To Duval Family Home Page Europe
To Chris Home Page Polska
To Earth (Geography Home Page)

Warszawa

Warszawa,1 formerly Warschau and Варшава (Varshava), the capital of Polska,2 is located on the Wisła3 River in the east center of the nation. About 1.7 million live in the city proper, 2.3 million in the metropolitan area.4 Among the notable buildings are the Palace of Culture and Science, dating from 1955, when Russia controlled Poland, and thus inspiring contemptuous nicknames like "Elephant in Underwear." It is the city's tallest building. Also noted is the Warsaw University Library, completed in 2000 and the Prudential Tower, from 1934 and under reconstruction, and the yet older PASTa, from 1910.

Warszawa was mostly destroyed by the Germans after an uprising in 1944. Its city center was entirely rebuilt and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reconstructed area includes the market square, city walls, the Barbican, the Royal Castle, churches and Kanonia Square featuring the city's narrowest house.6 The city is now a tourist destination.

Near the city is Polska's busiest airport, the Warsaw-Chopin.7

YearPopulationPolitical entity
1800 CE75,0008Königreich Preußen (the Kingdom of Prussia)
1900 CE724,0008Rossiyskaja Imperija (Russian Empire)
2008 CE2,300,0004Polska (Poland)

External references

Warswawa skyline

Historical maps

map showing parts of Königreich Preußen (the Kingdom of Prussia), Rossiyskaja Imperija (Russian Empire) and Ergerzegtum Österreich (Austro-Hungarian Empire), 1800 CE

map showing parts of Rossiyskaja Imperija (Russian Empire) and the Deutsches Reich (German Empire), 1900 CE

map showing Polska (Poland), 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. Warsaw in English. It is located in the Mazowieskie (Mazovian) Province.
2. Poland in English.
3. Also called the Vistula.
4. World-gazetteer.com, accessed 3/8/2008.
5. Information about buildings in from emporis.com, accessed 3/8/2008 and 2/4/2014. The information about the renovation of the Prudential Tower was not updated after 2008.
6. UNESCO, World Heritage Sites (Firefly Books, 2010).
7. 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Poland, accessed 1/14/2014.
8. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Tables of the World's Largest Cities." In 1800 and 1900 Warszawa was Polska's largest city.