Masuria

Masuria Mazury
Region
Sailing on Lake Mikołajki.
Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District
Country	Poland
Area
• Total	10,000 km2 (4,000 sq mi)
Population
• Total	500,000
• Density	50/km2 (130/sq mi)

Masuria (Polish:  Mazury , German: Masuren, Masurian: Mazurÿ) is a region in northern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Before the end of World War II, it was mostly inhabited by Polish-speaking (Masurian dialect) Lutheran Masurians and constituted a part of East Prussia. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District (Polish: Pojezierze Mazurskie). Administratively, it belongs to Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (Polish: województwo warmińsko-mazurskie). Its biggest city is Ełk, often regarded as its capital. It has territory of about 10,000 km² and population of 500,000.

Before 13th century, the territory was inhabited by the Old Prussians also called Baltic Prussians, a Baltic ethnic group that lived in Prussia (the lands of the southeastern coastal region of the Baltic Sea around the Vistula Lagoon and the Curonian Lagoon). The territory later called Masuria was then known as Galindia and was probably a peripheral, deeply forested and lightly populated area. Its inhabitants spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and had their own mythology. Although a 19th-century German political entity bore their name, they were not Germans. They were converted to Roman Catholicism in the 13th century, after conquest by the Knights of the Teutonic Order.