Ścieżkami

City walks

Walks in Warsaw

The catalogue lists 1,058 places, with texts and photos. You can start a walk from one of these points: Old Town, City Centre, Powiśle, Praga, Łazienki, Muranów, Mokotów, and Żoliborz.

Build your own walk

Three ready-made walks

Two hours and one idea for each route. Stops, texts and photos are below. Want it different? Open the walk in the generator and change it.

The City Remembers

1 h 55 min 4.9 km 9 stops Start: Old Town

  1. Roesler and Hurtig Tenement House

    The first modern commercial building in Poland, created by Czech merchants.

    At the end of the 18th century, Czech and Moravian merchants Roesler and Hurtig bought land from Count Małachowski and built a revolutionary commercial and residential building here. It was the first building on Polish lands with specially designed display windows, one of the most expensive and luxurious in Warsaw. Despite their company's bankruptcy in 1794, the tenement house remained in the family's ownership for another nine years. Today you see a building restored after 70% destruction in World War II, preserving the spirit of the ambitious 18th century.

    Crazy fact

    In 1839, the 'Pod Nadzieją' ('Under Hope') beer hall opened here, the first in Warsaw to serve Bavarian beer, becoming a favorite spot for young writers of the 'Warsaw Bohemians'.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  2. 2 min walk · 160 m

    Primate's Palace

    Here a Russian envoy dictated terms, and centuries later people bade farewell to a writer

    In November 1767, a Sejm delegation negotiated with Russian envoy Nikolai Repnin within these walls about equal rights for religious dissenters — a conversation that cost the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth its independence. The palace later survived the Swedish Deluge, fires, and a complete neoclassical reconstruction. Today it houses the boutique Bellotto Hotel, where travellers sleep instead of primates, and where Maria Dąbrowska's coffin once stood in the column hall.

    Crazy fact

    In 1965, the coffin of writer Maria Dąbrowska was displayed in the palace's column hall — a secular building became the place of farewell to a classic of Polish literature.

    Photo: MM, Public domain

    Directions

  3. 8 min walk · 620 m

    Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

    A fragment of a palace that was blown up but not erased

    The arcade is all that’s left of the Saxon Palace, blown up by the Germans in 1944. A guard of honour stands here round the clock.

    Crazy fact

    In 1925 the soldier was chosen by lot from among those who fell in the battles for Lwów. The lot was drawn by Jadwiga Zarugiewicz, mother of a soldier missing in action.

    Photo: Alina Zienowicz Ala z, Public domain

    Directions

  4. 4 min walk · 310 m

    Zachęta Gallery

    The gallery where a president was killed

    Poland’s leading gallery of contemporary art, in a building from 1900.

    Crazy fact

    On 16 December 1922, at an exhibition here, painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski shot Poland’s first president, Gabriel Narutowicz — five days after he took office.

    Photo: Cybularny, CC0

    Directions

  5. 10 min walk · 770 m

    Tadeusz Kościuszko Monument

    A hero of two revolutions, whose monument waited nearly 200 years.

    Imagine a man who fortified West Point for George Washington and then led a desperate uprising against the Russian and Prussian armies in Warsaw. This site honors Tadeusz Kościuszko, a national hero of Belarus, Poland, and the USA, whose life was an endless fight for freedom. The bronze figure, created back in 1910, appeared here only a century later, in 2010, after a long series of failed attempts and changing eras. Look closely at the general's face — he seems to still be gazing at the city he once defended.

    Crazy fact

    A bank provided the funds for this monument, but on the condition that it face the bank's office instead of the Royal Castle, as originally planned.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  6. 7 min walk · 490 m

    Ulica Próżna & Nożyk Synagogue

    The last corner of pre-war Jewish Warsaw

    • hidden gem

    Próżna still has its pre-war tenement houses — a rarity in this part of town. Just nearby is the Nożyk Synagogue, Warsaw’s only surviving pre-war synagogue.

    Crazy fact

    The synagogue survived the war because the Germans used it as a stable and a warehouse. Today services are held there again.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions
More stops (3)

  1. 4 min walk · 300 m

    Nożyk Synagogue

    How a childless couple gave Warsaw a temple that survived horses and oblivion

    Imagine a May evening in 1902: the lights are on, Cantor Lewinsohn leads the prayers with a choir, and Zalman Nożyk personally carries the Torah scrolls into the new ark. This synagogue was entirely funded, from the land purchase to the last brick, by a childless merchant couple — Zalman and Rywka Nożyk — so that both rich and poor could pray here. Today it is the main synagogue of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, where you will notice its stately yet tasteful architecture, and behind the eastern wall lie original stained-glass windows that survived the 1923 reconstruction.

