Warsaw

Warsaw Warszawa
Capital City of Warsaw Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa
Left to right: Financial centre, Royal Castle, Old Town Market Place, Presidential Palace, Wilanów Palace, National Stadium.
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Semper invicta  (Latin Ever Invincible)
Warsaw
Coordinates: 52°13′56.28″N 21°00′30.36″E / 52.2323°N 21.0084333°E / 52.2323; 21.0084333
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Masovian
County	city county
City rights	turn of the 12th to 13th century
Boroughs	18 dzielnicas Bemowo Białołęka Bielany Mokotów Ochota Praga North Praga South Rembertów Śródmieście Targówek Ursus Ursynów Wawer Wesoła Wilanów Włochy Wola Żoliborz
Government
• President	Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (PO)
Area
• City	516.9 km2 (199.6 sq mi)
• Metro	6,100.43 km2 (2,355.4 sq mi)
Elevation	78–116 m (328 ft)
Population (2009)
• City	1,716,855
• Density	3,311.02/km2 (8,575.5/sq mi)
• Metro	2,631,902
• Metro density	549.19/km2 (1,422.4/sq mi)
Demonym	Varsovian
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	00-001 to 04–999
Area code(s)	+48 22
Car plates	WA, WB, WD, WE, WF, WH, WI, WJ, WK, WN, WT, WU, WW, WX, WY
Website	warszawa.pl

Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa [varˈʂava] ( listen); see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most populous city proper in the European Union.^[1][2] The area of the city covers 516.9 square kilometres (199.6 sq mi), while the city's agglomeration covers 6,100.43 square kilometres (2,355.39 sq mi).^[3]

Warsaw is an Alpha- global city, a major international tourist destination and an important economic hub in Central and Eastern Europe.^[4][5][6] It is also known as the phoenix city because it has survived many wars throughout its history. Most notably, the city had to be painstakingly rebuilt after the extensive damage it suffered from World War II, during which 80% of its buildings were destroyed.^[7][8] On 9 November 1940 the city was awarded Poland's highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari, for the Siege of Warsaw (1939).^[9]

Warsaw has given its name to the Warsaw Confederation, the Warsaw Pact, the Duchy of Warsaw, the Warsaw Convention, the Treaty of Warsaw, the Warsaw Uprising and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Warszawianka is widely considered the unofficial anthem of the city.^[10]

[edit] Etymology and names

Warsaw's name in the Polish language, Warszawa (also formerly spelled Warszewa and Warszowa), means belonging to Warsz, Warsz being a shortened form of the masculine name of Slavic origin Warcisław; see also etymology of Wrocław.^[11] Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman Wars and his wife Sawa. According to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River who Wars fell in love with.^[12] Actually, Warsz was a 12th/13th century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of today's Mariensztat neighbourhood.^[13] The official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa (English: The Capital City of Warsaw).^[14] A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian.

Other names for Warsaw include Warschau (German and Dutch), Varsovia (Spanish and Latin), Varsovie (French), Varsavia (Italian), וואַרשע/Varshe (Yiddish), ורשה/Varsha (Hebrew), Варшава/Varshava (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian and Serbian), Varšava (Slovak, Czech, Latvian, Slovenian, Serbian and Croatian), Varšuva (Lithuanian), Varsó (Hungarian), 華沙 (Huáshā, flower sand) (Traditional Chinese) and فرصوفيا/fersofia (Arabic).

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

1411 St. Mary's Church in Warsaw New Town

The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century).^[16] After Jazdów was raided, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa. The Płock prince Bolesław II of Masovia, established this settlement, the modern Warsaw, about 1300. In the beginning of the 14th century it became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia, becoming the capital of Masovia in 1413.^[16] 14th-century Warsaw's economy rested on crafts and trade. Upon the extinction of the local ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the Polish Crown in 1526.^[16]

[edit] 16th to 18th centuries

In 1529 Warsaw for the first time became the seat of the General Sejm, permanent from 1569.^[16] In 1573 the city gave its name to the Warsaw Confederation, formally establishing religious freedom in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to its central location between the Commonwealth's capitals of Kraków and Vilnius, Warsaw became the capital of the Commonwealth, and of the Polish Crown, in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved the court from Kraków to Warsaw.^[16]

Battle of Warsaw in 1656

In the following years the town expanded towards the suburbs. Several private independent districts were established, the property of aristocrats and the gentry, which were ruled by their own laws. Three times between 1655–1658 the city was under siege and three times it was taken and pillaged by the Swedish, Brandenburgian and Transylvanian forces.^[16][17]

In 1700, the Great Northern War broke out. The city was besieged several times and was obliged to pay heavy contributions.^[15] Warsaw turned into an early-capitalistic principal city.

