World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Warsaw  - Sightseeing
Sightseeing

The charming Stare Miasto (Old Town), the oldest part of Warsaw, dates back to the thirteenth century and has been included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Its Gothic churches and Renaissance and Baroque houses have all been reconstructed following their destruction in World War II. Surrounding the Old Town there are traces of the Barbican (the old fortifications), and at its centre lies the Rynek Starego Miasta (Old Town Market Square), lined with brightly coloured façades and filled with artists selling their wares, horse-drawn carriages and sightseers. Archikatedra sw. Jana (St John's Cathedral; also known as Warsaw Cathedral) is the city's oldest Gothic church, dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

To the northwest is the Nowe Miasto (New Town), begun in the fourteenth century as the Old Town expanded beyond its walls. In the southeast corner of the Old Town is the Zamek Krolewski (Royal Palace). From here, the Royal Route leads south to the park and palace of Wilanow, passing a number of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century palaces along Krakowskie Przedmiescie, the Classical shopfronts of Nowy Swiat, and Park Lazienkowski (Lazienki Park) along its seven-kilometre (four-mile) route. Throughout the city, wall plaques indicate where citizens were killed in reprisals during the Warsaw Uprising.

In a city brought to its knees in the Second World War, it is a mark of confidence that unashamedly modern buildings have been erected in the past few years, following the completion of the faithful reconstruction of the Old Town. The most striking examples are the peppermint green fronted University Library in Dobra Street, the Supreme Court building in Krasinski Square, the ultra-modern Stock Exchange in Ksiazeca Street (see the Business Profile section) and the Atrium buildings along Jana Pawla II Street.

As Warsaw comes to terms with its Jewish heritage, the city is embarking on projects of remembrance. There are plans to build the Museum of the Polish Jews' History next to The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, and to restore the nineteenth-century apartment houses on Prozna Street to try to recreate the atmosphere of the pre-war Jewish neighbourhood.

Tourist Information

Warszawskie Centrum Informacji Turystycznej
(Warsaw Tourism Information Centre)
plac Zamkowy (Castle Square) 1/13
Tel: (022) 9431 or 628 8768. Fax: (022) 629 0750.
Opening hours: May-Sep Mon-Fri 0800-2000, Sat 0900-1700 and Sun 0900-1500. Oct-Apr Mon-Fri 0800-1800; Sat-Sun 0900-1500.

In addition to the main tourist office, there are tourist information centres at the Okecie Airport arrivals hall; the Warsaw Central Railway Station; the Historical Museum in the Old Town and Warsaw West Coach Station. There is also a tourist information telephone service with English-speaking operators (tel: 9431).

There are no tourist passes for attractions; the average price of admission to museums is between Z2-Z15.



Copyright © 2001 Columbus Publishing
    
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