Warsaw was just a stopping point for us on the way to Krakow. As such, I only had a few hours to explore Poland’s most populous city.
Warsaw, Poland Photo Essay
It was a cold late-October morning that I wandered around Warsaw. While the morning started with sunlight and only scattered clouds, those clouds became more ominous and the sky darker as the morning went on. Rain was approaching.
I thought about putting a black and white filter on all the photographs below because the city felt a little depressing…the biting cold, but also the silence. Most great cities bustle with noise, but the great city of Warsaw was very quiet on this Saturday morning. The juxtaposition was particularly stark to Krakow, which I would drive to later that day.
Like in Moscow, some roads are crossed underground with shops lining the passage. Here, most shops were closed (as in empty, not just closed for the weekend).
Even the Metro station was quiet.
The point of my walk was to visit the Palace of Culture, that iconic skyscraper in the heart of the city with Soviet Realism (it resembles the “Seven Sisters” in Moscow). It was a gift to Poland from Josef Stalin.
It’s a beautiful building and I enjoyed looking at all the Soviet-era cars parked outside and walking through the ornate lobby inside.
Warsaw has a graffiti problem. It’s hardly unique in that respect, but it always strikes me as odd that so many European cities choose to leave up graffiti instead of painting it over. This wasn’t Banksy quality.
See, the point of our journey was to go to Krakow, not Warsaw, so I must leave the Polish capital city on my list of places to return to. 24 hours is not enough to explore the nooks and crannies of this great city and I don’t claim to have “explored” the city…just took a long walk through part of the city.
I’d welcome your thoughts on what I should see next time, though.
You skipped Old Town?
Most residents of Warsaw, I am told, dislike the Ministry of Culture Building. They liken it to a raised middle finger from Stalin to the Polish people.
Seems that most would go to Old Town – I thought I’d go in a different direction.
“Old town”. As in rebuilt post WWII to look old. It is nice though and I certainly can’t fault the Poles for rebuilding.
I would say Polish people have mixed feelings about the Palace of Culture in that yes, it was a sort of Soviet trophy put in the middle of a destroyed city that the Soviets had intentionally allowed to be destroyed to subjugate the Polish people. On the other hand, it is an interesting piece of Art Deco architecture and, IMO, more interesting than the post-modern bland skycrapers we’ve seen go up since the 1990’s that are largely glass monstrosities. I
So it’s a bit of joke, really, that Poles will tell visitors how much they hate the thing but then take their friends there and buy a ticket for them to go into it.
There’s no silver lining to the tragedy that after the Nazis carpet bombed Warsaw during the initial invasion, then the Red Army stood by as the Nazis then leveled it to the ground with dynamite and burned down the rest. The Palace is essentially a monument to destruction. Afterwards, uncreative cement office and apartment buildings were thrown up and then the 1990’s with boring skyscrapers.
I’m really not seeing the Art Deco aspect. I’m certainly no architectural expert but I thought Deco is soft curves instead of sharp angles, with aluminum, pastels, and sometimes neon: the Chrysler tower or South Beach rather than pillars and sharp cornered towers. Can you tell me what I’m missing?
It’s not Ministry of Culture! 🙂
It is called Palace of Culture and Science and it was indeed a “gift” from Stalin, however it isn’t and never was the building of the Ministry of Culture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science
If you really want to know how the Poles feel about Stalin, visit the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk. Poland was invaded by both the Nazi and Russia in 1939.
If in doubt, note how Poland was willing to lend its MIG jet fighters to Ukraine during the February invasion. Sleepy Joe put an end to that plan because he would not backfill the Polish with US jets.
No publicity around it but I believe those MIGs are now in the hands of Ukraine and Germany has stationed some aircraft in Poland.
Trump would have given fighter jets to the Russians, so this is preferable.
Once i was having dinner with two women. Once was german, one was polish. They both looked the same, blonde, thin, beautiful. In the conversation i mentioned “you polish and germans are the same people”. That pissed off the polish woman so much. Polish have been screwed by germans, literally and figuratively, so many times it would be natural to think they are cousins by now. But no, polish hate the germans with a vengeance.
