# Warsaw - the capital of Poland



## Perun (Mar 30, 2006)

I made this thread to present my city, and capital of my country. I'd like to show Warsaw as modern and historic, nice and ugly. So, I hope You enjoy it 

So, let's start...









1) Chopin Monument in Łazienki Park.









2) Monument of Henryk Sienkiewicz, a popular polish novelist and winner of Noble Prize in 1905.









3) Na Rozdrożu square









4) Na Rozdrożu square









5) Łazienkowska Route









6) Ujazdowskie Avenue. One of most important street in Warsaw. A lot of embassies are located here (including US), chancellery of polish Prime Minister









7) Ministry of Justice building









8) Ujazdowskie Avenue









9) I'm not sure, but this is probably Brittish embassy









10) It's also (probably  ) Brittish embassy









11) Entrance to Ujazdowski Park









12) Embassy of Hungary









13) Bus stop on Ujazdowskie Avenue









14) Union of Polish Combatants building









15) Bicycle path along Ujazdowskie Avenue and some commie block

More pics soon...


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## Perun (Mar 30, 2006)

And more photos. Still along Ujazdowskie Avenue









16) Ujazdowskie Avenue









17) Ujazdowskie Avenue









18) Ujazdowskie Avenue









19) Ujazdowskie Avenue









20) Ujazdowskie Avenue


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## Perun (Mar 30, 2006)

Another pics. Now - Three Crosses Square

In next year Three Crosses Square will be rebuilt.









21)









22)









23)









24)









25)









26)









27)


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

Excellent pics. Last time I was in Warsaw, it was overcast - everything looks great in full sun. More please!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Indeed great, very nice presentation and photos from Warsaw (so far); thank you for those photos kay:


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## Perun (Mar 30, 2006)

28) Warsaw Stock Exchange building









29) Nice flowers









30) Emporio Armani shop and old bank under renovation









31) Charles de Gaulle Roundabout with palm tree  It's popular meeting place "under palm tree"


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## arturro666 (Mar 21, 2009)

:cheers:


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## rychlik (Feb 14, 2008)

Makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing in Toronto.


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## MarkusErikssen (Oct 4, 2005)

Great city!


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

rychlik said:


> Makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing in Toronto.


Going back is hard if you haven't lived there for a while. I am in process of buying a new place and going in a potential business partnership there. I wasn't born there, so I'm filled with anxiety, because you really don't know what a place is like until you've lived there for a while. I know all the negatives and increasingly fewer positives in Toronto, but for me its a tough choice still - but having family there helps.


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## Andre_idol (Aug 6, 2008)

Warsaw, and rest of Poland, are actually the places that I most look forward to visit...and probably study there 

Your photos look amazing!


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## ufonut (Jul 24, 2007)

Just wait till he posts the remaining ones...


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## rychlik (Feb 14, 2008)

Not hijacking this thread but would like to share some images from a new 3D film produced for the Warsaw Uprising Museum. These images were compiled from historical photographs. The devastation brought on by Germans is shocking.


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## miamipaintball (Jul 11, 2008)

many German cities looked like that after ww2, better put many European cities,

the pics of berlin after ww2 are astonishing


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

Yes they did look pretty bad, but Warsaw was obliterated, the level of destruction exceeded 85%, and cultural landmarks with treasures of Polish culture were deliberately targetted. In addition 850,000 were killed mostly in the streets (non-Jews) and in the Jewish ghetto. The attacks on Germany were about revenge and subduing Germany whereas on Warsaw it was about cultural annihilation and ethnic cleansing.

But there is a more suitable thread for this type of discussion (rychlik and miamipaintball) which we can continue at:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=187906&page=22


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## ufonut (Jul 24, 2007)

miamipaintball said:


> many German cities looked like that after ww2, better put many European cities,
> 
> the pics of berlin after ww2 are astonishing


Not really. Many people falsely assume that these pictures show Warsaw after being bombed which is not entirely true. They show Warsaw after the city's entire quarters were dynamited or set ablaze by German SS troops. It was a deliberate and systematic destruction building by building hence it can't be compared to any indiscrinate bombing as bad as they were (Rotterdam, Coventry, Dresden etc).


