Warszawa (Warsaw

Warszawa

(Warsaw)

Get to know the vibrant capital. The key to understanding this eclectic city is to realize how often Warsaw had to start over from scratch – like the arrivals today seeking a new life here far from their hometowns. Warsaw was destroyed several times in military attacks, uprisings and reprisals. When the city practically ceased to exist in 1944, with nearly 90% of the buildings destroyed, it looked like the final chapter in the history of the city with a mermaid wielding a sword and a shield on its coat of arms.

Here and away

 Warsaw Chopin

Airport – 7km  Warsaw Modlin

Airport – 34km  Berlin – 520km

Prague – 520km

Vilnius – 395km

Overview

�� 1323  1,8m  517 km2  5 386 PLN  255 k

Culture & Nature

�� 59  44  88 Food & Stay

 23 k  3.3k  531

But just a year later, people began returning to their beloved capital and rebuilding it laboriously, brick by brick. Its contemporary shape and atmosphere suggest a quickly recreated space that must serve various needs.

There are modern residential developments here, sometimes standing alongside old tenement buildings. There are many classic buildings recalling the 19th century. There are also Socialist Realist remnants of Soviet domination, like the Palace of Culture – smack dab in the middle of the city, it can’t be ignored.

The atmosphere of old Warsaw can best be enjoyed by strolling along the streets of the Praga district, on the east bank of the Vistula. The river on this side is separated from the city by natural embankments, with dense undergrowth protected by the eU’s Natura 2000 program. Varsovians throng to this wilderness for recreation, but it is also a haven for many species of wild animals and birds •

Grzybowski Square and All Saints Church with skyscrapers in the background •

Fancy places, fancy things

Anna Pięta and Magda

Korcz – organizers of ‘hUSh Warsaw’ – the largest fair offering original Polish fashion designs

For a bolt of fashion history visit the royal mill, Manufaktura Królewska in Łazienki Royal Park, Europe’s only landmark textile plant operating continuously since the 17th century. Fabrics have been produced to order here for fashion houses like Chanel, Dior and Givenchy. Warsaw’s fashion street, in the city centre, is Mokotowska Street. Before starting your stroll on Mokotowska, stop at the nearby Mysia 3 shopping centre, that for original fashion design is to Warsaw what the Corso Como is for Milan. Anna Orska, the most creative jewellery designer in Poland, has a boutique here. There’s also the concept store ShE/S A RIOT, offering the brand’s own clothing, perfumes from around the world, magazines, and even chocolates. The NAP Moda shop features a solid selection of Polish brands like ESTby ES., Zofia Chylak and Anna Gregory. Treasures are hidden all along Mokotowska, from the ecological boutique Wearso to the shop of famous Polish designer Ania Kuczyńska, and many more. Drop in everywhere and discover the best Polish brands.

On Sundays, tunes from the outdoor Chopin concerts in Łazienki Royal Park (AbOVE) float over to the bicycle path along Ujazdowskie Avenue. Before you

reach the Centre for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski Castle, with socially-aware outdoor pieces in its front yard, you must wander along Koszykowa Street and the charming ‘avenue of roses’, Aleja Róż! The boutiques here are great places to spruce up your wardrobe. Try Kyosk (TOP LEFT) and showroom Kaaskas.

Find stylish cakes at Lukullus, especially the locations on Mokotowska (bELOW LEFT) and on Francuska Street in Saska Kępa. The interior design is striking, and the cakes are based on old Polish and French recipes. Magda’s favourites are the Limoncello tarts and the ‘Armani’ cake. The owners work closely with local artists to allude to Warsaw history and capture its bohemian atmosphere.

The Neon Museum at Soho Factory, Mińska Street 25 (MIDDLE LEFT), documents the design of Polish neon advertising signs through the years. Neon was a medium favoured by the authorities for state-owned shops and enterprises during the Communist era, and some of these remarkable pieces are on display here •

Living memory of Warsaw

Jan Ołdakowski is the director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, one of the city’s liveliest and busiest historical institutions, commemorating the 1 August 1944 revolt against Nazi occupation.

