The Old Town (World Heritage Site)

Warsaw's Old Town was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980 due to the extraordinary efforts that had been put into the complete reconstruction of the oldest part of the city (dating back to the 17^th and 18^th centuries with a layout characteristic of the Middle Ages) following its complete destruction during the Warsaw Uprising. The reconstruction of the Old Town was carried out based on historic and preservation studies. The 12^th century layout and 18^th century buildings were recreated using images of the city, among which were the paintings of Canaletto, the 18^th century view-painter (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/30/) .

The Old Town has a rectangular market square surrounded by defensive walls dating back to the 14^th–16^th centuries. The Castle Square is bordered by the Royal Castle with the Sigismund III Vasa column (the most famous of Warsaw's monuments) in front of it. At present the Royal Castle is the residence of one of the most exquisite museums of Warsaw (https://www.zamek-krolewski.pl/en).

In addition, very close to the venue you can find other famous museums: the National Museum — one of the oldest art museums in the country which holds a collection numbering around 830,000 works of art from Poland and abroad (http://www.mnw.art.pl/en/) and the Fryderyk Chopin Museum which is an institution for the national commemoration of a great Polish composer (http://chopin.museum/en).

Information on Old Town’s monuments, as well as other useful pieces of information may be found on the following site: http://warsawtour.pl/en/warsaw-for-everyone/old-town-and-surroundings-2946.html.

Walk in the Old Town

The tour will begin at the entrance to the Old Town at Plac Zamkowy (Castle Square). At the square there is a tall column with a bronze statute of King Sigismund. We will be waiting near the column at 18⁰⁰.

The guided tour in the Old Town will start at 18¹⁵.

At around 19³⁰ we have the opportunity to visit Warsaw’s Old Town’s Heritage Interpretation Center (Centrum Interpretacji Zabytku) located at 11/13 Brzozowa street. It is a place presenting, in a modern way, the unusual past of the historic centre of Warsaw. The lower storey of the center presents the enormity of the war damage to the Old Town. The upper storey shows the reconstruction initiated in 1949, which, despite the official closure in 1954, lasted until the 1970s, when it was decided to rebuild the Royal Castle. At the center we will watch a documentary film about Warsaw.