that as Boleslaw the Brave had." (PAP)
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