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In dieser Stadt hat alles angefangen - hier lernte ich für das Leben, hier leben noch meine Verwandten, Freunde und Bekannte. Hierher komme ich immer noch sehr gerne zurück, um sie und all die wunderschönen Plätze aus meiner Kindheit und Jugend wieder zu besuchen .

Warszawa

  

Sirene, Symbol von Warschau, hier noch auf dem Marienstadt stehend  

 

Legende über die Warschauer Sirene

Legenda o Syrence warszawskiej
 

 

 


Sirene - symbol of Warsaw.
Before it stood on Mariensztat square, now located in the midle of Market Square in the Warsaw's old town.
 

Skyline von Warschau mit dem höchsten Kulturpalast

 

1955 wurde der Kulturpalast (Pałac Kultury i Nauki) fertig gebaut. Es ist das höchste Gebäude in Warschau bis heute (und das seit über 50 Jahren). Es hat 42 Stockwerke und ist 231 Meter hoch.
Es war ein Geschenk von Polens damaligem Freund, Russland. In dieser Zeit gab es in Europa nur ein höheres Gebäude als den Kulturpalast in Warschau, und zwar die Moskauer Universität.
  It was raised in 1819-1822 for Grand Duke Constantine according to a design by Jakub Kubicki. The interior decorations were kept in rich classicistic style and the palace was furnished with period furniture. When Poland regained its independence, the palace became the seat of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, and after 1945 it served as a seat of the state highest authorities. In 1989-1994 the Belvedere Palace was the residence. In 1995 an exhibition devoted to Jozef  Pilsudski was arranged in the palace.

  In the years 1677-1696, close to the city of Warsaw, a sumptuous Baroque residence was raised Residence for King John III Sobieski and his wife Marysienkafor King John III Sobieski and his wife Mrysienka according to a design by Augustyn Locci. Many outstanding artists and architects participated in the creation of the palace, including Michelangelo Palloni and Andrzej Schluter. After King's death in 1696 the Wilanow residence fell into a decline. It was saved by Elzbieta Sieniawska nee Lubomirska who bought it in 1720 and continued its extension and remodelling throughout the first half of the 18th century. In 1799 the palace got into the hands of Stanislaw Kostka Potocki, a devoted collector of antique objects and mementos connected with John III Sobieski. The Branicki family owned the palace from the end of the 19th century until 1945. Carefully renovated after the Second World War, it has become a museum.
While touring the palace interiors, our special attention is drawn by King's apartments and the Polish Portrait Gallery. The palace is surrounded by a vast park. A magnificent collection of posters can be admired in the Poster Museum, housed by one of the palatial outbuildings.

  Originally Gothic in style, founded in the early 15th century to be a seat of Mazovian Dukes. The extension works started in 1568 on the initiative of King Sigismund Augustus; its considerable remodelling took place during the reign of King Sigismund III who transferred the capital of Poland from Cracow to Warsaw.
The works were carried out in the years 1598-1619 under the guidance of the royal architect Jan Trevano. A huge five-wing, early Baroque construction was erected with an inner yard and a tall clock-tower. The castle ( The vast Royal Castle which occupies the Eastern side of Plac Zamkowsky was completely rebuilt between 1971 and 1984, having been reduced to a mound of rubble in 1945. It now houses an extremely popular museum (go early or expect to queue for a very long time.) had a function of and official royal seat and the seat of a number of Commonwealth offices. In the mid-18th century its northeastern wing was remodelled for King Augustus III according to Gaetano Chiaveri's design: it received a new late Baroque appearence.  The official interiors of the castle acquired their final shape during the reconstruction works carried out during the reign if King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. In the years 1765-1794 a sequence of chambers and rooms were prepared and furnished in the eastern wing according to a design by Dominik Merlini and Jan Christian Kamsetzer.
The Third of May Constitution was passed here in 1791. During the inter-war period the castle was the seat of Polish presidents. On September 17, 1939, it was bombed and burnt, its destruction was completed on October 25, 1944, when the Nazis set explosives in the castle walls and blew it up. The reconstruction works were undertaken in 1971 and carried out under the guidance of Jan Boguslawski. The interiors were faithfully reconstructed and furnished thanks to the donations and effort of the whole Polish nation.   The park took its name from the already existing 17th century bath house raised for Stanislaw Herakliusz Lubomirski by Tylman of Gameran. The bath house was bought from him by King Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski in 1764, who had it converted into a summer residence according to Dominik Merlini's design. In 1784 the southern elevation was remodelled, but some of its Baroque elements were preserved. During the next four years the palace was enlarged on the side of its northern elevation which, together with its monumental portico, received classicistic appearence.
Similar heterogeneity is characteristic of the palace interior decorations.  Along with the workson the palace, other construction works were carried out in the park and the following buildings were raised: the White Cottage (1774-1777), Myslewicki Palace (1775-1778), Old Orangery Theatre (1786-1788), and the Theatre on the Island (1790). The Lazienki Palace, partly destroyed by the last war ravages, is one of the most charming, little private royal residences of that time. The beautiful English park with ponds and canals adds much to the palace's delightful appearence.
A memorial to Frederic Chopin designed by Waclaw Szymanowski stands in the park on the Ujazdowskie Avenue side. Free public concerts of Chopin music are given there in summer time.