Stanisław August Poniatowski, who remodelled the interior of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, also made Warsaw a centre of culture and the arts.^[18][19] This earned Warsaw the name of the Paris of the east.^[20]

[edit] 19th and 20th centuries

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 South Prussia. Liberated by Napoleon's army in 1806, Warsaw was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw.^[16] Following the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the centre of the Congress Poland, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia.^[16] The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816.

German airship Schütte Lanz SL2 bombing Warsaw in 1914

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.^[16] On 27 February 1861 a Warsaw crowd protesting against the Russian rule over Poland was fired upon by the Russian troops.^[21][22] Five people were killed. The Underground Polish National Government resided in Warsaw during January Uprising in 1863–64.^[22]

Warsaw flourished in the late 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), 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 modernisation of trams, street lighting and gas works.^[16]

The Russian Empire Census of 1897 recorded 626,000 people living in Warsaw, making it the third-largest city of the Empire after St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Warsaw was occupied by Germany from the 4 August 1915 until 1918. It then became the capital of the newly independent Poland in 1918. 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 was successfully defended and the Red Army defeated.^[24] Poland stopped by itself the full brunt of the Red Army and defeated an idea of the export of the revolution.^[25][26]

[edit] World War II

Sea of rubble^[27] – over eight out of every ten buildings in Warsaw were destroyed by the end of World War II. In left centre can be seen ruins of Old Town Market Square.

During World War II, central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of the General Government, a German Nazi colonial administration. 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.^[28] When the order came to annihilate the ghetto as part of Hitler's Final Solution on 19 April 1943, Jewish fighters launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.^[29] Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the Ghetto held out for almost a month.^[29] When the fighting ended, almost all survivors were massacred, only few managed to escape or hide.^[29][30]

Warsaw'44 Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from German occupation before the Red Army could liberate it.[31]

By July 1944, the Red Army was deep into Polish territory and pursuing the Germans toward Warsaw.^[32] Knowing that Stalin was hostile to the idea of an independent Poland, the Polish government-in-exile in London gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize control of Warsaw from the Germans before the Red Army arrived. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the Red Army was nearing the city, the Warsaw Uprising began.^[32] The armed struggle, planned to last 48 hours, went on for 63 days. Stalin gave orders to his troops to wait outside of Warsaw.^[33] Eventually the Home Army fighters and civilians assisting them were forced to capitulate.^[32] They were transported to PoW camps in Germany, while the entire civilian population was expelled.^[32] Polish civilian deaths are estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000.^[34]

The Germans then razed Warsaw to the ground. Hitler, ignoring the agreed terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground and the library and museum collections taken to Germany or burned.^[32] Monuments and government buildings were blown up by special German troops known as Verbrennungs- und Vernichtungskommando (Burning and Destruction Detachments).^[32] About 85% of the city had been destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle.^[35]

On 17 January 1945 – after the beginning of the Vistula–Oder Offensive of the Red Army – Soviet troops entered the ruins of Warsaw, and liberated Warsaw's suburbs from German occupation. The city was swiftly taken by the Soviet Army, which rapidly advanced towards Łódź, as German forces regrouped at a more westward position.

[edit] Modern times

John Paul II's Mass in Victory Square, 1979

In 1945, after the bombing, the revolts, the fighting, and the demolition had ended, most of Warsaw lay in ruins.

After the war, under a Communist regime set up by the conquering Soviets, large prefabricated housing projects were erected in Warsaw to address the housing shortage, along with other typical buildings of an Eastern Bloc city, such as the Palace of Culture and Science. 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.^[36]

John Paul II's visits to his native country in 1979 and 1983 brought support to the budding solidarity movement and encouraged the growing anti-communist fervor there.^[37] In 1979, less than a year after becoming pope, John Paul celebrated Mass in Victory Square in Warsaw and ended his sermon with a call to renew the face of Poland: Let Thy Spirit descend! Let Thy Spirit descend and renew the face of the land! This land!^[37] These words were very meaningful for the Polish citizens who understood them as the incentive for the democratic changes.^[37]

In 1995, the Warsaw Metro opened. With the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004, Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest economic boom of its history.^[38] The opening match of UEFA Euro 2012 is scheduled to take place in Warsaw.^[39]

