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Warsaw
Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa), in full The Capital City
of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa) is the
capital of Poland and its largest city. It is
located on the Vistula river roughly 370 km from
both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian
Mountains. Its population as of 2006 was estimated
at 1,700,536, with a metropolitan area of
approximately 2,879,000. The city area amounts to
516.9 km˛, with an agglomeration of 6100.43 km˛ (Warsaw
Metro Area - Obszar Metropolitalny Warszawy).
The city, also the capital of the Masovian
Voivodeship, is home to many industries, including
manufacturing, steel, electrical engineering, and
automotive; it features 66 institutions of higher
learning, including Warsaw University, Stefan
Wyszyński University, Warsaw University of
Technology, Warsaw School of Economics, and a
Medical Academy. Warsaw is home to over 30 theatres,
including the National Theatre and Opera and the
National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Warsaw is internationally notable for giving its
name to the Warsaw Pact, Warsaw Convention and the
Treaty of Warsaw.
Location
Warsaw straddles the Vistula river, approximately
370 kilometres from both the Carpathian mountains
and Baltic Sea. It is located in the heartland of
the Masovian Plain, and its average altitude is 100
m above sea level, although there are some hills (mostly
artificial) located within the confines of the city.
Climate
Warsaw's climate is continental humid. The average
yearly temperature is 8 degrees Celsius (-2 °C in
January and 18 °C in July). Temperatures may often
reach 30°C in the summer. Yearly rainfall averages
at 680 mm, the most rainy month being July.
Districts
Warsaw is a powiat (county), and is further divided
into 18 boroughs, each one known as a dzielnica (map),
each one with its own administrative body. Each of
the boroughs is divided into neighborhoods which are
not officially recognized by the city but known by
most Varsovians. The best known neighborhoods are
the Old Town (Stare Miasto) and New Town (Nowe
Miasto) in the borough of Śródmieście.
History of Warsaw
The first fortified settlements on the site of
today's Warsaw were Bródno (9th/10th century) and
Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided
in 1281 by Boleslaus II, the Duke of Płock, a new
similar settlement was lodged on the grounds of a
small fishing village called Warszowa. In the
beginning of the 14th century it became one of the
seats of the Dukes of Masovia, in 1413 becoming the
capital of Masovia. Upon the extinction of the local
ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the
Polish Crown in 1526. In 1529 Warsaw for the first
time became the seat of the General Sejm, permanent
since 1569. In 1573 Warsaw gave its name to the
Warsaw Confederation, an agreement by the Polish
gentry to tolerate different religious faiths in the
Kingdom of Poland.
Due to its central location between the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's capitals of Vilna
and Cracow, Warsaw became the capital of the
Commonwealth and at the same time of the Polish
Crown in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved
the capital from Cracow. Warsaw remained the capital
of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795,
when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia to
become the capital of the province of New East
Prussia. Liberated by Napoleon's army in 1807,
Warsaw was made the capital of the newly created
Duchy of Warsaw. Following the decisions of the
Congress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the centre
of the Polish Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy
under a personal union with Imperial Russia.
Following the repeated violations of the Polish
constitution by the Russians, the 1830 November
Uprising broke out. However, the Polish-Russian war
of 1831 ended in the uprising's defeat and in the
curtailment of the Kingdom's autonomy. On 27
February 1861 a Warsaw crowd protesting the Russian
rule over Poland was fired upon by the Russian
troops. Five people were killed. Underground Polish
National Government resided in Warsaw during January
Uprising in 1863-1864.
Warsaw became the capital of the newly independent
Poland again in 1918.
Warsaw flourished in the late nineteenth century
under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–1892), a
Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III.
Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and
sewer systems designed and built by the English
engineer William Lindley and his son, William
Heerlein Lindley, as well as the expansion and
modernization of trams, street lighting and gas
works.
In the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920,
the huge Battle of Warsaw was fought on the Eastern
outskirts of the city in which the capital of Poland
was successfully defended and the Red Army defeated.
Warsaw is notable among Europe's capital cities not
for its size, age, or beauty, but for its
indestructibility. It is a phoenix that has risen
repeatedly from the ashes. Having suffered dreadful
damage during the Swedish and Prussian wars of
1655–1656, it was again assaulted in 1794, when the
Russian army massacred the population of the
right-bank suburb of Praga. Its most remarkable act
of survival, though, was its rebirth following its
almost complete destruction during the Second World
War.