‘It’s great to be in Warsaw on the 1st of August to witness the annual celebration of the Warsaw Uprising’, Ołdakowski says. ‘At 5 pm the sirens go off, and at that very moment the entire city comes to a halt. Seeing this gigantic ‘flashmob’, when hundreds of thousands of people stand for a minute of silence, cars and bikes stop, all in homage to fallen Varsovians – it always makes a huge impression. The citizens of Warsaw feel a link to the history of this city. But it is a tangled history, impacted by two breeds of totalitarianism – Nazi and Soviet. That marks how Warsaw looks today: visually chaotic and often unlovely, but despite this-or perhaps precisely because of this-highly dynamic, creative, in constant motion’ •

A night on the town!

Michał ‘Borek’ Borkiewicz – cultural impresario and founder of iconic Warsaw café clubs Plan B, Plac Zabaw and Dwa Osiem

Plac Zbawiciela (OPPOSITE PAGE FAR RIGhT) hardly needs an introduction, but it can’t be missed. It is a living symbol of social transformation, as people left home and headed into the streets! It all began with our small club Plan B, which hosts small concerts, meetings and parties. Later joined by the café/bakery Charlotte and several other bars and informal eateries, Plac Zbawiciela became the favourite spot for Warsaw artists, activists, freelancers, or simply your smarter breed of drinkers. For some, the area represents everything relaxed and open-minded, for others it’s all show-offs and hipsters (whoever they might be). I love it.

Lado AbC is the most important independent music label in Warsaw, or maybe anywhere in Poland. It’s also an artistic group, a community, a brand, a scene… Dozens of musicians come together to create a mass of stylistically varied projects. There’s no office, official distribution or marketing strategy, and it doesn’t make money, but it releases lots of good material. The musicians play at global festivals and small clubs. Plac Zabaw (the outdoor stage of Plan B, down on the river) hosts a mini-festival for Lado AbC every summer.

Plac Defilad (AbOVE LEFT) combines the energy of several drivers of cultural life in Warsaw – the café clubs in the Palace of Culture and Science (Bar Studio and Café Kulturalna), together with the team at Teatr Studio – with the initiative of the city authorities. They have breathed life into the most visible but underused space in the centre of Warsaw: Plac Defilad. Here a varied program of cultural events, debates, and social and environmental campaigns are interwoven with official city events.

The banks of the Vistula River used to be a wasteland in terms of food and culture, associated with grilled sausages and brawls between track-suited thugs. Today everybody heads down to the river – indeed, some folks spend their whole summer there. It’s certainly worth checking out what’s going on at Cud nad Wisłą, Pomost 511, Kurort, Sezon, Hocki Klocki, Barka and the nearby Plac Zabaw (bELOW). They all offer a rich cultural program!

If you’re looking for music in a little quieter and more intimate setting, I recommend the Free Jazz at Pardon To Tu, Klubokawiarnia Towarzyska, Oleandrów 3, Chmury (in the colourful Praga district east of the river), Kawiarnia Fawory, and

after that some excellent falafel at Bejrut on Senatorska Street. You can reach all these spots on a bicycle! •

Warsaw Cockney

Warsaw slang involves original words and expressions, but also a characteristic tone of voice, with verbal shortcuts and twists, humour and swagger. You can hear it best from a taxi driver or on the streets of Praga, on the east side of the river.

Differences often cropped up within this special language, depending on local neighbourhood influences, specific occupations, or traces of German or Yiddish. Before World War II these dif-

ferences were more distinct than they are now. After the war, slang began to be studied scientifically and used in highbrow literature. Now the Warsaw Slang Society has assumed the task of maintaining the argot they call Warsiaski. The group organizes workshops and other events upholding the tradition, publishing glossaries online and even teaching slang – all so this pungent and clever ‘Warsaw Cockney’ remains in circulation and does not die out • Examples of Warsiaski slang terms

graba – hand gablota – a car, resembling a ‘glass display case’ for any items of value piterek – wallet doliniarz – a pickpocket, a ‘valley dweller’ who dips into people’s pockets taryfiarz – a taxi driver, who charges a ‘fare’