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## rychlik (Feb 14, 2008)

850,000 were killed 

-Urbanista I have never heard this figure. It's too high and horrific. The official murder of Polish civilians was 250,000. The rest were expelled from the city.


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## JValjean (Oct 15, 2009)

Urbanista1 said:


> The attacks on Germany were about revenge and subduing Germany whereas on Warsaw it was about cultural annihilation...


I do believe that the destruction of historical, often times medevial city centres of German cities like Frankfurt, Dresden, Nuremberg, Lübeck, Würzburg, Magdeburg etc had to do something with cultural annihialtion.

You Poles still have got your undestroyed Krakow. In Germany every city of a certain importance had been attacked by the RAF. And in most of the cases it was the hiostorc city centre that was destroyed!

Our Krakow was Nuremberg. The biggest "old town" north of the alps! Or Frankfurt the city with the most half-timbered houses in the world back then!

But all of this is off-topic. The pictures on top of this thread are great ...


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

Yes, we do have Krakow, but every other city centre - Poznan, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Lublin was likewise obliterated. It is appalling what happened to German cities of course, but what we are saying is that Warsaw was unqiue - it was literally dynamited and levelled with the ground. Nazis then used flamethrowers to burn anything of value, especially targetting art treasures and library collections. British and Allied soldiers didn't land and then methodically destroy what was left though, all the damage was done by the RAF from the air in retaliation for Coventry, London etc.

The Załuski Library, the oldest public library in Poland and one of the oldest and most important libraries in Europe, was burned down and out of about 400,000 printed items, maps and manuscripts, only some 1,800 manuscripts and 30,000 printed materials survived. The collections of the Krasiński Library was also largely destroyed. The collection originally consisted of 250,000 items and was literally the repository of 1,000 years of Polish culture, but also had European collections. 

Unlike Germany, Poland and the East Bloc had to face the Soviet scourge after WWII which spent the next few decades destroying or at least degrading even more treasures. Nowa Huta steel mill was built next to Krakow so that the caustic emissions would gradually destroy the surviving city landmarks - yes, this was actual soviet policy. I witnessed the results in the mid-80's, many facades were in very bad shape.

Anyway, I know we are digressing, but it is a fascinating subject. From my travels, I had the sense that Heidelberg, also very beautiful and Munich were hardly damaged and what about Aachen and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Cologne Cathedral did survive, efforts to destroy it failed thankfully. Please correct me if I am wrong. The biggest tragedy was Dresden.

It would be great if both sides could organize a cultural exchange to better understand what had happened on both sides, to get the various perspectives. I know such things happen on a small scale. I do sincerely understand how catastrophic WWII was for Germany.


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## JValjean (Oct 15, 2009)

Urbanista1 said:


> Unlike Germany, Poland and the East Bloc had to face the Soviet scourge after WWII


Germany lost its eastern territories as Poland had been "pushed" westwards by the allies as you know. You lost Lwów and some other cities and we lost Danzig, Breslau, Königsberg. Of course Gdansk and Wroclaw are Polish now and will stay Polish! (altogether 12 million Germans fled or were expelled in central and eastern Europe).



Urbanista1 said:


> From my travels, I had the sense that Heidelberg, also very beautiful and Munich were hardly damaged and what about Aachen and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Cologne Cathedral did survive, efforts to destroy it failed thankfully. Please correct me if I am wrong. The biggest tragedy was Dresden.


The RAF attacked 160 German cities. Among these also figured Rothenburg o.d. Tauber. But it wasn't hit that badly and could be rebuilt after the war.

Munich in contrast was that largely destroyed that the city council thought about abandonning the ruined city and to reconstruct a new city 15 miles away!
This plan fortunately was withdrawn and Munich did a good job, probably the best of all western German cities in reconstructing important landmarks, churches and palaces and so on. Cologne and many other (west) German cities did a horrible job!

Dresden is just the most famous city. Even after Dresden ancient cities had been attacked: Würzburg and Pforzheim (98% destruction of the city, 18000 of 70000 inhabitants died)

Excuse all these digressions but I just wanted to show some german "anecdotes"



Urbanista1 said:


> It would be great if both sides could organize a cultural exchange to better understand what had happened on both sides, to get the various perspectives. I know such things happen on a small scale. I do sincerely understand how catastrophic WWII was for Germany.


