Old Town, Warsaw

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UNESCO has declared the old city center of Warsaw a historic site. We found a bronze plaque imbedded in one of the cobbled streets in the old city but since the plaque was in Polish we could not determine just what the UNESCO site was. On this same street there is a building at the end of the street with a sundial, also the same cobbled street...so it could have been any one of those...quite confusing if you do not know Polish, and mine is very rusty.

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The small open square in the old part of Warsaw is full of life, even on the cold, cloudy and blustury day we visited there with our friend Daria, it was full of stalls with people checking them out. There were not many peole sitting in outdoor cafes though ....
As in many of the city centers we have visited in Europe, here in Warsaw we found the buildings that make up the "walls" of the square to be individualistic, colorful, even "artistic" might describe them.

I've seen many of these tactile maps in my travels throughout Europe and think they are just wonderful! The three-dimensional maps give a visually impaired person a literal feel for the area or, in some cases, the building they are visiting. Additionally, these maps are good for children who cannot always visualize what they are seeing.

The problem I find is this: exactly how in the world is a visually impaired person expected to find the map? Rarely do I see these listed in the tourist information centers or in the guide books. So one of my personal missions for VT is to post their locations as I find them.

There is a tactile map of the Old Town in Warsaw. It can be found just outside the west side of the city walls at the crossroads of Kapitulna and Podwale. If you look at the photo, you will see a shiny dot in the lower half of the center of the picture - this is the map location - it's shiny because everyone touches the spot when they announce "Here's where we are!" To give you some perspective - the open square shaped building on the right is the Royal Castle.

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The mermaid (syrenka) is the symbol of Warsaw. In the middle of the Old Town Square is a statue of the mermaid. During my morning walk through the Old Town, I enjoyed sitting in front of the statue. Every couple minutes water comes out from the base of the statue and creates a small pool in which the pigeons were happily bathing themselves in. They seemed to know that the water would move and appeared to wait until it filled up, then they would go into the water and flap their wings rapidly. It was fun to watch and I was not the only one enjoying it – even in the early morning, there were several people sitting on other benches enjoying the show.

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I enjoyed my walk through the Old Town – it was early morning and the tour buses had not yet arrived. I started near the Royal Castle and Zygmunt's Column. It was peaceful and gave me time to just look at the buildings and statues around me. I meandered through the streets towards the market square in order to see the statue of the mermaid. Taking a break on the benches that circle the statue, I rested and enjoyed watching the pigeons bathe in the water. Couples here and there, a young girl taking photos of a teddy bear on the bench, and a group of school children were around me as cafes were getting ready to open for early lunch goers.

I continued on my walk around the Old Town, stopping in at the Church of St. John the Baptist and peeking in the windows of the shops. After having my fill, I exited out the opposite of the way I arrived, heading towards the wall and the Barbican gate.

Many years ago, the Old Town Square was considered the most important place in Warsaw with the most important and wealthy families living in the houses that surround the square. Most of these buildings date back to the 1600s and have been rebuilt since the war. The mermaid statue stands in the center of the square.

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You have to walk through the old town, which is not very big , is all pedestrian and it is always crowded, but you can enjoy its churches, its market square with its colorful buildings, the houses of the merchants ...
At every turn you discover something new, a clock, a facade, a roof, a face ... and the Market Square is always busy with people around the mermaid fountain , street performers, horse-drawn carriages, cafés , artists

Hay que pasear por el casco antiguo , que no es muy grande y es todo peatonal pero siempre lleno de gente, pero puedes disfrutar de sus iglesias , su plaza del mercado con sus edificios multicolores , las casas de los comerciantes...
A cada paso descubres algo nuevo , un reloj , una fachada , un tejado , una cara... y la plaza siempre está animada con gente alrededor de la fuente de la sirena , artistas callejeros , coches de caballos , cafés , artistas

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Located in front of Castle Square, it was erected in commemoration of moving the Royal Residence from Kraków to Warsaw. On top of the Corinthian Column, you will see a statue of King Zygmunt Vasa who was the head behind the idea of moving the capital closer to his Swedish homelands and also closer to the Tsarian throne of Moscow, which he was eyeing too. On one hand he holds a cross, symbolizing his close link to the church, on the other a sword to defend his country. A legend says that whenever Poland is in danger, his sword begins to rattle. The original column was erected in 1644 and was made of red marble. Later, it was refurbished and rebuilt several times and replaced by a column of granite. In 1944, it was destroyed by the Nazis and replaced after the war by an almost identical copy. It is said that this statue was the first secular statue in Europe to be placed on a column after the fall of the Roman Empire.

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Warsaw was just a mid-sized town in Poland until it became the Royal Residence in 1596. The title of the capital was not achieved until the 19th century. That is the main reason why the market square is relatively small compared to those of Krakow or Wroclaw for example. Nevertheless, it became a pretty square until it was destroyed by the Nazis during the last years of the Second World War. The town hall was already pulled down in 1817 after a fire. The four sides of the square have the names of important 19th century political figures. These are Barss, Kollataj, Zakrzewski and Dekert. Buildings were reconstructed in the 16th and 17th century in renaissance style, very few of the original Gothic buildings remain, especially after the WWII destruction.
After the war it was completely reconstructed. The buildings became popular with the new Bohème of Warsaw from the 1980s on and attracted artists of all kinds. Note that some of the higher buildings have extensions looking like little houses placed on top of the building. Markets still take place regularly and you will find a lot of cafés as well as some museums on the square.