POLAND: WARSAW (MOSTLY) WALKING TOUR

June 26-28, 2019

On our first evening in Warsaw, we ventured out to see what was within a short walking distance of our apartment, and within minutes I loved Warsaw just as much as I had loved the other cities and villages we had visited in Poland.

To think that this is ALL a reconstruction of what was destroyed in World War II is mind-boggling.

This elderly lady was sitting on the city wall and enjoying an ice cream cone. The Poles do love their ice cream.

The architectural details are exquisite, such as the texturing on the wall of the buildings.

Some of the decorations are trompe l'oeil--a deceptive representation of a three-dimensional facade. I wonder if this is a simpler version of the original 17th or 18th century facade that was perhaps a frieze of some kind.

Speaking of deceptive, can you tell that the entire scene on this building is a screen?

We thought this girl was a bit young to be busking in the square. Judging by the expression on her face, she would rather be doing something else.  

This kid looked like he was having WAY more fun than the violinist:

The day we arrived in Warsaw had record heat of over 100° F, and we were looking for a cool place to go inside.  We found a nearby church named St. Hyacinth's. With a name like that, how could we resist?  I had never even heard of St. Hyacinth. It turns out he was a Polish Dominican priest who was especially active in reforming women's monasteries.

The Baroque church was originally built by the Dominicans in the early 17th century, and it's library had one of the richest collections of books in Poland. During the Warsaw Uprising, the crypt of this church was used as a hospital and the church itself was used to provide shelter to the civilian population.

St. Hyacinth's was bombed in August 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising and almost completely destroyed. Approximately 1,000 people were killed, but the hospital managed to continue functioning in the ruined building until it was taken over by the Nazis on September 2. The invaders first killed the entire medical staff and then blew up what was left of the hospital, burying alive about 500 people.

After the war, the ruined crypt was totally covered by a new marble floor, entombing the remains of all the victims. The rebuilding of the church was finished in 1959. The exterior looks the same, but the interior is a combination of modern and Baroque.

The words next to this crucifix identify the chapel as honoring the martyrs of the Warsaw Uprising.

Like most (all?) Catholic cathedrals, this one has a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The original organ was destroyed in the war, but there is a beautiful modern replacement.

The church continues to be occupied and operated by Dominican monks. We were fortunate to catch part of their worship service, a soothing moment before we returned to our apartment and our bed.

On our first full day in Warsaw, we started out relatively early, meeting our guide Pawel Szczerkowski (no, I have no idea how to pronounce his last name) at 8:00 AM in Castle Square. I've already covered the sites from our tour with him related to Frederik Chopin, the Royal Castle, and the Jewish Quarter. This post includes everything else we saw in Warsaw.

A quick shout-out to Pawel. My husband and I agree he is one of the best tour guides we have had anywhere in the world. Not only is he brilliant and articulate, but he quickly picked up on our interests (religion, World War II, books and film, food) and tailored our time together to match those interests. (We would experience a glaring contrast a few days later with a tour guide in Kaliningrad who really wanted to check everything off a list of places she had in mind for us.) Google his name and "Tour Guide of Warsaw" and you'll find him.

So . . . off we go, past the city walls . . .

. . . a quick stop at a bronze map of Old Town . . .

. . . and a reminder that Old Town Warsaw is the only REBUILT historical site that is part of UNESCO. The UNESCO site reads: "During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, more than 85% of Warsaw's historic centre was destroyed by Nazi troops. After the war, a five-year reconstruction campaign by its citizens resulted in today's meticulous restoration of the Old Town, with its churches, palaces and market-place. It is an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century."

Ummm . . . who is sitting up there on the window ledge? Should we be worried?

I didn't figure out who it is, but I did figure out that we don't need to worry about him.

First stop: The Archcathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist.

St. John's Cathedral is on the right in the first photo below (next to the Church of the Gracious Mother of God on the left, which I'll talk about next). The second photo is of the front door of St. John's.

St. John's Cathedral is beautiful inside.

The stained glass windows are glorious, and look! There is a twin of the painting of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa!

The cathedral contains the crypts of many famous people (at least famous to Poles). I'm not sure who these guys are, and whose hand is that coming out from behind the bottom guy's back? Can you see five hands? Creepy.

On the left is the mausoleum of Cardinal Wyszynski (1901-1981), who first stood against Nazism during World War II and then against Communism in the post-war years. He is scheduled to be beatified in Warsaw on June 7, 2020. On the right is a wooden crucifix from Nuremberg that dates to 1539. It's the real thing, not a reconstruction.

I think this is my favorite thing in the church--the Chapel of St. John the Baptist (who is not buried here).