A phenomenon that occurs not just in Warsaw but enjoys particular popularity here is the ‘milk bars’, a holdover from the days of Communism. The name notwithstanding, they serve much more than milk, offering simple Polish fare (soups, dumplings, pancakes and the like) at very affordable, subsidized prices. Don’t be surprised if you see a businessman in a suit here eating lunch next to a homeless man. Some of the milk bars retain their retro atmosphere, while others have had a facelift. The one called Bar Prasowy, (RIGhT) on Marszałkowska Street, became a cause célèbre when city authorities threatened to shut it down. Activists fought back, occupying the milk bar and serving food themselves. Finally a settlement was reached and Bar Prasowy survived. Updated with a sharper design, it’s still in operation today •

Museum under construction

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw is an excellent example of a nomad institution. While waiting for years for its ultimate home, it continually stirs up creative agitation in the artistic and social life of the city. For now it is housed in the former Emilia furniture showroom (AbOVE), but wherever it happens to be located at the moment – perhaps finally in its own building designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners? – remember you can always find critical exhibitions here, interesting people, the finest art books and albums, and a great cup of coffee! •

The city is ours! Urban activists in action

Joanna Erbel – sociologist, urban activist, Green Party candidate for Mayor of Warsaw in 2014

Osiedle Jazdów is a green enclave in the busy city centre, between the Vistula Escarpment and Park Ujazdowski. This development of wooden Finnish houses from after World War II was the scene of a pitched battle in 2012–2015 to save this space. Originally the houses were to be torn down to make way for redevelopment, but after numerous happenings by the activists from the Open Jazdów group, a letter of intent was signed with the city authorities to take joint action to protect the cultural heritage here. Apart from long-time residents, Jazdów is home to numerous NGOs, two community gardens (AbOVE), and colonies of bees. The further plans for the area are the fruits of the first grassroots social consultation in Warsaw.

Osiedle Przyjaźń is another development of Finnish houses, this one far from the city centre in the Bemowo district. As at Jazdów, after the war they were built to house workers brought in to rebuild Warsaw. After they left a legendary academic village grew up here, with a cinema, bathhouse, cafeterias, a clinic and a preschool. The property is witness to the history of the rebuilding of the capital, and thanks to the engagement of activists, in August 2015 the Mayor of Warsaw recognized the development as a landmark. So while you admire the green space here and the architecture, you can also feel the social energy to protect the local community and its heritage.

The disused concrete velodrome Nowe Dynasy in the Praga Południe district, at 11 Podskarbińska Street, has become the focus of the energy of urban activists seeking to maintain the local history and restore the track to its original use for bicycle racing. In 2014 a group from the café club Dwa Osiem, the theatre group Koło, Zmiana Organizacji Ruchu and Studio Robot launched a public debate about revitalizing this facility. Money was raised on a crowdfunding site to build a miniracetrack (TOP), the first step to restoring the Nowe Dynasy velodrome to its former glory •

Unique among Europe’s big cities, the eastern bank of the Vistula is largely wild, overgrown and unregulated. On its sandy beaches residents hold picnics and bonfires. Across the river, on the ‘civilized’ western bank, they flock to cafés, nightclubs, and the Copernicus Science Centre, which opened in 2010. This scientific ‘exploratorium’ is one of the most attractive centres of its kind in Europe, with a planetarium and a rooftop garden overlooking the river. ‘I also recommend gazing at the panorama of Warsaw from the water’, says Ołdakowski. ‘From kayaks available for rent, or from the ferry or the ‘water trams’ making river crossings in the summer. The best view is from near the Gdański Bridge, with the Old Town in the foreground, as in the 18th century paintings of the city by Bernardo Bellotto, but with glass-clad skyscrapers in the background’. One of the most modern bridges is the Świętokrzyski Bridge (bELOW) linking Powiśle neighbourhood with Praga Północ district •

An architectural miracle

Grzegorz Piątek – architecture critic, curator of architectural exhibitions and artistic projects

Those words was a refrain heard on Warsaw streets in the 1950s – the city, tragically battered throughout its history, returned to life thanks to the whole nation’s efforts. It’s important to remember that Warsaw is a brand-new city, and even the Old Town (lefT), is new, because it was rebuilt in the 1950s after total destruction in World War II. The Old Town was listed as a UNeSCo World Heritage Site for being an exceptional project of 20th century reconstruction.

