Warsaw the past the present and the future photo thread

..or your computers might suffer permanent damage.

This topic is about Warsaw - and the photos of Warsaw made in various periods - and how the city changed thruout time.

I will post some photos and comment on them - you might do that as well.

That what I`m going to post here is going to be divided into 6 cathegories that are going to show the city of Warsaw during 6 periods.

I. The time till 1920
II. 1921-1939 (the inter-war period)
III. 1939-1945 (the German occupation)
IV. 1945-1989 (the times of communism)
V. Warsaw Now
VI. 2007-2012 (the future)

Those cathegories probably aren`t going to follow in chronologic order - but each post is going to contain photos out of one single cathegory (the reason for that is not to mix up everything)

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But first off some key facts about Warsaw:

- Warsaw had been established by two guys: Wars and Sawa, well hence the name.. Warszawa. Another story story says that Sawa was a mermaid.. and this is the reason why Warsaw has a mermaid in its coat of arms.. and the mermaid is the symbol of the city..

- The city is quite new for Poland - cose it recived its city rights in 1413.

- In 1596 the capital of Poland had been moved to Warsaw from Krakow - cose the city is located in the center of the previous Polish borders - and it had been more convenient meeting point for the parlamentarians from all over the country to meet there for the Sejm sessions (it was very important cose from that period onward Poland had been governed by the parliament - while the King had relatively small powers)

- thru most part of its history Warsaw had been a small town compared to other Polish cities - I guess that in the past in a way it could have been compared to Washington DC in the US.. this changed only recently - during the XIX century.

- Today Warsaw together with its metro has a population of c.a. 2,7 million.

- Warsaw had been totally destroyed two times: In 1655 by the Swedes and in 1944 by the Germans.

- The last time 70% of the whole city had been leveled down to the ground (in many cases dynamited) out of revenge by the Germans for the Warsaw Uprising.

- Over 250.000 Warsavians died in the Warsaw Uprising

- Most of the historic buildings in Warsaw are copies.

- The Old Town in Warsaw had been build during the 1950s and the Royal Castle during the 70s

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Some poeple hope Cracow will be the capital of Poland again... ;D

I. The time till 1920 (part I)

Those are some color photos made between 1890 and 1915 showing the Warsaw Old Town
Pictures can be found at: warszawa1939.pl

The Royal Castle

A view from the Praga district

Krakowskie Przedmiescie

Adam Mickiewicz`s statue - Adam Mickiewicz was called the "Voice of the Nation" - he was one of the greatest Polish poets..

Staszic`s Palace

The Square of The Three Crosses (Plac Trzech Krzyzy)

The Old City market

Krasinski`s Square

Theatre Square

The Grand Theatre - one of the largest in the World

The Saxon gardens

Wilanow

The Lazienki (Bathroom) Park

Very nice ones (I didn't know they had color cameras back then...). But most of these buildings have been destroyed during the WW 2, werent they?

Well, I`m neutral here - both cities have their pluses and minuses.

Color photography is a very old invention - though before the 1940s it was only experimental and in many cases very expensive.

All of those buildings have been destroyed during WWII - but later on most of them (from those you can see here) had been reconstructed according to old plans and photos.

..right after WWII Warsaw looked this way:

Looks like Arizona or Nevada.. :(

Yes - though not quite - cose that what you`re seeing there is rubble mixed with burned human bodies. Warsaw after/before the war.

II. 1921-1939 (the inter-war period) - PART I

And this is what has been destroyed - and hadn`t been rebuild - or it had been rebuild in a far poorer form.

II. 1921-1939 (the inter-war period) - PART II

I guess Poles don't like Germans now...

Well, after killing almost 6 million of our citizens.. destroying most of our country.. forcing us to live under communism for almost 45 years from which we are recovering.. the term "don`t like" is quite soft don you think..

..especially when the Germans attempt to build an oil pipeline over our heads.. organize gay parades on our teritory.. ..demand from us reperations for WWII.. ..picture us as thives and idiots in their media 24h/7.. and write articles in one of their biggest newspapers about or President and his brother titled: "A young Polish potato. Rotters, who want to rule the World" (just as it happened almost 2 weeks ago)

For me the Germans are a bunch of arrogant, lazy imbecils whos country is going town the drain and who sooner or later are going to have a very bad awakening.

The continuation of my photo-posting-mania...

V. Warsaw Now - PART III:

--Lazienki Krolewskie (The Royal Bathrooms Park) in the city center--

The New Orangery

The Old Kordegard (a guard outpost)
Officers school



Ujazdowski`s Castle (now it`s a center for modern art)


A 28K modem ?? :) Where did you get that thing ? :)

I really love Warszawa..

But I don't feel the same atmosphere as I do in Kraków, I can't say why.. :)

Well I find that each city has its own climate. Krakow is very chaming with all of its medieval architecture as well as with underground clubs - but it dosn`t have the big city feeling as Warsaw does.

Warsaw has a modern atmosphere and Warsaw is the future (there is no comparsion between the old town in Krakow and the old town in Warsaw - who`s - it`s not a joke - partly made out of plastic), while Krakow is a place of tradition as well as the past. I personally would have a hard time deciding myself where to live, cose I like both: the feeling of living in a big vibrant city as well as tradition.

Those are really great photos

VI. Warsaw in the future till 2010 - PART I - after showing you - a small part - of the Polish capital how it looks now and how it looked in the past it`s time to show you how it`s going to look like in the near future.

Here are some of the more interesting things that are going to be build in the city soon as well as those that are being build now:

Złota 44 - one of the better skyscraper designs that are going to be build in Warsaw in the near future - which could be very well compared to the "Egg" in London - the designer of the building is Polish born Daniel Libeskind - one of the world`s top architects. When build the building is going to be Europe`s second talles apartment building (after the Triumph Palace in Moscow)

New Defilade Square and city center that will consist of an art gallery, a theater, the museum of communism, appartments, shops and office buildings.

The central railway statuion is going to be either demolished or re-build this way.

The Vietnamese, Armenians, Ukrainians and Russians will be moved from the X Stadion and the stadion will be restored to its original function as national stadium.

the new Legia Warszawa stadium.

Polish Jews Museum

New Warsaw University Campus

New Warsaw Post Office

Now:

the right side of the street in 2009:

Rondo City and Atrium - the area on the right side of the street is going to look like on the second photo

VI. Warsaw in the future till 2010 - PART II (to be continued)

Grzybowska Street now:

In near future:

^^^Prosta Tower - one of the more interesting designs on Grzybowska St.

The Prudential building is going to undergo heavy renovations giving space to apartments

(During the 1930 the Prudential was Europes second tallest skyscraper)

The Copernicus Science Center

The Copernicus Science Center is supposed to only be the second of its kind in the world! Right behind to a similar center that is located in San Francisco!

Very nice pictures! It makes me want to see Poland that much more! Thanks! :0)

Warsaw is beautiful. Was there about a month ago. Would love to live there, and God willing, I will do so within the next 5 years.

This is a great thread. Thanks for the all the pictures.

Thank you. This is a great thread. I love Warsaw. :)