The most unusual name for a chapel is this one: The Chapel of the Whipped Christ. This altar dates back to the 15th century.

The shape of the organ reminds me a little  bit of a vulture. In Poland, however, it might be an eagle about to spread its wings.

One of the most famous pieces in the cathedral is a white marble monument dedicated to Stanisław Małachowski (1736-1809), the first Prime Minister of Poland. He was kind of like our George Washington, whom he definitely resembles. The original tomb was designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen (who also created the famous Christus statue in Copenhagen), but was destroyed by a German tank. This is a re-creation from 1965.

After Frederik Chopin, Poland's next most famous pianist and composer is Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), who also served as the Polish prime minister after World War I for eleven months before resigning and resuming his musical career. He is buried in the crypt here.

Back outside, we took a look at the Church of the Gracious Mother of God next door. Built in a late Renaissance style in the 17th century, it was totally demolished during World War II and rebuilt between the 1950s and 1973. This Jesuit church is famous for its front door that includes three armless sculptures by Polish artist and sculptor Igor Mitoraj (1944-2014). We had seen his work earlier in Krakow and Minneapolis: giant disembodied heads lying on the ground.

These are additions to the church--definitely not part of the original architectural design! The door was commissioned in 2009 for the 400th anniversary of the church. Pawel pointed out that Mary is very unusual, with clinging robes that show the shape of her body. "She's actually quite hot, isn't she?" he said. I assume he wasn't talking about the 100° weather.

I'm not sure who the two angels are, maybe Gabriel and . . . ?

Even the doorknob was unique.

The interior was pretty, but not quite as captivating as the armless torsos on the door. However, the monument on the right below reads, "In this sanctuary at the feet of the Mother of God, the patroness of Warsaw, the Holy Father John Paul II prayed."  Then it gives two dates, which I am assuming mean the Pope prayed here twice. That makes this an extra special cathedral.

And one last image from this peaceful church--the archangel Michael slaying not the symbolic dragon, but Lucifer himself.

Don't you just LOVE this door? Poland knows how to do doors.

Pawel took us on a walk around the city walls. This is the Warsaw Barbican, or a semicircular fortified gate, destroyed after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and rebuilt between 1952-1954 on the basis of 17th-century etchings.  Bricks from historic buildings destroyed here and in other cities in Poland were used in the reconstruction.

Pawel pointed out the difference in the bricks, indicating different places of origin or new vs. old.

Occasionally a piece of the original wall was still standing and outlined with black mortar.

Occasionally, a section of concrete highlighted the fact that the wall had been rebuilt.

This stone honors Jana Zachwatowicz (1900-1983), the head architect of much of Warsaw after World War II.

Here is a view of the other side of the Barbicon.

There are actually two sets of walls: an inner wall and an outer wall

Warsaw seems to have a thing against arms. The statue on the left is a woman without arms holding a baby.  The clock on the right is "Sigismund's Clock," a modern astronomical clock that includes signs of the zodiac and phases of the moon. I have no idea what the clock has to do with Sigismund, a 16th century Polish king.

This is Jan Kilinski, an Old Town shoemaker who became a hero in the 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising for capturing the Russian ambassador's Warsaw residence in spite of having been wounded twice.

Beautiful Warsaw.

This is not a great photo of the monument to the 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia killed by Russian forces in the Katyn Forest, but I think it is an unusual and powerful tribute.

Another interesting door. I think this is part of one of the gates in the Warsaw city wall.

So beautiful, and again, incredible to think that this is a re-creation built in the 1950s-1970s.

The Neoclassical St. Anne's Church is near the center of Old Town Warsaw. However, it was not completely destroyed during World War II, although it was heavily damaged.

The statues in the niches are the four evangelists. On the left is Luke with his calf and on the right is John with his eagle.

This beautiful statue of Mary holding the Christ child was created in 1683 and stands in, of all places, Herbert Hoover Square.

Hoover is popular all over Europe because of the World War I relief operation he headed that saved millions from starvation and death. During World War II he also led another organization called the Commission for Polish Relief, and after the war he drafted a relief plan that assisted Poles until the 1960s.

I do love the frequency with which Poland honors its artists. This is Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), Poland's greatest poet. He is compared to England's Lord Byron and Germany's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The statue was erected on the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth.

This statue, like so many other monuments, was deliberately destroyed by the Nazis after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Later, the head and a few other parts of the statue were found in Hamburg. A copy of the original statue was placed here in 1950. Pieces of the original have continued to be discovered and returned to Poland as late as the 1980s.

The wrought iron fencing around the small park containing the statue is exquisite.