The Second World War began when Germany invaded
western Poland on 1 September 1939. On 17 September
eastern Poland was invaded by the USSR. Poland
capitulated after 6 weeks of fighting. Western
Poland was incorporated into the German Reich,
eastern Poland into the USSR, while central Poland,
including Warsaw, came under the rule of the General
Government, a Nazi colonial administration. In the
course of the Invasion of Poland, Warsaw was
severely bombed, and in the course of the Siege of
Warsaw approximately 10 to 15% of its buildings were
destroyed.
Warsaw became an occupied city under the control of
the Nazi SS. All higher education institutions were
immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish
population — several hundred thousand, some 30% of
the city — herded into the Warsaw Ghetto. When the
order came to liquidate the Ghetto as part of
Hitler's "final solution", Jewish fighters launched
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Despite being heavily
outgunned and outnumbered, the Ghetto held out for
almost a month. When the fighting ended, the
survivors were massacred.
During 1943 and 1944 the tide of the war turned, as
the USSR, which had been at war with Germany since
1941, inflicted a number of severe defeats on the
German army. By July 1944 the Soviets were deep into
the Polish territory, pursuing the Germans toward
Warsaw. Knowing that Stalin was hostile to the idea
of an independent Poland, the Polish
government-in-exile based in London gave orders to
the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize the
control of Warsaw from the Nazis just before the
Soviets arrive. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the
Soviet army was nearing the city very fast, the Home
Army and the general population started the Warsaw
Uprising.
Despite Stalin's hostility towards Poland, the Poles
had expected that the Soviet troops would assist
them against their common German enemy. However,
after the Red Army captured the right-bank Warsaw,
the Soviet offensive was abruptly stopped, while the
Germans went on to ruthlessly suppress the uprising.
Although the insurgency, planned to last 48 hours,
held out for 63 days, eventually the Home Army
fighters were forced to capitulate. They were
transported to the POW camps in Germany, while the
entire civilian population was expelled. Hitler,
ignoring the negotiated terms of the capitulation,
ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground,
and the library and museum collections robbed or
burned. When on 17 January 1945 the Soviets crossed
the Vistula and entered through the left-bank, they
found a Warsaw that had almost ceased to exist; 85%
of the city had been destroyed, including the
historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. The
surviving Home Army fighters were rounded up by the
NKVD and either murdered or deported to Siberia.
The city was once considered a shining metropolis,
but due to total destruction, it has lost its
baroque tinge. Although many of the destroyed
significant historical buildings were restored,
little remains of the resplendence of Warsaw baroque.
After the war, Boleslaw Bierut's puppet regime set
up by Stalin made Warsaw the capital of the
communist People's Republic of Poland, and the city
was resettled and rebuilt. Large prefabricated
housing projects were erected in Warsaw to address
the housing shortage. Few of the inhabitants of the
pre-war Poland returned: Hundreds of thousands were
dead, thousands more in exile from the new regime.
Nonetheless, the city resumed its role as the
capital of Poland and the country's centre of
political and economic life. Many of the historic
streets, buildings, and churches were restored to
their original form. In 1980, Warsaw's historic Old
Town was inscribed onto UNESCO's World Heritage list.
In 1995 the Warsaw Metro finally opened, and with
the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004,
Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest
economic boom of its history.
Roads and highways
Warsaw lacks a good circular road system and most of
the East-West traffic goes directly through the city
centre. Currently two circular roads are under
construction. The first (called OEW, or Obwodnica
Etapowa Warszawy) is to lead the traffic
approximately 10 kilometres from the city centre
through the city streets and two newly-built bridges.
The other is to become a part of both the A-2
motorway (itself a part of the European route E30
from Berlin to Moscow) and the S-7 (Gdańsk–Kraków)
express road, and will run through a tunnel under
the southern area of Ursynów. It is to become
available between 2008 and 2010. A lot of streets
are named after famous Polish people or places.
Airports
Warsaw has one international airport, Warsaw
Frederic Chopin Airport, located just 10 km away
from the city centre. With over 60 international and
domestic flights a day and with over 7,070,000
passengers served in 2005, it is by far the biggest
airport in Poland. Immediately adjacent to the main
Frederic Chopin Airport terminal complex, Terminal
1, is the Etiuda terminal, serving both the domestic
and the international routes flown by low-cost
carriers. A new terminal, Terminal 2 is now under
construction in order to alleviate current
overcrowding, and to extend the airport's capacity
by another 6 million passengers.
Also, an ex-military airfield in the town of Modlin,
20 km north of Warsaw, is currently being
redeveloped into an airport for low-cost carriers,
cargo and charter traffic. It will not be ready for
use before September 2007.
There are also plans to build an entirely new
international airport, mostly for service to other
European Union countries. Its location has not yet
been determined.