The most moving place I found in Warsaw was the old ghetto wall and a few moments of quiet reflection there. As I stood, I was approached by an elderly Polish lady who insisted on taking me to look at her collection of pictures of the ghetto and life on both sides of the wall during the Nazi occupation. I speak no Polish and she spoke no English but between pictures, French and German I learned a huge amount from her. All she asked is that people remember those days and do all they can to make sure they never happen again.
The Palm Tree in that one photo is so interesting. It creates a scene that few would ever imagine is Warsaw. Looks more like a wide blvd in Maputo.
What you can’t make out from the palm tree picture is that it’s the “Charles De Gaulle Roundabout” and the north exit of the roundabout is Nowy Swiat street which is Warsaw’s most prestigious shopping and dining street.
I see how it could ever so slightly resemble the view from Praca da Independencia in Maputo, but unlike Maputo, nothing in Warsaw is crumbling, and there’s actually stuff to do downtown.
The tree is an art installation – the main east -west avenue there is Jerusalem Way (Aleje Jerozolimskie), and it’s supposed to remind people of the Middle East. Or at least that’s what I told. It’s a great and popular meeting spot – ‘let’s just meet at the Palm tree!’
I’m glad you went to Warsaw, but your pictures are not an accurate depiction of the city. PKiN is prominent in Warsaw’s skyline, but nobody there likes it. I’d recommend the following for visitors to Warsaw:
-A stroll through Saski Garden, passing the tomb of the unknown soldier, and walking to Old Town (fake, but worth having a beer in the square).
-Łazienki Park is another pleasant place. It’s adjacent to Ujazdowskie and Belwederska, which are lined with Embassies which are larger and more ornate that you’d expect to see in the Polish Capital.
-Gardens and Palace in Wilanow. There’s also a bike trail that runs there from near downtown. You can continue on it to Powsin to go hiking. You’ll pass some great places to get grilled sausages and beer en route.
-Powązki Cemetary. Seriously. An insight in to Polish history, and on certain days of the year, families really gather and hang out here in big groups.
Warsaw is really a beautiful, misunderstood, and unfortunately spread out city with a very small metro. It was rebuilt from nothing starting in the 1940s, so it sprawls more like a New World city than one in Europe. Fortunately Uber, like all things in Poland, is cheap. I hope you make it back.
Thanks for this detailed comment. I hope to make it back too.
All great recs, and I’d add a few more:
-Stroll through Saska Kempa neighborhood on the east side of the river. Area used to be (still is?) a haven for artists, remember eating at a few good restaurants there a few years ago.
-Powisle neighborhood, particularly the Warsaw University library. One of the few neighborhoods that retain some of the pre-WWII feel. Old Mokotów south of the city center is also mostly in tact. One of my favorite restaurants – Stary Dom (Old Home) – is there. A few old palaces nearby too like Królikarnia (Rabbit/bunny palace).
-Former Warsaw Ghetto/Muranów neighborhood.
Lots to see, from Mila 18, Ghetto monument, History of Polish Jews museum, Pawiak prison ruins, Umszlagplatz, to even just realizing that many of the apartment buildings around there are built atop ruble.
-For kitschy communist style Polish meal, check out Oberża pod Czerwonym Wieprzem restaurant. At the same corner is another Warsaw Ghetto monument – it’s where the bridge linking two sections of the Ghetto was located.
-Warsaw Uprising Museum highly recommend
-So many trendy nightlife spots have popped up. Hala Koszyki, Browary Warszawskie (Warsaw Brewery complex), or all the bars/restaurants along the river around the Copernicus science center.
While the metro is small, the tram and bus network is great. Due to the tragic history, the city feels disjointed at times, a mishmash of architecture (pre-war, Communist, and modern), but it’s also part of the charm. That said it’s hard to ignore reminders of WWII. You can still easily find buildings with war damage (check out the Central Bank building near the Opera House), and you’ll find plaques all over the city marking spots where Nazi massacres occurred, often with flowers and candles nearby.