Ujazdów Park ( pl, Park Ujazdowski) is one of the most picturesque

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

s of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. It borders '' Aleje Ujazdowskie'' (Ujazdów Avenue), with its many embassies and

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

building.

History

From the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

the area had been occupied by the village of Ujazdów, located several miles south of

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

. In 1619-1625 a palace and garden were built here by

Giovanni Battista Trevano Giovanni Battista Trevano (born in Lugano, Switzerland, died 1644 in Krakow, Poland) was an Italian-speaking architect who worked in Poland as royal architect for King Sigismund III Vasa, of the Vasa dynasty, which ruled Poland at the time. ...

for King

Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa ( pl, Zygmunt III Waza, lt, Žygimantas Vaza; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden and Grand Duke of Finland from 1592 to ...

. In 1782 King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarc ...

bought the village and relocated it about a kilometer west (near what is now the main campus of the

Warsaw Polytechnic The Warsaw University of Technology ( pl, Politechnika Warszawska, lit=Varsovian Polytechnic) is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professor ...

), while the old village's area (along the axis of the "

Royal Road The Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) of the first (Achaemenid) Persian Empire in the 5th century BC. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication on the western ...

") was turned into ''Pole Marsowe'' (the Field of Mars), a large square for military

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of s ...

s, modeled and named after

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

' ''

Champ de Mars The Champ de Mars (; en, Field of Mars) is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh ''arrondissement'', between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after t ...

''. The village itself was renamed ''Nowa Wieś'' ("New Village") and gave its name to the present-day ''ulica Nowowiejska'' (New Village Street). After the Russian takeover of Warsaw in the wake of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

, the area lost its military character and became a venue for annual fairs. It also served as a place of entertainment, with merry-go-rounds and open-air stands placed there every summer. In 1893, under Mayor

Sokrates Starynkiewicz Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1820–1902; russian: Сократ Иванович Старынкевич) was a Russian general and the 19th president of Warsaw, between 1875 and 1892. During his presidency he ordered the construction of municipal wate ...

, the renowned garden architect Franciszek Szanior was commissioned to turn the former Field of Mars into a public park in the-then popular " landscape style," a mixture of Romantic garden and Baroque-style lanes. The avenue of

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrel ...

trees in the western part of the area was incorporated into the newly founded park. At the time of its foundation, the park was one of the most modern in Europe. It featured a large pond, fountains and a

reinforced-concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hi ...

bridge over the southern part of the pond, built by the renowned engineer William Lindley. The bridge was the second construction built of that material in the world, after the bridge in Viggen,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

(1894). The park also had

gas lighting Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly ...

, a playground for children, and a public

weighing scale A scale or balance is a device used to measure weight or mass. These are also known as mass scales, weight scales, mass balances, and weight balances. The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distances from a ...

(still in use ). The park's sculptures were carved by

Edward Wittig Edward Wittig (September 20, 1879 – March 3, 1941) was a Polish sculptor and university professor, notable for designing many monuments in Warsaw. Born in Warsaw, Wittig went on to study art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under the t ...

, Pius Weloński and

Théodore-Charles Gruyère Théodore-Charles Gruyère (born 17 September 1813 in Paris, died in 1885) was a French sculptor. In 1836 as the pupil of Auguste Dumont. He hit notoriety in 1839 winning the Prix de Rome. His other works are some busts, some statues of saints fo ...

. After World War II, a monument to

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

, by Michał Kamieński, was added. Ujazdów Park is a favorite of Varsovians: its playground is popular with children, and many newlyweds use the park as a setting for their wedding photographs. In 2002 the park was completely refurbished.

References

External links

*
Pre-war pictures of the park
Parks in Warsaw Continental gardens in the English Landscape Garden style Landscape design history {{Warsaw landmarks

History

See also

References

External links