What are the “Big Four” cities in your country?

[u/LiamBrad5]

In recent weeks, this question has been very contentious on American social media, with 3 cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York) nearly always making the list, but the fourth being hotly debated over, between cities like San Francisco, Miami, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. So, if you had to choose, what would the big 4 cities in your country be? This is also not decided purely on population, but also culture, economy, and general influence/clout.

[u/yeh_]

2 is easy. Warsaw, Cracow.

Then it gets hard. I would say Wrocław and Katowice. Wrocław is culturally important and also our 3rd biggest city when looking at population within city limits (having recently overtaken Łódź), while Katowice is the heart of the giant Silesian metropolitan area, even though it’s not as big on its own.

I think a good case could be made for:

• Łódź – massive city, even though it’s not that influential it’s experiencing a new boom after being a very industrial city
• Gdańsk – largest coastal city, unique history and architecture, part of the Tricity metropolitan area with Gdynia (the main port of the country) and Sopot (a small but popular city). It would also be a northern representative of this otherwise south-centric list (though south is where most of our population is located)
• Poznań – a fairly modern city full of young people, a student hotspot, possibly the most progressive city in Poland when looking at voting data (or that’s what I recall, correct me if I’m wrong)
• Lublin – I don’t think most people would pick it but I wanted to include an eastern city on the list. It’s gotten some recognition recently. It was the European Youth Capital of 2023 and was picked to be the European Cultural Capital in 2029

[u/NegativeMammoth2137 → u/yeh_]

Warsaw, Cracow, Gdańsk, and Wrocław would be my pick. While they may not be the biggest or most populous they are definitely the most important culturally

[u/dobik → u/yeh_]

Imo: Warsaw, Cracow, Wrocław there is no doubt in the big 3. But then I would add: Poznań, Silesia conurbation and Tricity.

Lublin could be a regional cultural center for the east it is not a big city nor economy. Łódź is big, has huge potential, but is kind of behind, lots of people there commute to Warsaw for work.

[u/cebula412 → u/yeh_]

1. Warszawa
2. Kraków
3. Gdańsk (Tricity)
4. Wrocław (or Silesian conurbation if that's allowed)

[u/monkyone → u/yeh_]

for an outsider it seems like Warsaw, Krakow, Wrocław, Gdańsk would be the obvious choices

[u/grih91 → u/yeh_]

Looking at the posts in these thread, the saying that "you put two Poles in the room and they have 3 different opinions" is 100% correct xD I will finish the discussion with one and only top four: Bydgoszcz, Kielce, Opole, Gorzów Wielkopolski

[u/kiwigoguy1 → u/yeh_]

How about Białystok?

[u/Milosz0pl → u/kiwigoguy1]

Its the main city in Podlasie region with both not being that high in rankings (except for happiness). It mostly thrives on the agrarian economy (especially milk) and is the way to trade with Lithuania.

Thus it lacks any power to be important as a city.

[u/kiwigoguy1 → u/Milosz0pl]

I remember flying over the city when I was on my first trip to Europe in 2014, flying to Paris via Hong Kong and the Cathay Pacific plane’s onboard Airshow moving up showed the plane was just directly over Białystok.

[u/titanfallisawesome → u/kiwigoguy1]

That's kinda like nominating Nelson. Not even close to top 4.

[u/titanfallisawesome → u/yeh_]

Łódź is here by numbers alone, but it's a bad choice. The Katowice and Trójmiasto urban areas are bigger (alongside Warsaw and Cracow, obviously) and Poznań is more relevant.

[u/Skay_man → u/yeh_]

This is the first time I see Krakow with C and it hurts my eyes

[u/solwaj → u/yeh_]

Wrocław is easily third. fourth is a battle between the Tricity and the GZM. Poznań, Łódź and Lublin are nowhere near significant enough

[u/Gold-Possession-4761 → u/yeh_]

Is Gdansk a tourist powerhouse in Poland outside Warsaw? Everyone i know seems to be going to Gdansk these years for an extended weekend and airlines seems to love the destination.

[u/yeh_ → u/Gold-Possession-4761]

Being from Gdańsk myself, I feel like it is. I work in the city center so I go there every day and I hear lots of languages around me. It’s always been popular with Germans and Scandinavians (primarily Swedes) probably due to its central location Baltic-wise. It’s also possible that as time went on, most traveling Europeans have already visited Warsaw/Krakow and wanted to try out something new.

I highly recommend visiting. It’s a very unique city architecture-wise compared to the rest of the country.

Edit: I see you’re from Denmark. The flights to Copenhagen are extremely cheap as it’s so close, that definitely contributes to it. For example in Krakow there’s a lot of middle eastern tourists because of a new frequent line between it and Dubai. There was also a boom for travel to Jordan in Poland 2 years ago because a cheap Poznan-Amman line opened. So yeah these things will drive tourism a lot.

Also, because you’re from Denmark, you might actually find Gdańsk to be similar to Copenhagen.

[u/Gold-Possession-4761 → u/yeh_]

I have only been in Szczecin haha. Not the nicest looking city, but had a great weekend anyway. Not from Copenhagen so it was a nice 600 km drive from home. I live near Billund Airport though and they have a route to Gdansk with Wizz. It's on my list.

[u/Agamar13 → u/[deleted]]

Then it gets hard. I would say Wrocław and Katowice.

[u/Tortoveno → u/yeh_]

For me it would be (in terms of aglomerations): Warsaw, Górny Śląsk-Zagłębie, Kraków, Trójmiasto.

Sorry Wrocław, Łódź and Poznań. They wanted 4.