Avoivodeship (/ˈvɔɪvoʊdʃɪp/ VOY-vohd-ship) or voivodate is the area administered by a voivode (governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval states, much as the title of voivode was equivalent to that of a duke. Other roughly equivalent titles and areas in medieval Eastern Europe included ban (bojan, vojin or bayan) and banate.
In a modern context, the word normally refers to one of the provinces (województwa) of Poland. As of 2022[update], Poland has 16 voivodeships.
Avoi(e)vod(e) (literally, "leader of warriors" or "war leader", equivalent to the Latin "Dux Exercituum") was originally a military commander who stood, in a state's structure, next to the ruler. Later the word came to denote an administrative official.
Words for "voivodeship" in various languages include the Ukrainian: воєводство; the Polish: województwo; the Romanian: voievodat; the Bulgarian: voivoda (войвода); the Serbian: vojvodina (војводина), vojvodstvo (војводство) or vojvodovina (војводовина); the Hungarian: vajdaság; the Belarusian: ваяводства (vajаvodstva); the Lithuanian: vaivadija. Some of these words, or variants of them, may also be used in English.
Named for the word for "voivodeship" is the autonomous Serbian province of Vojvodina.
Though the word "voivodeship" (other spellings are "voievodship" and "voivodship") appears in English dictionaries such as the OED and Webster's, it is not in common general usage, and voivodeships in Poland and elsewhere are frequently referred to as "provinces".[1] Depending on context, historic voivodeships may also be referred to as "duchies", "palatinates" (the Latin word "palatinatus" was used for a voivodeship in Poland), "administrative districts" or "regions".
In the territory of modern Romania and Moldova, the regions of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania were formerly voivodeships. The region of Maramureș, now split between Romania and Ukraine, also used to be its own voivodeship, the Voivodeship of Maramureș.
Historical voivodeships in the territory of modern Serbia include the Voivodeship of Salan (9th–10th centuries), Voivodeship of Sermon (11th century), and Voivodeship of Syrmia of Radoslav Čelnik (1527–1530). A voivodeship called Serbian Vojvodina was established in 1848–1849; this was transformed into the Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat, a land within the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1849 to 1860. This is the origin of the name of the present-day Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina.
For more information about the divisions of Polish lands in particular periods, see Administrative divisions of Poland ("Historical").
Voivodeships in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795):
Voivodeships in Congress Poland 1816–37.
Voivodeships of Poland, 1921–1939:
Voivodeships of Poland, 1945–1975:
Voivodeships of Poland, 1975–1998: