Artur Zawisza Square, Warsaw

Artur Zawisza Square (, commonly abbreviated as "plac Zawiszy") is a public square in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

's borough of

Ochota Ochota () is a district of Warsaw, Poland, located in the central part of the city's urban agglomeration. It is Warsaw's most densely populated district and home to the scientific campus of the University of Warsaw. The biggest housing estate ...

. It is named after Artur Zawisza, a 19th-century Polish revolutionary who was executed on the spot by Russians in 1833. Currently a major

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

at the intersection of

Jerusalem Avenue Jerusalem Avenue () is one of the principal streets of the capital city of Warsaw in Poland. It runs through the City Centre along the east–west axis, linking the western borough of Wola with the bridge on the Vistula River and the borough of ...

, Raszyńska, Grójecka and Towarowa Streets, for centuries its spot was occupied by the so-called Jerusalem Toll-house or Jerusalem Gate (). The Jerusalem Toll-house was created in 1770, as a toll-house on the road leading from downtown Warsaw towards the

jurydyka Jurydyka (plural: jurydyki, improperly: jurydykas), is a legal entity in the Polish legal system from bygone centuries (originating from Latin: ''iurisdictio'', jurisdiction), denoting a privately owned tract of land within a larger municipality, ...

of Nowa Jerozolima ("New Jerusalem") and the Kraków Road (modern Grójecka Street). The spot was chosen for a gate in the newly erected Lubomirski's Ramparts. Between 1816 and 1818, two Classicist buildings of the toll-house were built by

Jakub Kubicki Jakub Kubicki (1758–1833) was a Polish classicist architect and designer. Biography Born in Warsaw in 1758, into a bourgeois family, Jakub Kubicki graduated from the Jesuit College, at the same time that he was taking lessons from Dom ...

. In 1823, a square was created surrounding the new toll-houses. The area, in the 19th century still far-removed from the city centre, was a spot of particularly heavy fighting during the battle of Warsaw of 1831. When the fortifications surrounding Warsaw were dismantled in the 1870s, the area started to be built-up and settled, initially with wooden suburban houses around the square, but even before World War I, the area was being encroached upon by the dense city infrastructure. In 1909, a tramway line was connected to the square. During World War II in 1942, the 19th century toll-houses were dismantled by the Germans, while the buildings surrounding the square were demolished in the aftermath of the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

. They were not rebuilt after the war, and the square was surrounded by new office buildings and shopping malls only recently. Among notable buildings located at Zawisza Square are the Millennium Plaza and

Warszawa Ochota railway station Warsaw Ochota () is a railway station in Warsaw, Poland, located in the district of Ochota at Plac Zawiszy on the corner of Aleje Jerozolimskie and Towarowa Street. The station lies in a cutting. It has two island platforms, one on the suburban t ...

. Zawisza Ochota Toll houses Roundabouts and traffic circles in Poland {{warsaw-geo-stub