Warsaw

Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa, Russian: ВАРШАВА) has been the capital of Poland since 1596, when King Sigismund III (Vasa) moved the capital from Krakow. For most of the 19th century it was variously part of Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Germany, becoming the capital of newly independent Poland again in 1918. TIts population as of 1999 was 1,618,468. The city is also the capital of Masovian Voivodship and is located in the east-central part of the country.

Table of contents

1 History

1.1 Historical population

2 Sights
3 Coat of Arms
4 Administrative districts
5 See also
6 Alternative meanings of Warsaw

History

On February 27, 1861 a crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland was fired upon by Russian troops killing five protesters.

Warsaw is notable among Europe's capital cities not for its size, its age, or its beauty but for its indestructibility. It is a phoenix that has risen repeatedly from the ashes of war. Having suffered fearful damage during the Swedish and Prussian occupation of 1655-56, it was again assaulted in 1794, when the Russian army massacred the population of the right-bank suburb of Praga. In 1943 Jews amassed by Nazi Germans in Warsaw ghetto fought back in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. On August 1, 1944, the general population started the Warsaw uprising; after it had failed, the city was razed by Adolf Hitler's order; the left-bank suburbs, controlled by the Nazi Germans, were emptied of their remaining population and the buildings were systematically reduced to rubble by fire and dynamite. In 1945, however, the people of Warsaw, the Varsovians, returned, and the city resumed its role as the capital of Poland and the country's centre of social, political,economic, scientific, and cultural life. Many of the historic streets, buildings, and churches have been restored exactly according to their original forms. The Historic Centre of Warsaw was entered in 1980 onto the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.