Warszawa is a modern, sparkling and cultural city. Because of its long, rich and sometimes tragic history there are many historical and interesting places to see. Despite the fact that almost 85 percent of the city was destroyed during World War II, there are still many elderly buildings and palaces left. Several of those destroyed are reverentially rebuild or restored i.e. the Royal Castle and the Old Town.
Warsaw's Old Town Market Square and its surroundings, the Old Town (Stare Miasto, also called Starowka), is a reconstruction, it deserves to be often called for the best tourist attraction of Warsaw, for its charming beauty and its unforgettable atmosphere.
The Old Town was established in the 13th century and soon surrounded by city walls of brick. The nearby New Town was outlined not so much later, and got its own town status.
In the beginning of the 18th century Tylman van Gameren, a Dutch architect that worked for the royal court, redesigned the Old Town Square and had The Town Hall, that dominated the surroundings, demolished.
The whole area has been completely destroyed during the World War II, but all those narrow gothic streets, monasteries, renaissance churches and merchants' houses had been carefully reconstructed, and now the whole area is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Jewish District in Warsaw - Before the World War II, approx. 30 % of the Warsaw population – over 350 000 people - was Jewish. There were about 400 synagogues and prayer houses in the city; destroyed by the Nazis to celebrate defeating of the Ghetto Uprising. Today, there is only one synagogue left in Warszawa.
Lot of Jews used to live on the right side of the river – Praga, and still today, walking certain streets there, you can sense the atmosphere of the Jewish Warsaw before the war.
On the left side of the river, where the Ghetto used to be, there are now several monuments commemorating the Jews of Warsaw – between them The Monument over the Ghetto Heroes and Umschlagplatz - a memorial raised at the very spot where Warsaw Jews were gathered in 1943, loaded on cattle wagons and transported to the death camp at Treblinka.
How to get from Cracow to Warsaw:
You may take a train which is every hour www.pkp.pl
or take a private car.
If you wish to go there, just let me know.
I will organise a Guide there:
