Ujazdów Park () is one of the most picturesque

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

s of

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 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It borders '' Aleje Ujazdowskie'' (Ujazdów Avenue), with its many embassies and

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

building.

History

From the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the area had been occupied by the village of Ujazdów, located several miles south of

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

. In 1619-1625 a palace and garden were built here by Giovanni Battista Trevano for King

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa (, ; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden from 1592 to 1599. He was the first Polish sovereign from the House of Vasa. Re ...

. In 1782 King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...

bought the village and relocated it about a kilometer west (near what is now the main campus of the Warsaw Polytechnic), while the old village's area (along the axis of the " Royal Road") was turned into ''Pole Marsowe'' (the Field of Mars), a large square for military parades, modeled and named after

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

' ''

Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

''. The village itself was renamed ''Nowa Wieś'' ("New Village") and gave its name to the present-day ''ulica Nowowiejska'' (New Village Street). After the Russian takeover of Warsaw in the wake of the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, the area lost its military character and became a venue for annual fairs. It also served as a place of entertainment, with merry-go-rounds and open-air stands placed there every summer. In 1893, under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz, the renowned garden architect Franciszek Szanior was commissioned to turn the former Field of Mars into a public park in the-then popular " landscape style," a mixture of Romantic garden and Baroque-style lanes. The avenue of chestnut trees in the western part of the area was incorporated into the newly founded park. At the time of its foundation, the park was one of the most modern in Europe. It featured a large pond, fountains and a reinforced-concrete bridge over the southern part of the pond, built by the renowned engineer William Lindley. The bridge was the second construction built of that material in the world, after the bridge in Viggen,

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(1894). The park also had

gas lighting Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by ...

, a playground for children, and a public

weighing scale A scale or balance is a device used to measure weight or mass. These are also known as mass scales, weight scales, mass balances, massometers, and weight balances. The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal d ...

(still in use ). The park's sculptures were carved by Edward Wittig, Pius Weloński and Théodore-Charles Gruyère. After World War II, a monument to Ignacy Jan Paderewski, by Michał Kamieński, was added. Ujazdów Park is a favorite of Varsovians: its playground is popular with children, and many newlyweds use the park as a setting for their wedding photographs. In 2002 the park was completely refurbished.

References

External links

*
Pre-war pictures of the park
Parks in Warsaw Continental gardens in the English Landscape Garden style Landscape design history {{Warsaw landmarks

History

See also

References

External links