The Warsaw New Town ( pl, Nowe Miasto) is a neighborhood dating from the 15th century in

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 officiall ...

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 ...

. It lies just north of the Old Town and is connected to it by ''ulica Freta'' ( en, Freta Street), which begins at the Warsaw Barbican. Like the Old Town, the New Town was almost completely destroyed by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and rebuilt after the war.

History

The

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

of the New Town was formed at the turn of the 14th century as an independent city. The official recognition of the New Town occurred in 1408, when it was separated from the Old Town by an act issued by Janusz I the Old, Duke of Masovia. At that time the new city encompassed the territory of the New Town Market Square and streets - ''Freta, Kościelna, Koźla, Przyrynek, Stara'' and ''Zakroczymska''. It was independent from the Old Town authorities and had its own

vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

, council and a town hall. In 1411 the Parish Church of St. Mary was erected, and according to the 1546 mensuration there were 204 estates in the Warsaw New Town. The largest investment of that time was the Sigismund Augustus bridge built between 1568-1573 by Erazm Cziotko (c. long). Unfortunately it was destroyed in 1603 by the drifting ice floes. Warszawa, ul

The disastrous time of the Swedish-

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...

ian invasion (1655–1660), left the predominantly timber buildings of the New Town burned, but because of those events many beautiful and more permanent buildings were erected (the Town Hall, built in 1680;

St. Kazimierz Church St. Kazimierz Church ( pl, Kościół św. Kazimierza) is a Roman Catholic church in Warsaw's New Town at '' Rynek Nowego Miasta 2'' (New Town Market Place, no. 2). History St. Casimir Church was originally the Kotowski Palace, residence of th ...

, 1688–1692; the

Kotowski Palace The Kotowski Palace ( pl, Pałac Kotowskich) was a 17th-century palace in Warsaw, Poland. It served as the main cloister building for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. History The palace was built some time between 1682 and 1684 fo ...

, 1682–1684; the Holy Spirit Church, 1707–1717; and the ornate chapel of the Kotowski family, constructed between 1691-1694) by the most prominent Warsaw architects (especially Tylman Gamerski). After 1791, due to the tenets of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, the New Town was incorporated into the city of Warsaw. That is why the Town Hall was pulled down in 1818. During the Warsaw Uprising (1 August – 2 October 1944) the New Town was completely destroyed due to the extensive bombardment of the insurgent positions by the Germans. Many historic edifices, that served as

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

s and shelters for the inhabitants were razed to the ground. The reconstruction of the New Town started in 1954, but some of the significant buildings were not restored by the Communist authorities (e.g.

Symbols

As a separate territorial entity, the New Town was using its own seal with a coat of arms. A version known from 1648 features a female figure with a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

. It can be found in the Central Archive of Historical Records. The inscription in the rim is in Latin: SIGILLUM * NOVA * CIVITATIS * VARSCHOVIENSIS.https://www.srodmiescie.warszawa.pl/ulica-214.html In the Middle Ages, the image of a virgin with a unicorn on her knees was a frequent motif of Christian art as a symbol of the Blessed

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, and the unicorn itself symbolized

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

. After the incorporation of the New Town into Warsaw, the

Warsaw Mermaid The Mermaid of Warsaw ( pl, Syrenka Warszawska) is a symbol of Warsaw, represented on the city's coat of arms as well as in a number of statues and other imagery. Etymology Polish ''syrenka'' is cognate with siren, but she is more prop ...

began to be used as the coat of arms. The image of a girl with a unicorn can still be found in the main square, it decorates the top of the well in front of the

. An eclectic cast-iron well from the second half of the nineteenth century set up there around 1957.

Gallery

Historical images

Image:Bellotto New Town Market Square.jpg, ''The New Town by Bernardo Bellotto'' Image:Ratusz New Town.jpg, ''The Nowe Miasto Town Hall in 1784'' Image:Norblin Warsaw New city Square.jpg, ''The New Town by Jan Piotr Norblin''

Churches

Image:VarsaviaVisitazioneSMariaDxViaPiesza.jpg, '' St. Mary's Church, 1411'' Image:Kościół św. Jacka w Warszawie 2020.jpg, '' St. Hyacinth's Church, 1603-1639'' Image:Kościól Świętego Benona w Warszawie.jpg, ''St. Benno Church, 1669'' Image:Saint Kazimierz Church in Warsaw - New Town.jpg, ''

, 1688-1692'' Image:Kościół św. Ducha w Warszawie.jpg, ''Holy Spirit Church, 1717'' Image:Kosciol sw franciszka.jpg, ''St. Francis Church, 1733''

Others

Image:VarsaviaVecchiaPolveriera.jpg, '' Old Bridge Gate, 1582'' Image:Warszawa - Pałac Sapiehów 01.jpg, '' Sapieha Palace, 1731-36'' Image:Pałac Sierakowskiego w Warszawie 2019.jpg, ''Sierakowski Palace, 1784'' Image:Pałac Raczyńskich w Warszawie 2019.jpg, ''Raczyński Palace, 1786'' Image:Historyczne centrum warszawy.png, ''The historical center of Warsaw'' Well at Rynek Nowego Miasta.png, ''The unicorn well at the main square''

References

External links

The New Town
{{Neighbourhoods of Śródmieście, Warsaw Śródmieście, Warsaw Neighbourhoods of Warsaw Rebuilt buildings and structures in Poland