"Wow Warsaw" a Warsaw Travel Page by Ramonq

Warsaw has an unenviable title of being the most heavily devastated city during the second world war. The relentless bombing of the city by the Allied troops to expel the German Nazis has exacted a serious toll on the city's infrastructure. But this did not break Warsaw's fighting spirit. Despite the invasion by yet another tyrannical ruler, the Soviets, Warsaw has managed to restore its former glory with the enthusiastic determination of its civic minded citizens.

I visited the old section of Warsaw and I was very impressed by the detailed reconstruction of the old heart of the city. Having seen the thorough destruction of the city through old photographs and television documentaries, the reconstruction of old Warsaw by the Polish people is close to miraculous. The new buildings were painstakingly crafted to make it look exactly like the original down to the minutest detail. It is amazing how the city was able to archive the documents of all the structures that were built in the city before the war, and they were able to use those information to rebuild them, as if the war never happened. The old market square now lined with Polish restaurants and the Zygmunt's column in front of the Warsaw Royal Castle are actually replicas of the old self.

Send Photo to a Friend

Stare Miasto (Old Town)

Poland, being right in the heart of Central Europe, has a long history of being conquered by her more powerful neighbours and Warsaw, being its capital city, is linked to most of notable events in the country. For a certain period of time, the Prussians, Napoleonic French and Nazi Germans invaded from the West, the Austrian Hapsburg from the South, The Swedish Empire from the North, and the Russian Empire and the communist Soviets from the East. This has allowed Warsaw to inherit all the architectural styles in Europe such as from the outlandish baroque churches that you see in Vienna to simple Hanseatic gables similar to the ones in Tallinn; from Prussian style churches to the brutal Stalinesque bureaus, Warsaw has them all. You can see many examples of these palatial architecture between the old walled city and the new city centre, around the beautiful Saxon Gardens, Warsaw's oldest public park.

Warsaw has even created an impressive internationalist modern skyline with gleaming skyscrapers in the newer sections of the city. All these contribute in ushering Warsaw, the city by the Vistula River, to the esteemed company of one of the greatest cultural and business capitals of Europe. I stayed at the top floor of a high-rise hotel located right in the new centre of Warsaw and the bird's eye view from my room was dramatic. The enormous 243 metres high Soviet-style Palace of Culture and Science, are now accompanied by modern office towers like those that I've seen in Frankfurt. Warsaw clearly does not want to be left behind in its mad rush to modernise its economy and become a major player in the European Union.

Send Photo to a Friend

Warsaw central square

Nazi lessons

With so many new buildings in Warsaw, the city has not forgotten its more recent traumatic past. Warsaw witnessed the most extreme brutality under the Nazi regime. After the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, the vindictive Nazis gave Warsaw a death sentence. They destroyed the city to the core by burning houses and buildings in every street and blew up the Warsaw Royal Palace. Hundreds of thousands of jews and Polish rebels, who made up a substantial percentage of the population were rounded up in a ghetto and then brought to Auschwitz to be exterminated. Warsaw bore the brunt of Nazi anger that it appeared impossible for Warsaw to ever recover from this. Yet the resilient citizens did recover gallantly, and they have set up monuments and museums around the city to remind the people about those who suffered so that history will not repeat itself. In a way, I found Warsaw to be a sad place, but at the same time, I'm in awe of these very literate and cultural people who are also resilient and resourceful. Long live Warsaw!