The Church of the Carmelites, built in 1780, is also known as the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and of St. Joseph. One of Frederic Chopin's first "gigs" was playing a concert on this church's organ. This is another of the few churches NOT destroyed by the Nazis.

A stone lion rests in front of the Presidential Palace, where the Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955 by the Soviet Union and seven other eastern bloc countries as a counterweight to the NATO Alliance. The Pact was dissolved in 1991 at a meeting in Hungary.

The Hotel Bristol was built by a company owned by pianist Ignacy Paderewski in 1901. Paderewski was elected president after Poland gained its independence in 1919, and he held the first session of his new Parliament here. Over the next seven decades, the hotel went downhill. It was eventually restored in the early 1990s and is now a luxury hotel.

The Church of St. Joseph of the Visitandines (or Visitationists) is a rococo church completed in 1761. Frederik Chopin regularly played the organ here, often for services for schoolchildren.

This is one of the entrances to the University of Warsaw, which has lots of buildings and well over 50,000 students. Pawel told us that no matter what we had heard in Krakow, the University of Warsaw is the #1 university in Poland. Coincidentally, it is where he got his education.

The Polish Academy of Sciences is the headquarters of a state-sponsored network of research institutes across the country.

This planetary symbol in the road could only mean one thing--Poland's favorite astronomer is nearby.

Unfortunately, Nicolaus Copernicus was getting a face lift when we were there. (Photo on left.) Like the previously mentioned statue of Stanisław Małachowski in St. John's Cathedral, this statue was also designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen, sculptor of the famous Christus statue in Copenhagen. The photo on the right is from Wikipedia.

What? A palm tree in WARSAW, which usually has temperatures in the low 20s in winter? It must be one of those fake cell phone towers like the kind we have in California.  It looks fake. The leaves are just so green. Pawel assured us that the tree is real, and the reason it is so green is that the leaves were recently cleaned. It grows in the middle of a traffic island on the road that leads to the Jewish Quarter. The project that put it there is entitled "Greetings from Jerusalem."

A bit of research, however, led me to discover that the "tree" is a steel column designed to bend in the wind and covered with natural bark. The leaves are made from polyethylene. It was placed in this spot in 2002.

The Vistula building behind the palm tree is named for the river that runs through Warsaw (although not near this building). It was the Communist headquarters after World War II. Pawel told us that just to prove Poles have a sense of humor, it was used to house the first Polish Stock Exchange after independence. Today it houses a shirt manufacturing company.

The battling mermaid, the symbol of Warsaw, on the side of a taxi:

This tower was built in 1955 during the Soviet occupation. At 778-feet-tall, it is the tallest building in Poland and the fifth tallest in the EU. It dominates the skyline. Origianally dubbed "Stalin's Palace," it is currently known as the Palace of Culture and Science. It houses theaters, libraries, sports clubs, university organizations, museums, bookshops, and so on.

It looked strangely familiar to me. Pawel told us it was built to mirror the architectural style of the "Seven Sisters"  buildings in Moscow designed in the "Stalinist style." The Warsaw building is sometimes referred to as the "Eighth Sister."

This is the Moscow State University main building, one of the Seven Sisters that we saw
on a trip to Moscow in 2011.

At the base of the Palace of Culture and Science is Congress Hall, which initially housed the Polish United Workers' Party congress. It has a 2,880-seat theater inside.

Besides serving as a concert hall these days, it also houses the Tourist Information Center for Warsaw.

A bizarre ad for an upcoming beer festival in Warsaw caught my attention.

Gotta love the street art.

This stern looking Pole, Josef Pilsudski, was the first--and only--Chief of State (1918-1922) of Poland after the First World War. He also served as First Marshal of Poland from 1920, which was more or less what Eisenhower was in World War II. He served twice as prime minister of Poland (1926-1928 and again in 1930). He is considered the founder of modern Poland.

A popular figure from the same time period is Charles de Gaulle of France. He lived in Warsaw in the 1920s on the second floor of the apartment building on the right (below). He was part of the French Military mission to help the new republic after it achieved independence after World War I. De Gaulle helped command the army that repelled a Bolshevik invasion during the 1920 Battle of Warsaw. Later, he would lead the French resistance against Nazi Germany during World War II. He was known for loving Polish donuts. I can't say that I blame him.

Ignacy Skorupka was a 27-year-old Polish priest who died during the 1920 Battle of Warsaw. One story says he was in the process of anointing a dying soldier when he was hit by a stray bullet. Another account states that he died while leading a charge in the front lines, a crucifix in his hands (as shown in the statue).

