totals over 850,000 inhabitants. Bydgoszcz is the seat of Kazimierz
Wielki University, University of Technology and Life Sciences and a
conservatory, as well as a Collegium Medicum of Nicolaus Copernicus University
in Toruń. Bydgoszcz hosts the Filharmonia Pomorska concert hall, the Opera Nova
opera house, and the Bydgoszcz Ignacy Jan Paderewski Airport. Due to its
location between the Vistula and Odra rivers, and the water course of the
Bydgoszcz Canal, the city forms part of a water system connected via the Noteć,
Warta, Odra, and Elbe with the Rhine and Rotterdam