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location and topography

Warsaw seen from SPOT satellite

Warsaw lies in east-central Poland about 300 km (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains and about 260 km (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea, 523 km (325 mi) east of Berlin, Germany.^[40] The city straddles the Vistula River. It is located in the heartland of the Masovian Plain, and its average elevation is 100 metres (330 ft) above sea level. The highest point on the left side of the city lies at a height of 115.7 metres (379.6 ft) (“Redutowa” bus depot, district of Wola), on the right side – 122.1 metres (400.6 ft) (“Groszówka” estate, district of Wesoła, by the eastern border). The lowest point lies at a height 75.6 metres (248.0 ft) (at the right bank of the Vistula, by the eastern border of Warsaw). There are some hills (mostly artificial) located within the confines of the city – e.g. Warsaw Uprising Hill (121 metres (397.0 ft)), Szczęśliwice hill (138 metres (452.8 ft) – the highest point of Warsaw in general).

Warsaw is located on two main geomorphologic forms: the plain moraine plateau and the Vistula Valley with its asymmetrical pattern of different terraces. The Vistula River is the specific axis of Warsaw, which divides the city into two parts, left and right. The left one is situated both on the moraine plateau (10 to 25 m (32.81 to 82.02 ft) above Vistula level) and on the Vistula terraces (max. 6.5 m (21.33 ft) above Vistula level). The significant element of the relief, in this part of Warsaw, is the edge of moraine plateau called Warsaw Escarpment. It is 20 to 25 m (65.62 to 82.02 ft) high in the Old Town and Central district and about 10 m (32.81 ft) in the north and south of Warsaw. It goes through the city and plays an important role as a landmark.

The plain moraine plateau has only a few natural and artificial ponds and also groups of clay pits. The pattern of the Vistula terraces is asymmetrical. The left side consist mainly of two levels: the highest one contains former flooded terraces and the lowest one the flood plain terrace. The contemporary flooded terrace still has visible valleys and ground depressions with water systems coming from the Vistula old – riverbed. They consist of still quite natural streams and lakes as well as the pattern of drainage ditches. The right side of Warsaw has a different pattern of geomorfological forms. There are several levels of the plain Vistula terraces (flooded as well as former flooded once) and only small part and not so visible moraine escarpment. Aeolian sand with a number of dunes parted by peat swamps or small ponds cover the highest terrace. These are mainly forested areas (pine forest).

[edit] Climate

Warsaw's climate is humid continental (Koppen Dfb) with cold winters and mild summers. The average temperature is −3 °C (27 °F) in January and 19.3 °C (66.7 °F) in July. Temperatures may often reach 30 °C (86 °F) in the summer. Yearly rainfall averages 495 millimetres (19.5 in), wettest month being July. Spring and Autumn are usually beautiful seasons, the former crisp and sunny and full of blooms and the latter alternately sunny and misty, and cool but not cold.

[edit] Districts

Until 1994, there were 7 districts in Warsaw: Śródmieście, Praga Północ, Praga Południe, Żoliborz, Wola, Ochota, Mokotów. Between 1994 and 2002, there were 11 districts: Centrum, Białołęka, Targówek, Rembertów, Wawer, Wilanów, Ursynów, Włochy, Ursus, Bemowo, Bielany. In 2002, the town Wesoła was incorporated and the territorial division of Warsaw was established as follows:

Warsaw is a powiat (county), and is further divided into 18 boroughs, each one known as a dzielnica (districts – see map), each one with its own administrative body.^[42] Each of the boroughs includes several neighbourhoods which have no legal or administrative status. Warsaw has two historic districts, called Old Town (Stare Miasto) and New Town (Nowe Miasto) in the borough of Śródmieście.^[43]

[edit] Cityscape

[edit] Overview

Warsaw's mixture of architectural styles reflects the turbulent history of the city and country. During WWII, Warsaw was razed to the ground by bombing raids and planned destruction.^[32] After liberation, rebuilding began as in other cities of the communist-ruled PRL. Most of the historical buildings were thoroughly reconstructed. However, some of the buildings from the 19th century that had been preserved in reasonably reconstructible form were nonetheless eradicated in the 1950s and 1960s (e.g. Leopold Kronenberg Palace).^[44] Mass residential blocks were erected, with basic design typical of Eastern bloc countries.

Public spaces attract heavy investment, so that the city has gained entirely new squares, parks and monuments. Warsaw's current urban landscape is one of modern and contemporary architecture. 

[edit] Architecture

Warsaw's palaces, churches and mansions display a richness of color and architectural details. Buildings are representatives of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. The city has wonderful examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque and neoclassical periods, all of which are located within easy walking distance of the