Streetcars
Sapieha PalaceThe first tramway
in Warsaw was opened on 11 December 1866. On 26
March 1908, all the lines, previously horse-powered,
were electrified. In the period between the world
wars, the tramway was nationalized and the net was
extended significantly. After the Defence War of
1939 the service was halted for approximately three
months due to war losses. Heavy aerial bombardment
during the siege of Warsaw and requisition of all
modern streetcars by the new German authorities
postponed the reintroduction of service. However, by
1940 the trams were back on track. In 1941 the
present colours of the cars were introduced (yellow
and red, in the Flag of Warsaw colours. This was
done to demoralize the Poles in the city by
attempting to wipe out all traces of the white and
red colours of Poland. Up until this point, the
trams were painted either in a white and red
mixture, or entirely red).
Following the Warsaw Uprising the tramway was
destroyed by the Germans until the liberation of the
ruins in January 1945. The streets were filled with
rubble, the tram stations destroyed, and the cars
either burnt or transported to Germany. However, the
first streetcar line was opened again for the public
on 20 June 1945.
Following the Second World War the tramway in Warsaw
underwent fast development. The tracks reached all
the principal parts of the city. However, in the
sixties the official policy of both Polish and
Soviet authorities promoted the use of Soviet oil
and the concomitant exportat of the Polish coal. The
availability of coal on the home market decreased,
and the tramway net was shortened, while more buses
were bought. Until 1989 only 28 lines were
preserved.
Currently the Tramwaje Warszawskie company runs 863
cars on almost 470 kilometres of track. Twenty-nine
lines run across the city with additional lines
opened on special occasions (such as public holidays
or All-Saints Day).
Trolleybuses
After World War II most of the
communication network in Warsaw was destroyed. The
streets were filled with rubble, and the streetcar
infrastructure was either transported to Germany by
the Wehrmacht or destroyed.
However, the city entered the path of quick
reconstruction and was in need of a transport
network both cheap and efficient. In 1946 several
dozens of trolleybuses were brought in from the
Soviet Union and first two lines were soon opened.
The trolleybuses were using ex-tramway lines and the
lines ran from Union of Lublin square (Plac Unii
Lubelskiej) to Warszawa Gdańska train station, and
from Łazienkowska depot to the city centre (Piękna
street area).
In March 1946 a second line was opened (Plac Saski–Bonifraterska),
but was closed and replaced by streetcars in
December. However, the reconstruction of the tramway
was halted, mostly for political reasons, and until
1955 5 new trolleybus lines were opened, covering
most of the city centre.
1967 started a period of fast decline in both the
number of trolleybuses and the trolleybus lines in
Warsaw. PZPR policies under Edward Gierek assumed
that as much Polish coal as possible be exported
while the oil be imported at very low prices from
the USSR. It was decided that production of
electricity should be lowered in order to spare
resources and by 7 July 1973 all trolleybus lines in
Warsaw were closed.
The last period of Warsaw trolleybus transportation
started in 1977, when it was decided that the
existing cars could be used as a means of mass
transit between Warsaw and the southern suburb of
Piaseczno. An additional line was planned through
Wilanów (now part of the city), Powsin and
Konstancin-Jeziorna. However, economic crisis made
construction of the latter line impossible, and only
the Piaseczno line was opened on 1 July 1983.
After the system transformation of 1989 it became
apparent that the trolleybuses were in dire need of
replacement (those used were built in early 1950s),
and that the maintenance costs of running a single
line were very high. On 1 September 1995 the Warsaw
City Council decided that all services on the 51 and
651 lines be halted. In July 2000 the trolleybus
depot in Piaseczno was closed and the remaining cars
sold to Minsk, Lublin (where most of them languish
in a field behind the main area of a trolleybus
depot awaiting refurbishment and return to service;
a lack of funds prevents this from going ahead) and
to various museums.
Culture of Warsaw
From 1833 to the outbreak of
World War II, Teatralny Square (Theatre Square) was
the country's theatrical and cultural hub and home
to the following theatres from 1833.
The main building housed the Teatr Wielki from
1833-1834, the Rozmaitości Theatre from 1836 to 1924
and then the National Theatre, the Reduta Theatre
from 1919 to 1924, and from 1928 to 1939 - the Nowy
Theatre, which staged productions of contemporary
poetical drama, including those directed by Leon
Schiller.