The old, popular Polish song stated: "...Warsaw is lovable, Warsaw is lovable. There one could find happiness, there one could loose own heart!...". We agree with this statement and give you the opportunity to visit even more of those lovable places called Warsaw than you could think they exist in Warsaw in the U.S.A..

to the top History of Warsaw

Warsaw is older than it looks: the first settlements in the area stretch back to the 10th century and the first records back to the 11th. Around the middle of the 11th, someone thought it noteworthy to report an ominous event for a city later razed again and again: a wooden fort belonging to the Mazowiecki Princes was burned in Jazdow during a Lithuanian-Russian raid. The fort was burned again in 1281 and most likely never rebuilt.

But north of Jazdow, they built a better replacement at the end of the 13th century on the site where today stands the Royal Castle of Warsaw. Enclosed in protective walls, the Mazovian Princes claimed this area as their seat of power in 1413, and what is now known as Warsaw began to grow.

 But the neutral Mazovian princedom did not remain so for long. In 1526, when the Mazowiecki line failed to produce heirs, the entire Mazowsze region, including Warsaw, was incorporated into the Polish crown. Still, Warsaw remained a political backwater until Poland and Lithuanian unified in 1569. It was an issue of geographical convenience: Warsaw was closer to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Only 4 short years later, the kings were being elected here, and 27 years after the unification King Zygmunt III Waza moved the capital from Krakow to Warsaw. Some claim he moved due to the burning of Wawel Castle in Krakow, but others note how much closer Warsaw was to Zygmunt's home country of Sweden.

Despite this royal closeness, Warsaw was soon to suffer terribly from the Swedes. Between 1655 and 1658, Warsaw was thrice besieged and entirely plundered by the Swedish and Siedmiogrodzkie forces. Years later Henryk Sienkiewicz eloquently described these years, known as "The Deluge", in his Trilogy. Warsaw rallied following the election of King Jan III Sobieski, but continued internal ferment and yet another invasion by the Swedish King Charles XII kept Warsaw destabilized for most of the 18th century as well. But before the century ended, the rule of the Saski Family stabilized the political situation and Warsaw again became an important center of culture, education, and enlightenment.

to the top  This period, led by King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, was later coined as Warsaw's second "golden era" when it was transformed into a modern city. Crowning these architectural achievements, the first European, democratic constitution (second only to that of the US) was declared on May 3, 1791.

Ironically, at this same time, Poland's ongoing partitions limited the freedom of the city. In 1794, Varsovians joined the heroic, albeit unsuccessful, Kosciuszko Uprising by attacking Russian troops stationed in the capital. While initially a success, the uprising was eventually squashed and Warsaw along with a large part of Mazowsze region was incorporated into Prussia in 1795. Warsaw had a brief respite in 1807 when Napoleon established a Duchy of Warsaw, but this ended in 1830 when the Russians took control until WWI began.

 When Poland regained its independence in 1918, Varsovians worked energetically to revamp and expand the city and its infrastructure. But war put an end to that. Germany invaded Poland on the 1st of September, 1939 and for 28 days the Poles resisted, but Warsaw fell despite their heroic efforts. Such resistance continued throughout the war, marked notably by two uprisings in 1943 and 1944.

