Nowe Miasto (Warsaw New Town) was originally known as New Warsaw. The area began to develop at the end of the 14th century, along a thoroughfare leading from the Old Town to the village of Zakroczym, on the banks of the River Vistula.
In 1408 Duke Janusz the Elder granted Nowe Miasto its separate status. The New Town established its council and a Town Hall in the Market Square, as well as several churches and monasteries.
From Town to District
Unlike Warsaw Old Town with its barbican, the New Town was not fortified. The peak of the New Town’s evolution was at the end of the 18th century. But New Town lost its independent status in 1791.
Then the city of Warsaw incorporated it into the capital of Poland. It became known as the district of Nowe Miasto. After World War II, New Town was carefully re-created, and it’s now one of Warsaw’s most popular (touristic) districts. A must-visit during a city trip to Warsaw!
At the beginning of the 17th century, while the Jesuits were building a Baroque church in the Old Town, the Dominicans began to build a Gothic presbytery at St Jacek’s church. The reason for choosing the Gothic style for their building may have been the order’s conservative outlook.
Or it may have been an attempt to underline the Dominican’s ancient history, even though the order was only established in Warsaw in 1603. A sudden outbreak of the plague interrupted the construction of St Jacek’s Church in 1625.
During this time the Dominicans would only hear confession and distribute Holy Communion through small holes, made in the church doors.
The church was finally completed in 1639, next to the city’s largest monastery. St Jacek’s has a side nave with a beautiful vaulted ceiling decorated in Lublin-style stucco work.
This nave also features the tombs of Anna Tarnowska and Katarzyna Ossolinska who were the first of the four wives of Jerzy Ossolinska, the Voivode (Lord Lieutenant) of Podlasie region.
The magnificent chapel of Adam and Malgorzata Kotowski, which includes their portraits painted on a tin surface, is a design of Tylman van Gameren, the renowned Dutch architect exalted to Poland. Inscribed tablets within the church also commemorate Polish resistance leaders of World War II.
| Address | Freta 10, Warsaw New Town |
The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum is a cultural gem located in the heart of Warsaw’s New Town. This institution is dedicated to celebrating the life and remarkable achievements of the Polish scientist and two-time Nobel laureate, Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Let’s explore what makes this museum special:
Historical Significance:
The museum is housed in a charming townhouse that replicates the 18th-century building where Marie Curie was born.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie, born in 1867, spent her early years in this very house. Despite later moving to Paris, she remained deeply connected to her Polish roots.
Exhibits and Collections:
Visitors can explore scientific equipment, personal belongings, and photographs from Curie’s life.
Notably, the museum even displays the sink salvaged from her childhood home.
While the focus is on her strong personality and achievements, you’ll also learn about her groundbreaking scientific work (including Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry).
Accessibility and Opening Hours:
The museum underwent renovations and reopened in 2017.
It features an elevator for easy access to all floors, ensuring a wheelchair-friendly experience.
Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm (closed on Mondays).
| Address | Freta 5, 00-227 Warsaw New Town |
This vast former palace belonged to the Sapieha family. It’s from 1731-1746 and was built for Jan Fryderyk Sapieha. He was the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The powerful Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which united the two countries, appeared in the 16th century. By the mid-18th, it was Europe’s largest empire.
The architect of the Sapieha palace, Jan Zygmunt Deybel, was also an officer in the Saxon Corps of Engineers. Designed in a Rococo style, the palace has an impressive facade that includes an ornamental triangular pediment, as well as urns, sculptures, and a balcony.
Magdalena Sapieha, married to one of the later owners of the palace, was a lively character and renowned as a society beauty, which made her the toast of 18th-century Warsaw. When Stanislaw August Poniatowski was still young, he had been in love with her. The palace was converted for use as an army barracks in the 19th century, and its magnificent gardens were, somewhat incongruously, used for military exercises.
The Fourth Polish Infantry regiment, which played an important and heroic role during the 1830-1831 uprising, had quarters at the palace. Having been burnt by the Nazis in 1944, the facade regained its original style. The interiors were converted for use as a school.
| Address | Zakroczymska 6, Warsaw New Town |
The church and convent belonging to the French order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament is from around 1688. Tylman van Gameren designed the church in a late Baroque style. The best feature is the tombstone of Princess Marie Caroline de Bouillon, the granddaughter of Jan III Sobieski.
Bishop Andrzej Zaluski set the tombstone in 1746, along with Prince Michal Kazimierz Radziwill, who was the suitor of the princess. The broken shield and toppling crowns that decorate the tomb have their origin in the Sobieski coat-of-arms but also refer to the end of the Sobieski family line.
A splendid garden that lies behind the convent has remained unchanged since the 17th century. At its edge, some terraces descend to the flowing waters of the River Vistula.
| Address | rynek Nowego Miasta 2, 00-001 Warsaw, Poland |
Originally this was a gatehouse by the wooden bridge that crossed the Vistula from 1575 to 1603. Erazm Cziotko of Zakroczym designed and built it, and King Zygmunt August and his sister Anna financed the bridge. Destroyed in 1603 by ice floes, some of the bridge’s oak columns remained submerged in the river until salvaged in the mid-19th century. The Russian field marshal Paskiewicz used them to make furniture for his palace in Belarus.
From 1646, the gatehouse was used to store gunpowder. In 1767 it became a prison. Inmates included the 18th-century schemer Maria Dogrum, who falsely accused the king’s valet of trying to poison Duke Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski. In 1831 the prison was converted into rented accommodation. Burned in World War II and rebuilt in 1961-65. The gatehouse is now the headquarters of a theater company.
The Citadel is an enormous fortress in Warsaw New Town, built by the Russians, not to defend Warsaw from outside attack, but to intimidate its inhabitants. Tsar Nicholas II ordered construction of the citadel in 1832, after the November 1830 insurrection. Based on a design by General Ivan Dehn, the citadel was built in stages and finally completed in 1887.
This entailed destroying the barracks of the former Royal Guards, as well as the Piarist monastery and the residential area of Zoliborz. The citizens of Warsaw had to bear the astronomical cost of building the citadel.
Meanwhile, Russian officials and army officers made their fortunes by investing money in this development. The brick and earth fortress, encircled by a moat and defensive brick wall, stands on a hill close to the River Vistula, and dominates the surrounding area. Four Neo-Classical gates lead to the interior, where a range of buildings include the so-called “tenth pavilion”.
This was a high security prison, used to house Polish political prisoners. Following World War II, this pavilion transferred into an exhibition venue. Currently it houses a branch of the Independence Museum, tracing Polish history since the 18th century partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
King Stanislaw August Poniatowksi founded this diminutive church in 1787 on behalf of Redemptorist monks. These monks were in the care of abbot Clement Dworzak, a Moravian, directed in Warsaw by Rome. He opened two orphanages, one for girls and one for boys, while also providing for the orphans’ continued education.
In 1808, unfounded accusations that the monks were spying for the Austrians led the Napoleonic authorities to expel the abbot and 30 monks, and close the church. For the next 100 years it served to manufacture knives and kitchen utensils. The Redemptorists returned after the war to rebuild the church. The modern interiors also include original sculptures.
| Address | Piesza 1, Warsaw, Poland |