Nearby, in the Saski (Saxon) Garden, the Summer
Theatre was in operation from 1870 to September
1939, and in the inter-war period, the theatre
complex also included Momus, Warsaw's first artistic
literary cabaret at 29 Senatorska St., and Leon
Schiller's musical theatre Melodram at 29 Senatorska
St. The Wojciech Bogusławski Theatre (1922-1926) at
5 Hipoteczna St., in the former Nowości Theatre
building, was the best materialization of "Polish
monumental theatre". From the mid-1930's, a Teatr
Wielki building at 10 Trębacka St. housed the State
Institute of Dramatic Arts - the first state-run
academy of dramatic art, with an Acting Department
and a Stage Directing Department.
Teatralny Square and its environs was the venue for
numerous parades, celebrations of state holidays,
carnival balls, and concerts. In 1881, the Warsaw
Guide wrote:
“ Teatralny Square unquestionably can be called the
soul of Warsaw. It equals the Saski Garden in its
liveliness and activity. Here are concentrated the
most important organs in a city's life: the Theatre
and the Town Hall, a church, the wine-traders
Stępkowski and Boquet, a prime restaurant decorated
to ensure the greatest comfort, the offices of
Warsaw's most popular newspaper Kurier Warszawski,
stationery emporiums, tobacco emporiums, pharmacies,
perfumeries, jewellers' shops, clothing and shoe
shops, the finest pastry-cooks' shops, emporiums
offering lamps, samovars, linen, gowns and furs,
fruit shops, cab stops, etc. etc. Such hustle and
bustle is not to be found elsewhere in the city.
Teatralny Square fully deserves the traveller's
interest. ”
Theatre
Warsaw is home to over 30 major
theatres that are spread throughout the city,
including the National Theatre (founded in 1765) and
the Grand Theatre in Warsaw ([1]) (established
1778).
Warsaw also attracts many young and off-stream
directors and performers who add to the city's
theatre culture. Their productions may be viewed
mostly in smaller theatres and Houses of Culture
(Dom Kultury), mostly outside Śródmieście (downtown
Warsaw). One of the most notable stages in Poland is
TR Warszawa (formerly Teatr Rozmaitości). Warsaw
hosts the International Theatrical Meetings.
Music
Thanks to numerous musical
venues, including the Teatr Wielki, the Polish
National Opera, the Chamber Opera, the National
Philharmonic Hall and the National Theatre, as well
as the music theatres Roma and Buffo and the
Congress Hall in the Palace of Culture and Science,
Warsaw hosts many renown events and festivals. Among
the seasonal events worth particular attention are:
the International Frederick Chopin Piano
Competition, the International Contemporary Music
Festival Warsaw Autumn, the Jazz Jamboree, Warsaw
Summer Jazz Days, the International Stanisław
Moniuszko Vocal Competition, the Mozart Festival,
and the Festival of Old Music.
Museums and art galleries
There are many museums and art
galleries in Warsaw, most notable are the Muzeum
Narodowe, The Polish Aviation Museum, Zachęta Art
Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Museum of the
Polish Army. The biggest of them, the National
Museum has numerous divisions located in many parts
of Warsaw, most notably in the Royal Castle and the
Wilanów Palace. Since 2004, a Warsaw Uprising Museum
[2] has been open to the public.
Film
Since World War II Warsaw has
been the second most important centre of film
production in Poland. As the capital of Poland it
has also been featured in countless movies, both
Polish and foreign. Movies such as Kanał and Korczak
by Andrzej Wajda, Eroica by Andrzej Munk, The
Decalogue by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Miś by Stanisław
Bareja or The Pianist by Roman Polański used Warsaw
either as the background, or as the protagonist.
Education
Main gate of Warsaw
UniversityWarsaw is one of the most important
education centers of Poland. It is home to four
major universities and over 62 smaller schools of
higher education. The most important are:
University of Warsaw (Uniwersytet Warszawski)
Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika
Warszawska)
Warsaw School of Economics (Szkoła Główna Handlowa)
Warsaw Agricultural University (Szkoła Główna
Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego)
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (Uniwersytet
Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego)
Medical University of Warsaw (Akademia Medyczna w
Warszawie)
Military University of Technology (Wojskowa Akademia
Techniczna)
Academy of National Defence (Akademia Obrony
Narodowej)
Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw (Akademia
Wychowania Fizycznego w Warszawie)
Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music (Akademia Muzyczna
im. Fryderyka Chopina)
Theatre Academy (Akademia Teatralna im. Aleksandra
Zelwerowicza)
The overall number of students of all grades of
education in Warsaw is almost 500,000 (29.2% of the
city population; 2002). The number of university
students is over 255,000.
