“Gardens, Courtyards, St. Gereon’s Church” is a new Wawel sightseeing route launched on July 30th, 2020. Walking among inaccessible and charming places, you will be able to see the unique Wawel.
The “Gardens, Courtyards, St. Gereon’s Church” route begins with the “Lost Wawel” exhibition, on the model of the 18th-century Wawel Castle.
The next points of the route are: Courtyard called Batory, the archaeological and architectural reserve of the church of St. Gereon and the Church of St. Mary of Egypt, the Arcade Courtyard, the entrance hall called Tatarska, the northern slopes of the castle and the Royal Gardens.
Opening hours and prices
The route is open on dry days from 30 July. Visiting the route takes approx. 90 minutes and is only possible with a guide.
Tickets are 25 PLN and 15 PLN reduced.
Make sure to put that on your list 😉
Yours truly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug, Bringing You The Latest News 🙂
Here I am, the 1st of August – standing in Warsaw, the Capital of Poland. It is getting closer and closer to 5 PM and I feel the rush of people gathering… preparing… waiting for the magic to begin!
Each year on the 1st of August the City of Warsaw stands still for a minute. Every year, on the exact same day, at the exact same hour, at 5 PM, people stop – no matter what they do and no matter where they are located – and stand still for a full minute. Buses, trams, cars… they all stop on the great crowded streets and the people inside the cars usually come out and stand straight for that minute – from 5:00 to 5:01 PM.
Thousands of people stand still and think about the year of 1944 and pray for the heroes that fell that day. They remember them and pay their respects, from their heart. But why, you might ask…
The “W-hour” – “WYBUCH”
They all stand still to commemorate the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising that started at 5 PM on the 1st of August 1944. In Polish, it’s known as the ‘W-hour’ (where ‘w’ stands for the Polish equivalent of the word explosion – ‘wybuch’).
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation led by the Polish resistance Home Army (PL: Armia Krajowa), to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance. While approaching the eastern suburbs of the city, the Red Army temporarily halted combat operations, enabling the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance and to destroy the city in retaliation. The Uprising was fought for 63 days with little outside support. It was the single largest military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II.
Fighting With Their Hearts For Their Country
Some people, some historians, might call the Warsaw Uprising as the biggest mistake they could make. I call it bravery and love for their own country, for their Motherland. It is true, they did not have military equipment, their opponent was stronger, but their hearts were pure and brave and they did the best they could – considering the circumstances…
Of course, one of Warsaw Uprising’s results was infuriating even more the Nazi’s and that resulted also to the bombings that took place that month – ruining the city, rendering it inhabitable in proportion of almost 90%!
Although the exact number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions.
Brutal Facts about The Warsaw Uprising
Stalin wanted the Uprising to fail, this is why he never answered to Warsaw’s Underground Army call for help! Soviet Army was on the banks of the Vistula river and they waited until Nazi Germany rained down bombs upon Warsaw, grazing it to the ground.
The fighting lasted for 63 days!!! – that is a long time, considering the Polish resistance Home Army (PL: Armia Krajowa – AK) calculated the weapons and ammo to last only for 1 week! It was supposed to be a shock operation but it bled through… no help was coming…
Sewers were important during the Warsaw Uprising – the water was cut out by the Nazis so the sewer system drained and the AK made great use of it as a network to travel between districts.
Nazi Germany used their newest machines in the Uprising combat – Tiger, Panther guns, and… The famous Goliath tracked mine (robotic weapons)!
Nazi Germany send over to Warsaw their most brutal Commanders to stop the unrest – Oskar Dirlewanger had over 40.000 people (some sources even say 50.000 Polish people) rounded up and shot in the Wola Massacre. Most of the victims were the elderly, women, and children.
Operation Tempest(PL: Akcja “Burza”) – AK was the largest and the best equipped Underground Army at that time, in Europe! They attempted to liberate Warsaw, to coordinate it all with Stalin’s Army… but we all know how that ended up…
Ending today’s post (in order to get ready for the 5 PM celebration), I leave you with this song I absolutely love.
Who here, when traveling to Poland and wanting to visit Warsaw (The Capital City) did not put in the iconic Palace of Culture and Science on the list? To be fair, even if you didn’t you for sure ended up in its vicinity, admiring its heights! It is one of Warsaw’s most famous landmarks, so I always enjoyed visiting it – not to mention the 360 degrees view from the top is stunning! I like the architecture of the Palace and I enjoy it immensely so hearing from my Polish friends and colleagues what pain causes them, I wanted to know more – how can one grow to hate a piece of architecture, a symbol of Warsaw?
The Palace of Culture and Science of Warsaw has many nicknames – some of the many include: “Peking” (from the acronym PKIN – Palac Kultury i Nauki); “Nightmare dream of a drunken pastry cook” (given by the Polish poet and soldier Władysław Broniewski) and the most used one: “Stalin’s present“.
Why do Polish people hate it?
As one Lidia Fedorska nicely put this on a Quora answer: “To Polish people, The Palace of Culture doesn’t represent Warsaw’s rebirth from post-war rubble. It represents brutal interference in the heart of our city. It’s a symbol of post-war political oppression under an unwanted system“.
The building of the Palace was proposed by Viachesłav Molotov – if the name rings a bell then you are right: it is the same person who signed the pact of the partitioning of Poland with Ribbentrop. Agreed by Hilary Minc, the project was accepted (barely) by a team of Polish architects.
