Podkarpackie Voivodeship

Podkarpackie Voivodeship or Podkarpacie Province (in Polish, województwo podkarpackie ), also known as Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. (Historically Lwów was the administrative center of this part of Poland, but after 1945, when Lwów became part of the Soviet Union, that city's role was relinquished to Rzeszów.)

The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Krosno and (partially) Tarnów and Tarnobrzeg Voivodeships, pursuant to the Polish local-government reforms adopted in 1998. The name derives from the region's location near the Carpathian Mountains, and the voivodeship comprises areas of two historic regions of Eastern Europe — Lesser Poland (western and northwestern counties) and Red Ruthenia. In the Interbellum, Subcarpathian Voivodeship belonged to "Poland B", the less-developed, more rural parts of Poland. To boost the local economy, the government of the Second Polish Republic began in the mid-1930s a massive program of industrialization, known as the Central Industrial Region. The program created several major armament factories, including PZL Mielec, PZL Rzeszów, Huta Stalowa Wola, and factories in other Subcarpathian towns such as Dębica, Nowa Dęba, Sanok, Tarnobrzeg and Nowa Sarzyna.

It is bordered by Lesser Poland Voivodeship to the west, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship to the north-west, Lublin Voivodeship to the north, Ukraine to the east and Slovakia to the south. It covers an area of 17,844 square kilometres (6,890 sq mi), and has a population of 2,096,971 (as at 2006). The voivodeship is mostly hilly or mountainous (see Bieszczady, Beskidy); its northwestern corner is flat. It is one of the most wooded Polish voivodeships (35.9% of total area), within its borders there is whole Bieszczady National Park, and parts of Magura National Park. Furthermore, the creation of Turnicki National Park is planned.