Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital of Poland, set on both banks of the Vistula river roughly halfway between Berlin and Minsk. The Old Town was rebuilt brick by brick after the Second World War and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 for that reconstruction. The skyline is anchored by the Soviet-era Palace of Culture and Science, with a cluster of glass towers around it built in the last two decades.

Warsaw Skyline

Some photos are spontaneous. The Warsaw skyline with the sun setting directly behind the Palace of Culture and Science is not one of them. I first visited Warsaw in 2014 on a PhotoClaim trip and noticed the Novotel hotel sat in the right line of sight. In 2018 we booked a room there. The view was good, the light was off.

Photopills told me the sun only aligns with the spire in mid-summer. The rest of the year it sets too far to the left. A wedding invitation for the last weekend of June fixed the timing, and the weather held. Six years in my head, two years on the plan-list, and the frame came together.

Palace of Culture and Science

The Palace of Culture and Science was completed in 1955 as a gift from Stalin to the People’s Republic of Poland. A friend told us the story: Stalin asked the satellite states what they would prefer, a metro or a palace. Most chose the metro. Poland chose the palace. To this day there are only two metro lines in the country, both in Warsaw.

The building is around 237 metres tall to the tip of its spire and is among the tallest in the European Union. It houses theatres, museums, cinemas, and offices. The 30th floor has an open-air terrace with a panoramic view. Locals say it is the best view in Warsaw, because from up there you do not have to see the palace itself.

Presidential Palace

The Presidential Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście has only carried that name since 1994. Earlier names tracked the families that held it: Koniecpolski, Radziwill, Lubomirski, and others. Construction began in 1643 under Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski in the Baroque style, and the building was rebuilt in classicist form at the start of the 19th century after the Kingdom of Poland bought it.

The palace survived the war largely intact, which is unusual for central Warsaw. The bronze statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski in front, originally sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen, was destroyed in the war, and the copy in place today was set there in 1965. The Round Table negotiations that ended communist rule in Poland were held inside.

Nicolaus Copernicus Monument

The Nicolaus Copernicus Monument sits in front of the Staszic Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście. It was sculpted by the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen and unveiled in 1830, on the initiative of the statesman Stanisław Staszic. Faithful copies stand in Montreal and Chicago; the Warsaw original has the more turbulent history.

During the German occupation the original Latin and Polish dedication plaques were replaced with German inscriptions. In February 1942 the resistance fighter Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski took the German plaques down and hid them. After the Warsaw Uprising the monument was partly destroyed and hauled out of the city. It was found in a scrap yard in Silesia, brought back, and restored.

Warsaw Old Town

The Old Town (Stare Miasto) is the reason the centre is on the UNESCO list. Founded in the 13th century, it was almost entirely flattened after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The reconstruction in the late 1940s and 1950s used 18th-century paintings by Bernardo Bellotto (Canaletto) as a reference for the facades.

The market square (Rynek Starego Miasta) sits at the centre, bordered by tall narrow townhouses in pale yellow, ochre, and red, with the Mermaid of Warsaw at its heart. From here the streets run out to the city walls, the Barbican, and St. John’s Archcathedral. Early morning is the window when the square is empty enough to photograph cleanly.

Royal Castle

The Royal Castle (Zamek Królewski) sits at the southern edge of the Old Town on Castle Square, with Sigismund’s Column in front. The site has held a ducal residence since the 14th century, and from the late 16th century the castle was the seat of the Polish kings and the meeting place of the Sejm.

It was looted and then deliberately blown up by German forces in 1944. Reconstruction only began in 1971, funded largely by donations from Poles abroad. It reopened as a museum in 1984 and now holds paintings by Rembrandt and Bellotto and restored state rooms. From Castle Square the view down to the Vistula is one of the cleaner panoramas in central Warsaw.

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 shapes how the city looks today. The 63-day fight against German occupation ended with the systematic destruction of central Warsaw, commonly cited well over 80 percent. The Warsaw Uprising Museum in Wola covers the operation in detail, and the Warsaw Uprising Monument on plac Krasińskich marks a point where insurgents went into the sewers.

The Vistula riverfront has been redone in the last decade. The left bank is paved with bike paths and cafes, with viewpoints back to the Old Town. The right bank, on the Praga side, is wilder, with sand and trees. Crossing a bridge at sunset is the simplest way to see both sides in one walk.

When to Visit Warsaw

Late spring (May and June) and early autumn (September) give the most reliable weather and the longest usable light. Summer is warm along the river but hazy. Winter is cold and grey, sometimes with snow on the Old Town roofs that suits architectural work. For aligning the sun behind the Palace of Culture and Science from the Novotel side, late June is the narrow window.

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