I think this is already in progress. A role model is the German-French reconciliation which was also done via student exchanges.

Anyway I think that Poland today is in a comfortable postion. It's a quite big country, even a bit bigger than Germany and it has got a lot of coast area and the economy is doing quit well, too!

But from time to time it seems that (a part of) the Polish society is still too much haunted by old demons: fundamental catholicism (radio marja), anti-German and anti-russian nationalism (kaczinsky brothers), generally understandable but in my eyes it's often disproportionate, dated and counterproductive for the inter-european co-operation!


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

del


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## rychlik (Feb 14, 2008)

Guaporense said:


> Degree of destruction of cities in WW2:
> 
> Warsaw - 85%
> Berlin - 33%
> ...


Berlin was only 33%? Wikipedia is not always reliable.


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## rychlik (Feb 14, 2008)

ufonut said:


> Adding to what was said above:
> 
> - Poland's human losses in WWII - largest in the world per capita
> - Poland's capital Warsaw - most destroyed large city in the world after WWII
> ...


Regarding national treasures, I read that most things were actually recovered or hidden. Most important museums in Poland are well stocked? Can anyone agree?

Anyways, reading these stats, Germans are not easy to like.


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

hi rychlik,

we are moving this discussion to *"Warsaw in 1945...look at that"*
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=187906&page=24

We have hijacked Perun's photo thread.

Thanks and my apologies to Perun


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## StoneRose (Sep 13, 2004)

Nice thread.

So, we (my two best friends and I) are planning on doing a 8 day roadtrip through Poland 
aoon.
Which places and cities are a MUST in your opinion?

We won't go to Gdansk and Sopot since we've already been there but what other areas (cities and national parks, special sights) besides Krakow, Warsaw and Torun would you recommend?


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## constipation (Aug 8, 2010)

i believe Warsaw before WWII is far more beautyful than today Warsaw coz that was the original architecture of Polish people .. but now,Warsaw is getting better day by day after years of communist commies block apartment,bravo..


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## lukaszek89 (Nov 20, 2008)

StoneRose said:


> Nice thread.
> 
> So, we (my two best friends and I) are planning on doing a 8 day roadtrip through Poland
> aoon.
> ...


Krakow is close to Zakopane and mountains. You should visit it( also Wieliczka Salt Mine- UNESCO) Tarnów is quite clos to Kraków

Torun is close to Bydgoszcz.

Warsaw is close to Łodź.

*I would go to eastern Poland, and visit beautifull cities like Zamość( UNESCO), Lublin, Kazimierz Dolny, Sandomierz, Przemyśl.
*
Wrocław is quite close to Germany


BTW: some photos to prove my point

Zamość











Kazimierz Dolny:









Tarnów:


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## Urbanista1 (Sep 13, 2006)

StoneRose said:


> Nice thread.
> 
> So, we (my two best friends and I) are planning on doing a 8 day roadtrip through Poland
> aoon.
> ...


I would also add Pieskowa Skala outside Krakow - one of the castles built by Casimir the Great along the Eagles Route and the 10th Century Tyniec monastery. I have not been to latter, but I hear it's fascinating and in tact. There is a little town called Biecz that would be a nice stop-off if you were touring the countryside south of Krakow, it's just south of Tarnow then I would head down to the spa town of Krynica Zdroj and onto Zakopane and do some mountain trails around there. The scenery is magnificent. 

When heading back west tio Germany, I would drop in to see Bielsko-Biala (Little Prague) and Jelenia Gora, both very beautiful little cities.

BTW, the best thread for figuring out what to see in Poland is here:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=859180&page=61

"Poland - Two Photos Per Post"

- it's got cities, landscapes, parks, palaces, castles etc.

Have a great trip! Any more questions, feel free to ask.


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## Elvenking (Jul 22, 2008)

I'd visit Wroclaw, Poznan, Warsaw, Krakow, and something from eastern Poland, Rzeszow is very nice city.


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