Warsaw Kanonia Square The Old Town of Warsaw is not very huge, because Warsaw was at that times just a provincial city (the capital was Krakow), but it has many magic places. We are in one of them - this is a square (well, a triangle to be more precise) behind the cathedral. Each monk, who served in the cathedral, had his own house. Some of these monks were quite famous, like Stanislaw Staszic who was the co-author of the first Polish constitution (it was in the year 1793 - Poland had the first written constitution in Europe). The bell in the middle of the square should be hanging in the bell tower, but unfortunately it cracked before being hanged and somebody left it at this spot a couple of hundred years ago... The Barbican The Old Town is surrounded by city walls. The northern gate to the city five hundred years ago was transformed into a type of a fortress called barbican. At those times it was one of the most modern type of fortification. Nowadays it’s a spot for young painters to show their works. Palace of Culture and Science Warsaw has many faces… This building is one of the most known in the city. It is a gift for Warsaw from Stalin. The leader of the Soviet Union decided to build nine such palaces - 8 in Moscow and one in Warsaw. By mistake, the plans of the highest of them all went to Warsaw instead of staying in the capital of USSR and that’s how we got the tallest building in Europe until the seventies. During the communist period, this was a symbol of Soviet domination, so in 1989 some wanted to destroy the building. Fortunately, we decided to leave it and now it serves its premises to cinemas, museums, theaters and fairs. If you wander around it carefully, you might still find monuments of Marxs, Engels or other communist heroes. If you like communist architecture, we have a whole district called MDM built in the heart of the city. It was there were the parades on the 1 May (Labor Day) with red flags marched. Łazienki Park After walking through the streets of Warsaw, let’s have a rest in the nature. I’m taking you on a trip around my beloved park called Lazienki. It is not only a park, but also a complex of palaces built by the last king of Poland Stanislaw August Poniatowski in the second half of the eighteenth century. I love to stroll here. The Theater on Water The last king of Poland loved art, poetry and theater. He spoke fluently 6 languages. In order to promote culture, he built this theater on water. It should resemble ancient Greek ruins (this trend was very fancy at that time). The theater is used until today.
