Warsaw Old Town Market Square, Barrs side, photograph of 1945

Warsaw's Old Town Market Place ( pl, Rynek Starego Miasta) is the center and oldest part of the Old Town of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, capital of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Immediately after the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

, it was systematically blown up by the German Army. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Old Town Market Place was restored to its prewar appearance.

History

The Old Town Market Place is the true heart of the Old Town, and until the end of the 18th century it was the heart of all of Warsaw. It originated in the late 13th century, at the same time that the city was founded. Here the representatives of guilds and merchants met in the town hall (built before 1429, pulled down in 1817), and fairs and the occasional execution were held. The houses around it represented the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths ** Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken ...

until the great fire of 1607, after which they were rebuilt in late-

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought a ...

and eventually in late-Baroque style by Tylman Gamerski in 1701. The main feature at that time was the immense town hall, reconstructed in 1580 in the style of Polish mannerism by Antoneo de Ralia and again between 1620 and 1621. The architecture of the building was similar to many other structures of that type in Poland (e.g. the town hall in Szydłowiec). It was adorned with

attics An attic (sometimes referred to as a ''loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the t ...

and four side towers. A clock tower, embellished with an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

, was covered with a bulbous spire typical for Warsaw mannerist architecture (an example being the Royal Castle). The district was damaged by the bombs of the German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

during the

Invasion of Poland (1939) The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

. The ancient Market Place was rebuilt in the 1950s, after having been destroyed by the German Army after the suppression of the 1944

. Today it is a major tourist attraction.

Features

The current buildings were reconstructed between 1948 and 1953, to look as they did in the 17th century when it was mostly inhabited by rich merchant families. '' The Warsaw Mermaid'', a bronze sculpture by Konstanty Hegel, has stood as the symbol of Warsaw since 1855. Names of 18th-century Polish parliamentarians are used for the four sides of this vast (90 by 73 m or 295 by 240 ft) square: * Dekert's Side (''Strona Dekerta''), the north side (numbers, 28–42), named after

Jan Dekert Jan Dekert or Jan Dekiert (1738 – 4 October 1790) was a Polish merchant of German descent and political activist. Starting in the 1760s, he rose to become one of the most prominent merchants in the Polish capital of Warsaw. He was an acti ...

, which houses the Warsaw Historical Museum. The entrance is in a building called "The Negro" (''Pod Murzynkiem'', nr 36), after the traditional sign over the doorway. * Barss' Side (''Strona Barssa''), the east side (numbers, 2–26), with the Adam Mickiewicz Museum honoring the 19th-century

Polish poet List of poets who have written much of their poetry in Polish. See also Discussion Page for additional poets not listed here. There have been five Polish-language Nobel Prize laureates in literature: Henryk Sienkiewicz, Władysław Reymont, ...

. *

Kołłątaj Kołłątaj is a Polish language surname. It is commonly rendered into English without diacritics as Kollataj. The Russian language version is Kollontay. The surname may refer to: *Hugo Kołłątaj Hugo Stumberg Kołłątaj, also spelled ''Ko ...

's Side (''Strona Hugo Kołłątaja''), the west side (numbers, 15–31). * Zakrzewski's Side (''Strona Zakrzewskiego''), the south side (numbers, 1–13). The square is maintained by Wario Wojciech, who can often be seen in traditional dress, consisting of a red suit and a curved sword.

Gallery

Historical images

Image:Norblin - wieszanie zdrajcow.jpg, ''Old Town Market Place in 1794'' Image:Beyer-Rynek Starego Miasta.jpg, ''The Square in the 1860s'' Image:Market Square Warsaw.jpg, ''Between 1890 and 1905'' Image:Warsaw Uprising 12345.jpg, ''Old Town Market Place in 1944 during the

'' Image:Old Town Warsaw waf-2012-1501-31(1945).jpg, ''Shortly after the war''

Sides

Image:Pomnik Syreny i strona Dekerta Rynek Starego Miasta w Warszawie 2020.jpg, Dekert's Side Image:VarsaviaPiazzaMercatoCittàVecchiaLatoBarss1.jpg, Barss Side Image:VarsaviaPiazzaMercatoCittàVecchiaLatoKollataj2.jpg, Kołłątaj's Side Image:Rynek Starego Miasta w Warszawie strona Zakrzewskiego 2018.jpg, Zakrzewski's Side

Details

Image:Syrenka na Starowce.JPG, '' The Warsaw Mermaid'' Image:Sundial Warsaw.jpg, ''Wall sundial (Zakrzewski's Side)'' Image:VarsaviaPzzaMercatoVecchiaStatuaSAnna.jpg, ''16th-century statue of Saint Anne (Kołłątaj's Side)''

References

External links

A live video webcam with view of the Old Town Market Place in WarsawTreasures of Warsaw on-line

Virtual tour

{{authority control Old Town Market Place