An immediately striking feature is the Warsaw ‘downtown’ with the Socialist Realist tower, the Palace of Culture and Science, surrounded by modern skyscrapers. The high-rises individually may not be that distinguished, but as a group they stand out among European capitals, which tend to be built on a lower scale. For the newest architecture there is Powiśle. First off is the University of Warsaw Library, by Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski – the last major postmodernist design in Poland. It is admired by architectural professionals and ordinary users alike. Open not just to students but also to the public, the building features a roof garden offering a panoramic view of Warsaw. Next, head over to the nearby and entirely new Academy of Fine Arts building on Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie, designed by the JeMS Architekci studio. This rational construction of concrete and glass, colour-

Barbara and Stanisław Brukalskis’ private house (1927–1929) •

This modernist building was completed in 1952 as the headquarters of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Communist Party) Central Committee (LEFT). Today it is a banking and financial office centre (CBF) and is home to a number of popular bars specialising in artisanal beers and fine cocktails (AbOVE) •

ful rather than cold, showcases contemporary Polish architecture. Fans of Modernism should stop by for pierogi and steak tartare at the nearby bar Warszawa Powiśle, in what was originally the ticket hall for the commuter rail station from the 1950s.

A showpiece for Warsaw today is Polin, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (aboVe), by Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki. It is important to visit not only for the impressive exhibition depicting a thousand years of shared history of Jews and Poles, but also for its superb, monumental architecture.

An architecture buff could work up a thirst after all that. A good spot for a drink is the former Communist Party headquarters (aboVe), ironically later home to the Warsaw Stock Exchange. A bar called Cuda na Kiju serves fashionable craft beers, while Zamieszanie is known for its cocktails. The informal hipster vibe of these joints undercuts the weight of the monumental architecture of power, and on warm evenings the courtyard takes on the atmosphere of a bustling Italian piazza •

Palace of Culture and Science wy 231 m bu 1955 ar Lew Rudniew In the middle ages, the skyline was dominated by the brick belfry of the Church of the Visitation in the New Town area. In 17th century, the extended Royal Castle with a column of king Zygmunt III Waza became the symbol of Warsaw’s newly acquired role of the capital of Poland. Until the late 19th century houses hardly ever exceeded the height of three or four floors. The new construction methods allowed local builders to break the 50-metre mark. The record was set in 1908 on the completion of a medieval revival tower for the swedish telephone company Cedergren (now PAST tower or Pasta). In 1933 the 66-metre

Cosmopolitan wy 160 m bu 2014 ar Helmut Jahn

Prudential Building wy 66 m bub1934 ar Stefan Bryła,

Marcin Weinfeld art deco Prudential tower, designed by Marcin Weinfeld and Stefan Bryła took the lead. In the mid-50s the bar was set much higher by the 231-metre Palace of Culture and Science, then the second tallest building in Europe. Office and residential towers have been growing in size and in number recently, making Warsaw’s skyline one of the most dynamic and spectacular on the continent. The Cosmopolitan residential tower designed by the GermanAmerican architect Helmut Jahn, has won accolades for its elegant design •

Clock Tower,

Royal Castle wy 40 m bu 1622 ar Matteo Castelli,

Gaetano Chiaveri

Polish Telephone

Building (PASTA) wy 51 m bu 1908 ar Bronisław

Brochwicz-Rogoyski Sigismund

Column wy 22 m bu 1643 ar Agostino Locci,

Constantino

Tencalla

St Mary’s

Church,

New Town wy 32 m bu 1411 ar Unknown