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Warsaw ( Polish: , see also other names in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stoleczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. It is located on the Vistula river roughly 350 km from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2004 was estimated at 1,676,600, with an urban agglomeration of approximately 2,400,000.
The city, also the capital of Masovian Voivodship, is home to many industries (manufacturing, steel, electrical engineering, automotive industry), comprises 66 higher learning institutons incl. ( Warsaw University, Warsaw University of Technology, Higher School of Business and Medical Academy) and over 30 Theatres incl. the National Theatre and Opera and the Philharmonic National Orchestra.
Warsaw is located on both sides of the Vistula river, approximately 350 kilometres from both the Carpathian mountains and the Baltic Sea. It is located in the heartland of the Masovian Plain . Average altitude is 100 m above sea level, although there are some hills (mostly artificial) located within the confines of the city.
Warsaw's climate is continental humid . The average temperature is 8 degrees Celsius (–3° C in January and 19° C in July). Yearly rainfall does not exceed 680 mm, the most rainy month being July.
Warsaw was a small fishing village in the 13th century. In time, it became one of the seats of the Dukes of Mazovia. Upon the extinction of the ducal line, the duchy was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in 1526. In 1572, Warsaw gave its name to the Warsaw Confederacy, an agreement by the Polish Gentry to tolerate different religious faiths in the Kingdom of Poland. Due to its central location in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Warsaw became the capital of Poland in 1596, when King Sigismund III (Vasa)Sigismund Zygmunt III Waza Reign in Poland From August, 1587until April 19, 1632 Reign in Sweden From November 17, 1592until July 24, 1599 Coronation in Poland On December 27 1587 in the Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, Poland. Coronation in Sweden On February 19 moved the capital from Krakow. Warsaw remained the capital of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795Events January 16 French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands. January 20 French troops enter Amsterdam and later proclaim Batavian Republic. January 23 Dutch fleet freezes in Issel Meer. February 7 The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed., when it was annexed by the Kingdom of PrussiaThe Kingdom of Prussia existed from 1701 until 1918, and from 1871 was the leading kingdom of the German Empire, comprising in its last form almost two-thirds of the area of the Empire. In 1688, Frederick William I, the "Great Elector", died and his posse, to become the capital of the Province New East Prussia. Liberated by Napoleon's army in 1807, it was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw. Following the decisions of the Congress of Vienna 1815, Warsaw became the center of the Polish Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia.
Following repeated violations of the Polish constitution by the Russians, the 1830 November Uprising broke out. However, the Polish-Russian war of 1831 ended in the defeat of the uprising and the curtailment of the autonomy of the Kingdom.
On February 27, 1861 a crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland was fired upon by Russian troops killing five protesters. Warsaw become the capital of newly independent Poland again in 1918.
In the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920 there was a huge Battle of Warsaw fought on the eastern outskirts of the city in which the capital of Poland was defended and the Red Army defeated.
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. Having suffered dreadful damage during the Swedish and Prussian wars of 1655- 1656, it was again assaulted in 1794, when the Russian army massacred the population of the right-bank suburb of Praga. Its most remarkable act of survival, though, was its rebirth following almost complete destruction during the Second World War.
The Second World War began when Germany invaded western Poland on 1st September 1939. On 17th September, eastern Poland was invaded by the USSR. Poland capitulated after 6 weeks of fighting. Western Poland was incorporated into the German Reich, eastern Poland into the USSR while central Poland, including Warsaw, became part of a German-occupied military zone, the General Government. In the course of the September Campaign Warsaw was severely bombed and in the course of the Siege of Warsaw approximately 10 to 15% of all the buildings were destroyed.
Warsaw became an occupied city under the control of the Nazi SS. All higher education institutions were immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish population -- several hundred thousand, some 40% of the city -- herded into the Warsaw ghetto. When the order came to liquidate the Ghetto as part of Hitler's " final solution", Jewish fighters launched the Ghetto Uprising. Despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered, the Ghetto held out for almost a month. When it ended, the survivors were massacred.
During 1943 and 1944 the tide of the war changed as the USSR, which had been at war with Germany since 1941, inflicted several severe defeats on the German army. By July 1944 the Soviets were deep into Polish territory and pursuing the Germans towards Warsaw. Knowing that Stalin was hostile to the idea of an independent Poland, the Polish government-in-exile (based in London) gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize control of Warsaw from the Nazis just before the Soviets arrive. Thus on August 1, 1944, as the Soviet army was moving towards the city very fast, the Home Army and the general population started the Warsaw Uprising.
150px Royal Castle in Warsaw
Despite Stalin's hostility towards Poland, they had expected that Soviet troops would assist them against their common German enemy. Polish nationalists contend that the Soviet army sat and watched as the Germans ruthlessly suppressed the uprising. Recent studies of both Nazi and Soviet records have convinced many historians that it is unlikely the Red Army could have reached the city. Although the insurgency, planned to last 48 hours, held out for 63 days, eventually the Home Army fighters were forced to capitulate. They were transported to POW camps in Germany while the entire civilian population was expelled. Hitler then ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground. When the Russians entered the city, 85% of the buildings had been destroyed, including the historic Old Town and the Royal Castle. Surviving Home Army fighters were rounded up by the NKVD and either killed or deported to Siberia.
After the war, Boleslaw Bierut's puppet regime, set up by Stalin, made Warsaw the capital of communist People's Republic of Poland, and the city was resettled and rebuilt. A lot of plattenbaus can be found in Warsaw. Few of the inhabitants of pre-war Poland returned: hundreds of thousands were dead, thousands more in exile from the new regime. Nonetheless, the city resumed its role as the capital of Poland and the country's center of political and economic life. Many of the historic streets, buildings, and churches were restored to their original form. In 1980, the historic Old Town of Warsaw was inscribed onto UNESCO's World Heritage list.
In 1995 the Warsaw Metro finally opened and with the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004 Warsaw is currently experiencing the biggest economic boom in its history.
![[1]](http://www.zdm.waw.pl/obwodnica/obwodnica.jpg){kind=link}
