Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital city of Poland.

The Vistula River flows through the middle. The oldest part of the city has a big square and colorful houses. A castle stands nearby.

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland, in the east-central part of the country. It sits on both banks of the Vistula River, about 386 kilometers southeast of the Baltic Sea port of Gdańsk. About 1.86 million people lived there in 2024.

Warsaw has been badly damaged in wars many times, and each time it has been rebuilt. Its motto is "It defies the storms." Today it is Poland's center of government, business, science and culture, with a carefully rebuilt Old Town next to modern office towers.

Warsaw, capital of Poland and of Mazowieckie province, lies in the middle of the Warsaw Plain, a glacier-formed basin 76 to 116 m above sea level, on the Vistula about 386 km southeast of Gdańsk. The river divides the city into left- and right-bank parts; it is about 1,190 m wide here, though embankments narrow its bed to a third of that. The city extends about 29 km from north to south and 26 km from east to west, and had 1,862,402 residents in 2024.

Britannica writes that Warsaw is notable among European capitals not for its size, age or beauty but for its indestructibility: devastated by Swedish and Prussian occupation in 1655–56, assaulted in 1794, and razed in 1944, it was rebuilt each time. Its motto, Contemnit procellas, means "It defies the storms." Since 1989 its economy has shifted rapidly toward services, banking and insurance, and new office towers have changed the skyline.

The Old Town Market Square is full of tall, colorful houses.

On Castle Square stands the Royal Castle, where kings once lived. Warsaw has palaces in big parks too. In one church, the heart of a famous composer, Chopin, is kept.

Warsaw's Old Town has a market square lined with houses rebuilt in their 15th-century style, a Gothic cathedral and red-brick walls called the Barbican. On Castle Square stands the rebuilt Royal Castle.

Around the city are palaces in parks, such as the palace in Łazienki Park and the Wilanów Palace of King John III Sobieski. The Church of the Holy Cross holds the heart of the composer Frédéric Chopin, and his statue stands in Łazienki Park. The huge Palace of Culture and Science, built by the Soviet Union, towers south of the Old Town.

UNESCO inscribed the Historic Centre of Warsaw in 1980: more than 85% of it was destroyed by Nazi troops during the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944, and a five-year campaign by its citizens restored the Old Town, its churches, palaces and market place, which UNESCO calls an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction spanning the 13th to the 20th century. The Gothic St. John's Cathedral and the red-brick Barbican date from the Middle Ages; the Market Square houses were rebuilt in their 15th-century style, and the Royal Castle on Zamkowy Square in late 18th-century style.

Baroque churches of the Counter-Reformation include the Jesuit Church and the Church of the Holy Cross, which holds Chopin's heart. Royal and aristocratic palaces stand in Łazienki Park and at John III Sobieski's Wilanów. The tsarist era left the Alexander Citadel; the colossal Orthodox cathedral of 1911 was demolished in the 1920s, and Britannica notes that its symbolic place was taken by the Soviet-built Palace of Culture and Science. Monuments include the Copernicus statue on Krakowskie Przedmieście and memorials to the 1943 Ghetto Uprising and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Warsaw is a busy city.

People work in offices, shops and factories. Many love the music of Chopin, Poland's famous composer. Families play in big parks and visit the Old Town.

Warsaw is Poland's busiest city for business and government. The national parliament, the Sejm, and the president's palace are here. Since 1989, new banks, companies and office towers have changed the skyline.

Music matters in Warsaw. The International Chopin Competition for pianists began here in 1927, and Chopin's statue stands in Łazienki Park. Warsaw is also home to the Polish Academy of Sciences and many museums and theaters. Most people in Warsaw are Polish, and most are Roman Catholic.

For centuries Warsaw was a city where a Polish-speaking Roman Catholic majority lived alongside Jews, Germans and Russians; early in the 20th century the largely Yiddish-speaking Jewish community made up almost half the population. World War II destroyed that diversity, and after 1945 the city was repopulated by returning refugees, migrants from the countryside and the families of officials of the new state. Today the population is almost entirely Polish and overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

Under communism, state-owned industry dominated; since the 1990s, services, banking and insurance have grown fast, and the Warsaw Stock Exchange, closed since World War II, has reopened. As capital, Warsaw houses the central institutions of government, the Presidential Palace and the Sejm; the city is run by an elected council headed by a city president. Cultural life includes the International Chopin Competition (since 1927), the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition (since 1935) and the headquarters of the Polish Academy of Sciences.