Economy
Business and commerce
Warsaw, especially its downtown (Śródmieście),
is home not only to many national institutions and
government agencies, but also to many domestic and
international companies. In 2003, 268,307 companies
were registered in the city. Warsaw is seen as the
heart of Poland by foreign investors, whose
financial participation in the city's development
was estimated in 2002 at over 650 million euro.
Warsaw produces more than 15% of Poland's national
income. The GDP (PPP) per capita in Warsaw was about
$28,000 in 2005.
At the same time the unemployment rate is one of the
lowest in Poland, not exceeding 6%, according to the
official figures.
The city itself collects around 8,740,882,000 złotys
in taxes and direct government grants.
It has been said that Warsaw, together with
Frankfurt, London and Paris, is one of the tallest
cities in Europe. 11 tallest skyscrapers of Poland,
9 of which are office buildings, are located in
Warsaw. The centrally located tallest structure, the
Palace of Culture and Science, is the 4th tallest
building in the European Union.
Stock exchange
Although Warsaw was home to a
stock exchange since 1817, in 1945, because of
political changes after World War II, it could not
be recreated. It only started operating again in
April 1991, after the reintroduction of the
free-market economy and democracy. It is now the
biggest stock exchange in the country, with more
than 250 companies listed. The main indexes of its
performance are WIG and WIG20.
History likes funny twists — it's worth mentioning
that from 1991 until 2000 the Warsaw Stock Exchange
was situated in the building previously used as the
headquarters of the Polish Communist Party (PZPR).
Industry
Following the destruction of the
city in World War II and its reconstruction, the
communist authorities decided that Warsaw be rebuilt
as a major industrial center. Several hundred major
factories were built in the city or just outside of
it. Most notable were the Huta Warszawa Steel Works
and two car factories.
However, as the communist economical system
deteriorated, most of them lost any significance. In
the years following 1989, in the course of a
peaceful transformation of both political and
economical system in Poland, most of these went
bankrupt. Nowadays, the Lucchini-Warszawa Steel Mill
(formerly Huta Warszawa) is the only major factory
remaining. Car factories Ursus and FSO (short from
Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych - Individual Cars
Fabric) also operates, producing cars mostly to the
export.
Tourist attractions
Although Warsaw is a reasonably
new city, it has a lot of tourist attractions. Apart
from the Old Town quarter, carefully reconstructed
after World War II, each borough has something to
offer. Among the most notable landmarks of the Old
Town are the Royal Castle, King Zygmunt's Column,
and the barbican.
Further south is the so-called
Royal Road, with lots of notable classicist palaces,
the Presidential Palace and the Warsaw University
campus. Also the popular Nowy Świat Street is worth
mentioning.
Warsaw's oldest public park, the
Ogród Saski, is located within 10 minutes distance
of the old town. Another such oasis of silence and
serenity is the Powązki Cemetery, one of the oldest
cemeteries in Europe, filled with hundreds of
precious sculptures, some of them by the most
renowned artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Since it serves the religious communities of Warsaw,
be it Catholics, Jews, Muslims or Protestants, it is
often called a necropolis. Nearby is the Okopowa
Street Jewish Cemetery, one of the largest Jewish
cemeteries in Europe.
To the north of the city center the museum of the
former Warsaw Ghetto is located, which is also a
popular locality often visited by foreign tourists.
Also the borough of Żoliborz is famous for its
architecture from the 1920s and 1930s. Between
Żoliborz and the Vistula the Warsaw Citadel is
located, a priceless monument of 19th century
military architecture. Also the former royal
residencec of king Jan III Sobieski in Wilanów and
Belweder are notable for their baroque architecture
and beautiful parks.
However, Warsaw is perhaps the most famous for
several buildings from modern history. Apart from
the Palace of Culture and Science, a Soc-realist
skyscrapper located exactly in the city center, the
Stadion Dziesięciolecia which is the biggest market
in Europe also attracts many tourists. For those who
seek dramatic contrasts the borough of Central Praga
is often the best choice. Called by the Varsovians
the Bermuda Triangle for high crime rate, it is a
place where almost completely demolished houses
stand right next to modern apartment buildings and
shopping malls. Also a Constitution square with its
monumental socrealistic architecture should be
mentioned.
Palace of Culture and ScienceUlica Kubusia Puchatka
is a Warsaw street named after Winnie-the-Pooh.
The modern architecture in Warsaw is represented by:
Metropolitan at Pilsudski's square by sir Norman
Foster
Warsaw University Library (BUW) by Marek Budzyński
and Zbigniew Badowski with a garden on the roof and
beautiful viev on the Vistula river
Rondo 1 office building by SOM
Zlote Tarasy retail and business center
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw
