Old Town and Royal Castle

There was nothing left of Warsaw after the 1944 uprising. Hitler raized the city to rubble - literally. After the war the Polish people were determined to rebuild their city and their lives and did so - literally. Millions of bricks later they had rebuilt their old town faithfully to surviving plans, photos and foundations. It is quite some feat, but as I wandered through the town, it felt like I was in a theme park, not a community with a heart beat. Although the whole cty is rebuilt I found further down the Royal Way and areas radiating from the Old Town more real.

Old Warsaw reconstructed

One of a series of 5 panos of the Old Market Square

One place in the Old Town I thought was very real was a little 'soup kitchen' Bar Pod Barbakanum right under the Barbican. It looked nothing from the outside but when you walked through the door it was like walking into an architypal Soviet community kitchen. No-one spoke any English, I pointed to what someone else was eating at their laminate table on a plastic chair and collected my hot, filling, but unimaginative meal from the kitchen servery. The lady taking the orders was surly, bossumy and brokered no chat from anyone in the queue. I would have loved to take a photo but felt I would either have caused great offence &/or been unceremoniously chucked out. The meal was some sort of thick sliced hot meat - pork or mutton I think and textured rather like corned beef with gravy, mashed potato and hot grated beetroot. Now the beetroot sounds strange but tasted great!

Visiting the Royal Palace which was rebuilt also, every exhibit tells you what fragments of originals remain, what has been 'found' from 'safe keeping' and what has been recreated from plans so old it is certain the rooms would not have looked this way at the time of destruction... There were huge paintings (I'm talking 10m x 4m) that had been taken away for 'safe keeping' in 1939. Who has space in their home for such things? - and certainly if they had been hidden in Warsaw they wouldn't be here today... I'm sure many bribes and donations would have changed hands to convince current 'owners' to reinstate the treasures they found. Opulance knows no cultural boundaries - Palaces across England/Europe drip with gold leaf, paintings and ornate furniture... No-one lives here so again, it felt very like a display home rather than a real building. It's only contribution to Warsaw's life is as a tourist attraction and conference venue.