Our next stop was St. Florian's Cathedral, aka Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian the Martyr. The imposing 20-story, 250-foot-tall towers were partly a response to the numerous Russian Orthodox churches being built in the area. The towers were a way for the Roman Catholics proclaim their dominance. Originally completed in 1904, the cathedral was demolished by the retreating Nazis. It was rebuilt between 1952-1972.

The banner in the picture on the right features Pope John Paul II, and Google translates the words as, "Man cannot be fully understood without Christ."

It looks like Pope John Paul II visited here in June 1999. The Poles are very proud of their Polish Pope.

The style of architecture is Gothic Revival, and the beautiful interior has many the Gothic elements but a lot more light and lightness.

Even the art is not as gloomy as what is typically found in the Gothic churches of the Middle Ages. I love the statue of the Black Madonna in front of I'm-not-sure-who holding the Christ child.

This beautiful artwork crafted of painted metal is one of the Stations of the Cross: Jesus Is Condemned to Death.

The clean lines and simplicity give the interior of this church a Scandinavian feel.

Just down the road from St. Florian's is one of those Russian Orthodox Churches St. Florian's was built to tower over. This is the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, which opened in 1869 to serve the needs of a growing Russian community.

The church is massive and heavy, just like its name.

The door is embellished with the Orthodox cross, which has a second crosspiece on the bottom.

The massive inconostasis divides the interior in half, making the interior feel small. 

I do love the gaudiness of Orthodox churches. They feel so joyful.

Unlike St. Florian's down the street, this church was not destroyed after the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, likely because it was a RUSSIAN church, not a Polish one. However, Germany did confiscate their bells for the purpose of making missiles. Of course they broke them in removing them and then found them unsuitable for melting down. The bells are still on display at the church.

Metro stations are typically easy to identify in Warsaw. They are the super-modern blue plexiglas blobs in the square:

They try to soften them up with flowers, but it doesn't work.

Visitors to Warsaw must get an up-close look at the mighty Vistula River. Its "beaches" have been recognized as some of the most beautiful urban beaches in the world. This one, near the Poniatowski Bridge, is clean and family-friendly.

I think I remember Pawel saying that they imported sand.

We also got a good look at the exterior of the National Stadium with its red and white stripes mimicking the Polish flag. It is used primarily for soccer games and is the home stadium for the Polish national soccer team.

There are many, many more things to see in Warsaw that we just didn't have time for, like this house, which doesn't look like anything particularly special on the outside . . .

. . . except for that woman leaning over the potted geraniums on the balcony.

Why, it's none other than Marie Curie, the most famous woman physicist and chemist of all time, known for her research on radioactivity, for being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (and not just once, but twice in two different scientific fields), and for being the first woman professor at the University of Paris (among many other things).

This is where she was born on November 7, 1867. Below her name it says that in 1898 she discovered the radioactive elements of polonium (named for her native country) and radium.

The building is now a museum dedicated to her life and achievements.  It was on my list of things to see, but we just didn't have time to go inside.

Another place we did not have time to see is the Warsaw Uprising Museum. (There were two uprisings--the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.) This museum opened in 2004 on the 60th anniversary of the uprising. We did take a quick look at the outside.

The Warsaw Uprising began on August 1, 1944, and ended in defeat just two months later on October 2, 1944. The uprising directly and indirectly contributed to the destruction of 90% of Warsaw's buildings during and after the fighting. Given what the Soviets liked to emphasize was a complete failure, erecting a monument to the insurgents was controversial for many years, but one was finally unveiled in 1989, and it now stands in the courtyard of the Warsaw Uprising Museum.

In defense of the Polish Resistance Movement, they were expecting help from the Russians and the Allied forces, but no help arrived, and in the end, it was a small force of patriots against the huge machine of the Third Reich. They had no chance.

The monument consists of two parts, both made of bronze. The main section is 33 feet tall. It shows insurgents beneath a falling building, actively engaged in combat.

A few yards away, another section shows one man crawling into a manhole, referencing the insurgents' use of the sewer system to move through the city and also the evacuation of 5,300 resistance fighters from Warsaw's Old Town to the city center, a journey that took five hours.

The man on the right must be the Catholic Priest Ignacy Skorupka, whose monument I discussed earlier in this very long post. I love that he is here, watching over the soldiers.

All too soon we were back in Old Town. Castle Square was filled with families, couples, and groups of friends enjoying the sights and the wonderful weather.

The base of the Sigismund Column was crowded with chattering, laughing school children.

The next morning, I lagged a little way behind Bob, taking in everything I could one last time here in this phoenix city. More than any place we've ever been, I think I've left a piece of my heart here.

I hope this is not a true good-bye, but rather "See you later!"