In April of 1943, the Jewish Ghetto Uprising erupted and lasted for one month of intense fighting before the German army managed to overcome the area and liquidate the ghetto, and along with it the centuries old population. The following year, the Warsaw Uprising began in the hopes of liberating the city from the Germans, but the Soviet army - camped across the Vistula - did not help and after 63 days of bitter house-to-house fighting the attempt to liberate the city failed. Following the Uprising, Hitler ordered Warsaw destroyed; consequently 85% of the city was reduced to rubble over the following 3 months. Only in January of the next year did the Soviet army finally cross the river to enter the decimated city.

 to the top After WWII ended, Warsaw was rebuilt. The Royal Castle and the surrounding Old Town were painstakingly reconstructed from pictures rendered in the 17th and 18th centuries. Unfortunately, construction in the rest of the city was not based on the past, and 'real socialism' survives today in the myriad blocks and bunkers of modern day Warsaw. In 1989, Poland again became a democracy and today thrives as never before. One hopes it has entered its third 'golden age'.

 

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to the topLegenda o Syrence warszawskiej to the topDie Legende über die Warschauer Sirene
Dawno dawno temu przypłynęły z Atlantyku na Bałtyk dwie siostry - syreny; piękne kobiety z rybimi ogonami, zamieszkujące w głębinach mórz.

Jedna z nich upodobała sobie skały w cieśninach duńskich i do tej pory możemy ją zobaczyć siedzącą na skale u wejścia do portu w Kopenhadze.

Druga dopłynęła aż do wielkiego nadmorskiego portu Gdańsk, a potem Wisłą popłynęła w górę jej biegu. Podobno właśnie u podnóża dzisiejszego Starego Miasta wyszła z wody na piaszczysty brzeg, aby odpocząć, a że miejsce spodobało się jej, postanowiła tu zostać.

Rychło rybacy zauważyli, że ktoś podczas ich połowu wzburza fale Wisły, plącze sieci i wypuszcza ryby z więcierzy. Ponieważ jednak syrena oczarowywała ich swym pięknym śpiewem, nic jej nie zrobili.

Pewnego razu bogaty kupiec zobaczył syrenę i usłyszał jej piękny śpiew. Szybko przeliczył, ile zarobi, jeżeli uwięzi syrenę i będzie ją pokazywać na jarmarkach. Podstępem ujął syrenę i uwięził ją w drewnianej szopie, bez dostępu do wody. Skargi syreny usłyszał młody parobek, syn rybaka i z pomocą przyjaciół w nocy uwolnił ją.

Syrena z wdzięczności za to, że mieszkańcy stanęli w jej obronie obiecała im, że w razie potrzeby oni też mogą liczyć na jej pomoc. I dlatego warszawska syrena jest uzbrojona - ma miecz i tarczę dla obrony naszego miasta.
 		 Vor einer langen, langen Zeit kamen aus dem Baltischen Meer zwei Schwestern - wunderschöne Sirenen, Frauen mit Fisch-Schwänzen, die in den Tiefen der Meere wohnten.

Einer von ihnen haben es die Felsen und Gewässer im heutigen Dänemark angetan und bis heute kann man sie auf den Felsen vor Kopenhagen sitzen sehen.

Die andere schwamm bis Danzig, dann die Weichsel hinunter, dem Strom entgegen. Anscheinend kam sie aus dem Wasser heraus ans Ufer, um sich zu erholen, genau da, wo heute die Altstadt von Warschau ist. Da ihr das sandige Ufer sehr gefiel, beschloss sie, zu bleiben.

Bald bemerkten die Fischer der Umgebung, dass jemand die Wellen der Weichsel stürmisch macht und die Fische aus den Netzen befreit. Da aber die Sirene übernatürlich schön singen konnte, waren die Fischer so verzaubert, dass sie ihr alles Andere verziehen.

Eines Tages sah ein Kaufmann die Sirene und hörte auch ihre zauberhafte Stimme. Schnell wurde ihm klar, wie viel er für sie bekommen könnte, wenn es ihm gelänge, sie zu fangen. Mit einer List fing er sie und hielt sie in einem Holzschuppen ohne Zugang zum Wasser fest. Ihr klägliches Singen wurde aber eines Tages von einem jungen Fischer gehört. Mit Hilfe von Freunden gelang es ihm, die Sirene aus der Gefangenschaft zu befreien.

Aus Dankbarkeit für den Einsatz versprach die Sirene den Fischern, dass sie ihnen, wann immer sie Hilfe bräuchten, beistehen würde. Daher ist die Warschauer Sirene bewaffnet - sie hat Schwert und Schild, um Warschau vor Feinden zu schützen.

Fotos aus Warschau  More photos from Warsaw?

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Stand: 31. Oktober 2008