80-90% of Warsaw has been grazed to the ground during WWII
To understand where the hate and animosity come from, we must rewind to the times right after World War II. Different sources report a percentage from 80 to 90% of Warsaw being devastated during the war. To give you an idea of how people were living back then, it will suffice to say that 10 people per room was the norm (if the building was still standing). Many (almost all) buildings had no access to running water or electricity. You would think, logically, that housing would be the top priority … but no! Stalin wanted his foot dug deep in the heart of Warsaw.
Stalin’s Gift
Stalin did not want just any place in Warsaw but its very beating heart. He wanted this symbol to be the first thing that people would look at when they looked out their windows… tall and proud. He wanted the Polish people to walk past it and feel dwarfed by its sheer size! But also by what it was a symbol of… a gift for decades! The supremacy of socialism would show from every corner of Warsaw.
The Polish architects tried hard to salvage the situation by putting forward 5 other locations – that were already grazed to the ground by all the shell bombing during WWII, but to no avail… The Soviet authorities decided that 6 streets (that were still standing, and completely functional!) had to be demolished in order to build the Palace. Those 6 streets had 80 functional apartment buildings and 3500 habitable rooms!
Besides of the question where the people inside could live, as all other buildings were grazed to the ground… there was also the question of National Heritage – destroying buildings that were culturally unique and precious, in order to build a gigantic Palace void of any connection to the hearts of the Polish people that lived through WWII.
The 6 streets that were grazed down for the Palace of Culture – Warsaw, Poland
The painful process of building the Palace of Culture in Warsaw
The construction of the Palace of Culture and Science took 1176 days – started in 1952 and lasted until 1955. It took 3500-5000 Soviet workers & 4000 Polish workers to finish it! 17 people were killed in accidents during the construction, including 2 children. It took 40 million bricks, 26 thousand tons of steel, and the labor of thousands of people. This comes in a time where all construction material was almost non-existent and should have definitely been put to better usage by raising places where people (now without a home) could live.
We could have had a Metro!
A legend says that the Soviets could have built a metro or a giant hospital instead of the Palace of Culture, but president Bolesław Bierut chose to do the Palace instead. The least more useful option for those times… Besides being the chief proponent for the reconstruction of Warsaw (rebuilding of the historic district) and the erection of the Palace of Culture and Science, he is the only President that ruled Poland until is death (heart attack in Moscow).
The Palace of Culture and Science in the 1960s
The object of Cultural Heritage
With a total height of 237 meters (778 ft) it is the tallest building in Poland, the 5th-tallest building in the European Union (including spire) and one of the tallest on the European continent. Constructed in 1955, it houses various public and cultural institutions such as cinemas, theatres, libraries, sports clubs, university faculties, and authorities of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 2007 it has been enlisted in the Registry of Objects of Cultural Heritage. The Palace was also the tallest clock tower in the world until the installation of a clock mechanism on the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building in Tokyo, Japan.
What are your thoughts and feelings on this piece of historical architecture? Many say it looks like a cake badly done, but I think it is a unique representation of those times – made by Polish architects! And I always loved visiting it and going to the viewing terrace on the 30th floor – which, btw is open every day from 10 AM to 8 PM 😉 and they do open it on Friday’s as well during evening time – 8 PM to 10 PM (that still is on my list to do!).
Yours truly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug, Bringing You a Piece of Polish History
6-year-old Amos Steinberg was sent to the Auschwitz camp together with his mother in 1944. Most likely, they were both murdered in the gas chamber right after the selection. In one of the shoes at the Memorial, a handwritten record was found containing the boy’s data.
Auschwitz I – Oswiecim – Poland – picture taken at the main exhibition at the Memorial
How was the inscription found and who made it?
The inscription was probably made by Amos’s mother. The discovery was made while working to secure the shoes of the victims of the German Auschwitz camp, which are on display at the main exhibition at the Memorial.
In one of the children’s shoes a handwritten inscription was found: the child’s name and surname, transport designation and the number under which the child was registered on the transport list (transport Ba 541). It belonged to Amos Steinberg, who was born on June 26, 1938. He lived in Prague. On August 10, 1942, together with his parents, Ludwig and Ida, he was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto near Prague. They were all deported to Auschwitz
Paweł Sawicki from the Museum’s press office
An inscription was found in the shoe at the exhibition – Source of the photo: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – Poland
Split families
Hanna Kubik from the collections department of the institution informed that the preserved documents show that the mother and son were deported to Auschwitz in one transport on October 4, 1944. The father, on the other hand, was deported in another transport. We know that on October 10, 1944, he was transferred from Auschwitz to the Dachau camp. He was liberated in the Kaufering sub-camp.
Auschwitz I Memorial
Auschwitz – Poland
Auschwitz – Birkenau – Poland
Auschwitz I – Oswiecim – Poland
Shoes with news
Hanna Kubik also informed the TVN24.PL NEws Site that these are not the first, and probably not the last, shoes that hold papers inside them. The papers (newspapers usually) would be inserted to the soles to keep warm – for good insulation. They are valuable items now, as they are in good condition. But this piece that was just discovered is unique in the data that it holds – because it bares dates, names and even handwritten signatures. More items as such emerge, coming from 1941-1942.
The documents belonged to people who probably lived in Munkacz and Budapest. “Some of them are official documents, there is also a fragment of a brochure and a scrap of paper with the name on it. The names of Ackermann, Bravermann and Beinhorn appear. Probably these people were deported to Auschwitz in the spring or summer of 1944 during the extermination of Hungarian Jews”, said Hanna Kubik.
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