1571, 3213 POLAND (Mazovia) - Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw

1571

Posted on 10.05.2015, 08.12.2017
With its 231m height (which includes a 43m high spire), the Palace of Culture and Science is the tallest building in Poland and the eighth tallest building in the European Union. Built in three years according to the design of the Soviet architect Lev Rudnev, almost entirely by 3500 workers from the Soviet Union, the structure was conceived as a "gift from the Soviet people to the Polish nation", and was completed in 1955. The building was originally known as the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury i Nauki imienia Józefa Stalina), but in the wake of destalinization the dedication to Stalin was revoked.

3213

Architecturally, it is a mix of Stalinist architecture, also known as Socialist Classicism, and Polish historicism inspired by American art deco skyscrapers. The monumental walls are headed with pieces of masonry copied from Renaissance houses and palaces of Kraków and Zamość. Currently it is the center for various companies, public institutions and cultural activities such as concerts, cinemas, theaters, libraries, sports clubs, universities, scientific institutions and authorities of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

3178 POLAND (Mazovia) - Warsaw

3178 Warsaw: 1. View of the Castle Square;
2. Łazienki Park - Palace on the Isle (south façade);
3. Wilanów Palace; 4. Dmowski Roundabout

The legend attributes the Warsaw name to a fisherman Wars and his wife Sawa, a mermaid who lived in the Vistula River and who Wars fell in love with. Nice legend, but actually Warsz was a 12th/13th century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of today's Mariensztat neighbourhood. Unlike other old cities of Poland, as Krakow or Poznan, Warsaw is a relatively young city, which really became important in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved the court from Kraków to Warsaw.

3116 POLAND (Mazovia) - Warsaw between 1767 and 1779 in the paintings of Canaletto

In 1569 was established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (a bi-confederation of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch, who was both the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania), which became one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Due to its central location between the Commonwealth's capitals of Kraków and Vilnius, Warsaw became practically the capital of the Commonwealth in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved his court from Kraków to Warsaw (also the permanent seat of the General Sejm from the same year), although the modern concept of a single capital city was to some extent inapplicable in the feudal and decentralized Commonwealth.

1656 POLAND (Mazovia) - Church of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw

Warsaw's New Town is a neighbourhood dating from the 15th century, lying just north of the Old Town and connected to it by Freta Street, which begins at the Barbican. Like the Old Town, the New Town was destroyed by the Nazis during WWII and rebuilt after the war. The historic district of the New Town was formed at the turn of the 14th century as an independent city, with its own vogt, council and a town hall. Now, Freta is a busy street with lots of pedestrians and many good but not so expensive restaurants and pubs. In one of the houses on the right hand side, Marie Curie was born at the end of 19th century.

1618 POLAND (Mazovia) - Belweder Palace in Warsaw

Located a few kilometers south of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Belweder Palace is the residence of the President of the Republic of Poland. Built between 1819 and 1822, the present building is the latest of several that stood on the site since 1660. It once belonged to Poland's last king,  Stanisław August Poniatowski, who used it as a porcelain-manufacturing plant. Later was the residence of Russian Grand Duke Constantine, who fled it at the beginning of the November 1830 Uprising. After the re-establishment of Poland's independence following WWI, it was the residence of Marshal Józef Piłsudski Chief of State (1918-1922) and later (1926-1935) Minister of Military Affairs, who died there in 1935.

1237 POLAND (Mazovia) - Presidential Palace in Warsaw

Located on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, one of the best known and most prestigious streets of Poland's capital, not far from Historic Centre of Warsaw (an UNESCO WHS since 1980) the Presidential Palace is the elegant classicist latest version of a building that has stood on this site since 1643. For its first 175 years, the palace was the private property of several aristocratic families, in 1791 it hosted the authors and advocates of the Constitution, and in 1818 it began its ongoing career as a governmental structure, when it became the seat of the Viceroy of the Polish (Congress) Kingdom under Russian occupation.

