Important landmarks include the Cathedral Hill in Frombork, the bishops' castles at Olsztyn and Lidzbark, the medieval town of Reszel and the sanctuary in Gietrzwałd, a site of Marian apparitions.

Geographically, it is an area of many lakes and lies at the upper Łyna river and on the right bank of Pasłęka, stretching in the northwest to the Vistula Bay.

Warmia has a number of architectural monuments ranging from Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque to Classicism, Historicism and Art Nouveau.

Warmia is part of a larger historical region called Prussia, which was inhabited by the Old Prussians and later on was populated mainly by Germans and Poles.

According to folk etymology, Warmia is named after the legendary Prussian chief Warmo, and Ermland derives from his widow Erma.

The terrain is composed of gentle hills and wide plains, and has a humid continental climate, with milder temperatures found at lower elevations in the north near the coast.

The historically important port town of Frombork lies west of the Pasłęka, near the mouth of the Bauda River [pl].

Further south, the Pasłęka is joined by the tributaries Wałsza [pl] and Drwęca Warmińska, with the headwaters of the river located near the southern end of Warmia.

This southern portion of Warmia is more heavily forested and historically had many towns with Polish-speaking majorities, while the rest of the region was almost entirely German-speaking.

The Order waited until they received official authorisation from the Empire, which Emperor Frederick II granted by issuing the Golden Bull of Rimini (March 1226).

The papal Golden Bull of Rieti from Pope Gregory IX in 1234 confirmed the grant, although Konrad of Masovia never recognized the rights of the Order to rule Prussia.

After the Polish army moved out of Warmia, the new Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Heinrich von Plauen the Elder, accused the bishop of treachery and reconquered the region.

During the war Warmia was recaptured by the Teutonic Knights, however, in 1464 Bishop Paweł Legendorf vel Mgowski sided with Poland and the Prince-Bishopric came again under the overlordship of the Polish King.

[9] In the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to Warmia, and recognized Polish sovereignty over the region, which was confirmed to be part of Poland.

Later in the Treaty of Piotrków Trybunalski (7 December 1512), conceded to the king of Poland a limited right to determine the election of bishops by choosing four candidates from Royal Prussia.

[13] Copernicus spent more than half of his life in Warmia, where he wrote many of his groundbreaking works and conducted astronomical observations and mathematical calculations, which became the basis for his heliocentric model of the universe.

Ignacy Krasicki, the last prince-bishop of Warmia as well as Enlightenment Polish poet, friend of Frederick the Great (whom he did not give homage as his new king), was nominated to the Archbishopric of Gniezno (and thus Primate of Poland) in 1795.

Warmia was divided into four districts (Kreise) - Allenstein (Olsztyn), Rössel (Reszel), Heilsberg (Lidzbark Warmiński) and Braunsberg (Braniewo).

[25] Based on their information, the German police compiled files and lists of Poles who were supposed to be either executed or imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.

[27] Germany co-formed the Einsatzgruppe V in Olsztyn, which then committed various atrocities against Poles during the German invasion of Poland that began World War II in September 1939.

[28] In August and September 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles, including activists, teachers, school principals, bank employees, newspaper editors, entrepreneurs, priests, scout leaders, and the consul and employees of the Polish Consulate in Olsztyn, and shut down or seized Polish newspapers and libraries.

[33] The Germans operated a notable Nazi prison in the town of Barczewo (Wartenburg) with several forced labour subcamps in the region.

The unofficial anthem of Warmia is O Warmio moja miła from 1920, with music by local Polish composer Feliks Nowowiejski and lyrics by Maria Paruszewska.

Places of stay of Nicolaus Copernicus include the medieval castles in Olsztyn, Lidzbark Warmiński and Pieniężno, whereas the Frombork Cathedral contains his grave and epitaph.

[42] The tradition of producing Warmian smoked beef ham (Warmińska szynka wołowa wędzona) is cultivated by several meat-packing plants in Warmia.

The first several tournaments of the Memorial of Hubert Jerzy Wagner, an international volleyball friendly competition, were held in Warmia.