Wednesday 8 June 2016

Warszawa (Warsaw)























This city is nothing like I had imagined although visiting the city of Posnan had opened my eyes a little. What a fantastic city!

Poles are vey proud of their city and there is much rivalry between this city and Cracow (Krakow). King Sigmund lll moved his Royal Court from Cracow in the 1500s to be more central to the former commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania (Poland being much bigger then and encompassing Belarus and Ukraine).

In a nutshell however, the empires of Russia, Austria and Prussia set about partitioning up this commonwealth and Poland ceased to exist as a country. At the end of WWl Poland was reborn and in WWll was pretty much annihilated by the Nazis and Russians. Warsaw and the country are still recovering emotionally (in my opinion) from the suffering experienced during the war and then the communist regime following.

The war devastation was greater than Berlin or Dresden and the old town has been completely rebuilt in authentic styles, superbly well.
































































































Some sculptures depicting the Warsaw Uprising are some of the most powerful images I have ever seen. The lines of the wartime Jewish ghetto walls are recorded for posterity.

Copernicus, Chopin, Madame Curie and many more of Polish origin are celebrated here.

Sandra and I have experienced a couple of days in a remarkable city.

6 comments:

  1. Dear Tom and Sandra,

    Sounds really exciting - how the devil do your pronounce those places on the map?! I had to zoom out to get an idea of where you are and it seems like Welsh and Polish have a lot in common!
    It's great to plot your progress and learn a bit about the places you are visiting - thank you for that.
    Take care.

    Love and best wishes,

    Doug X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just to pronounce thankyou in Polish is troublesome. I could handle a few words of German.
      Thanks for looking in!

      Delete
  2. One last word or six (as Steve would say!) - I didn't realise that Copper Knickers came from there!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Polish are keen to establish themselves as a country with a history. I got the Copernicus connection in the end!

      Delete
  3. Fabulous photos and so glad to see Sandra and you had a fab time together. It looks like a lovely city

    ReplyDelete