0169, 0646, 0647, 0766 POLAND (Mazovia) - Historic Centre of Warsaw (UNESCO WHS)

Posted on 11.04.2012, 14.05.2013, 25.07.2013
The legend attributes the Warsaw name to a fisherman Wars and his wife Sawa, a mermaid who lived in the Vistula River and who Wars fell in love with. Nice legend, but actually Warsz was a 12th/13th century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of today's Mariensztat neighbourhood. Unlike other old cities of Poland, such Krakow or Poznan, Warsaw is a relatively young city, which really became important in 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved the court from Kraków to Warsaw. So the capital of Mazovia became the capital of the Polish Crown, and of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, primarly due to its central location between the Commonwealth's capitals of Kraków and Vilnius. This location was the city's luck, but, given the troubled history of Poland, it has also brought it a lot of misfortune, being pillaged and burned several times.

The largest catastrophe suffered by the city was also the latest, during the WWII. Germans planned destruction of the Polish capital before the start of war, what they did after the Warsaw Uprising (1 August – 2 October 1944), under express orders of Hitler. Monuments and government buildings were blown up by Verbrennungs und Vernichtungskommando (Burning and Destruction Detachments), so that about 85% of the city had been destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. By January 1945, about 85% of the buildings had been destroyed: 10% as a result of the September 1939 campaign and other combat, 15% during the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943), 25% during the Warsaw Uprising, and 35% due to systematic German actions after the Uprising.

In terms of population, the situation was even more terrible. In the Uprising, ca. 170,000 people died, from among which only 16,000 were insurgents, and after that all the civilians (ca. 650,000) were deported to the transit camp in Pruszków (Durchgangslager Pruszków). In general, during the German occupation (1939–1945) ca. 700,000 people died in Warsaw, i.e. more than all Americans and British. Thus, if the city had reached 1,300,000 inhabitants in 1939, at the end of 1945 had only 422,000 inhabitants.

After WWII, the Warsaw's Old Town (Stare Miasto), bounded by Wybrzeże Gdańskie, along the bank of the Vistula, and by Grodzka, Mostowa and Podwale Streets, was meticulously rebuilt. As many of the original bricks were reused as possible. The rubble was sifted for reusable decorative elements, which were reinserted into their original places. Bernardo Bellotto's 18th-century vedute, as well as pre-WWII architecture students' drawings, were used as essential sources in the reconstruction effort. The heart of the area is the Old Town Market Place (Rynek Starego Miasta), which dates back to the end of the 13th century. The houses around it represented the Gothic style until the great fire of 1607, after which they were rebuilt in late-Renaissance style and eventually in late-Baroque style by Tylman Gamerski in 1701.

Besides the market itself, with its restaurants, cafés and shops, in the first postcard also appear (at the bottom, from left to right):

● Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and of St. Joseph, commonly known as the Carmelite Church (Kościół Karmelitów) - a Roman Catholic church built in 1692-1701 to the plan of Józef Szymon Bellotti, best known for its Neoclassical-style façade, erected by Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, who commissioned the Hungarian architect Efraim Szreger. It was one of the few buildings only slightly damaged during the WWII.

● Church of Our Lady Queen of the Polish Crown (Katedra Polowa Wojska Polskiego) - built in the early 17th century, completely destroyed during the war with Sweden (1655-1660), and reconstructed in baroque style between 1660 and 1681. Restored in the years 1923-1933, destroyed again in 1944, and rebuilt after WWII, since 1991 was officially commissioned as the Polish Army field cathedral.

● Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy) - On the square is a column of King Sigismund III Vasa from 1644, the oldest and symbolic monument of the city (a work of Clemente Molli). On the right you can see the Royal Castle, the official residence of the Polish monarchs from 1526 to 1795, burned by the Germans in 1939 and then completely destroyed. The rebuilding of the Royal Castle complex will have been finalized in 1995. It can be also seen in the third and fourth postcard.