Łomża

Łomża is a city in north-eastern Poland on the Narew River, in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, about 150 kilometres north-east of Warsaw and 80 kilometres west of Białystok. Although it is administered with Podlaskie, it belongs to the historical region of Masovia. It is a city with county rights and is the seat of the surrounding Łomża County, and it has been the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese since 1925. Polish sources record that Prince Janusz I granted the town its charter on 30 August 1400, while the English article places an earlier settlement in the 10th century on the site of the present village of Stara Łomża. Łomża was the capital of a voivodeship from 1975 to 1998. It is one of the main economic, educational and cultural centres of north-eastern Masovia and one of the three largest cities of Podlaskie beside Białystok and Suwałki. It gives its name to the Łomża Landscape Park and is home to the Łomża brewery. Central statistics counted 59,476 residents on 30 June 2024.