    Crazy fact

    During World War II, the Nazis turned the prayer hall into a stable for horses and a fodder warehouse, before unexpectedly allowing it to reopen for worshippers in 1941.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  2. 11 min walk · 830 m

    Ghetto Wall Fragment

    A brick wall in an ordinary courtyard

    • hidden gem

    In a courtyard between ulica Sienna and Złota survives one of the last fragments of the 1940 Warsaw Ghetto wall.

    Crazy fact

    In 1989 two bricks from this wall went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, where a replica of the wall stands. Others are kept at Yad Vashem, in Houston and in Melbourne.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  3. 17 min walk · 1.3 km

    Footbridge of Memory (Chłodna)

    A bridge of light over the street that split the ghetto

    • hidden gem

    In 1942 ulica Chłodna lay outside the ghetto, with the large and small ghettos on either side. People were taken across on a wooden footbridge over the street.

    Crazy fact

    Today two masts stand on the spot, linked by glowing fibre-optic “strings” — a bridge of light instead of a bridge of fear.

    Directions
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A Walk for Two

2 h 2.8 km 10 stops Start: Old Town

  1. Castle Gardens

    Where the Vistula once flowed near the castle, and a street was hidden under arcades

    Once upon a time, the Vistula River flowed much closer to the Royal Castle, and it was on this steep slope that the first gardens were laid out as early as the Middle Ages. Imagine the city's bustling traffic not interrupting a royal stroll: at the beginning of the 19th century, architect Jakub Kubicki hid the street at the foot of the slope within the monumental Arcades, connecting the upper and lower gardens. Today, it is a three-level green oasis being revived according to historical plans from various eras. Stop on the upper terrace to appreciate the geometry of the Baroque, or descend to feel the silhouette of the interwar park.

    Crazy fact

    At the request of King Stanisław August, the area directly under the high Vistula riverbank, previously considered too inconvenient, was incorporated into the royal gardens.

    Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0

    Directions

  2. 4 min walk · 310 m

    Mariensztat

    A post-war district that’s fairy-tale, not concrete

    • hidden gem

    In 1948–1949 a cosy little town with tiled roofs and a market square was built below the Royal Castle — one of the first housing estates rebuilt after the war.

    Crazy fact

    It starred in “An Adventure at Marienstadt” (1953), the first Polish colour feature film: love, record-breaking labour and a girl bricklayer.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY 3.0 pl

    Directions

  3. 4 min walk · 290 m

    St Anne’s Church Bell Tower

    About 150 steps to the best view of the Old Town

    • ticket to go inside

    From the viewing platform you can see the castle, the Old Town roofs, the Vistula and Praga. Best at sunset.

    Crazy fact

    Right below, by the Trasa W-Z tunnel, Poland’s first escalator started running in 1949. Varsovians came to ride it just for fun — like a fairground ride.

    Photo: Panek, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Directions

  4. 3 min walk · 250 m

    Krakowskie Przedmieście

    Russian soldiers opened fire on an unarmed crowd here, and the entire city came out to bury the dead.

    In February 1861, Russian troops opened fire on participants of a peaceful demonstration on this street, killing five people on the spot. A few days later, their funeral turned into a massive national manifestation, as the mourning procession moved from the Holy Cross Church through the central streets all the way to Powązki Cemetery. Today, this is the northern section of the Royal Route — Warsaw's main representative artery, lined with palaces of magnates and the royal family, where Hetman Stefan Czarniecki and King Jan III Sobieski once made their triumphal entries into the city.

    Crazy fact

    After the 1861 massacre, Russian authorities deliberately demolished 14 houses along the street to eliminate narrow alleys that hindered cavalry operations during the suppression of unrest.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  5. 3 min walk · 250 m

    Carmelite Church (Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph the Betrothed)

    A snake-entwined globe on the roof that survived the war, and secret royal negotiations

    In September 1705, secret negotiations between King Stanisław Leszczyński and Swedish monarch Charles XII took place within these monastery walls, culminating in the signing of a military alliance on November 18. Today it serves as a seminary church with a rich interior, housing a miraculous icon of the Mother of God — a gift from King John II Casimir in 1664. Inside, look for the sculpture group 'The Betrothal of Mary' and the figurine of the Infant Jesus to the right of the main nave.

    Crazy fact

    The construction of the church dragged on for 74 years (1642–1716) due to the first founder's lack of funds, and was only completed thanks to donations from his grandson.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  6. 2 min walk · 150 m

    Hotel Bristol

    The hotel built by a pianist prime minister

    The luxurious Bristol opened in 1901. One of its founders was pianist Ignacy Paderewski, who later became Prime Minister of Poland. The café inside is in the spirit of Viennese coffee houses.

    Crazy fact

    Paderewski was classical music’s first global pop star: on his American tours, female fans hunted for locks of his famous red mane.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY 3.0 pl

    Directions
More stops (4)

  1. 2 min walk · 160 m

    Father Twardowski's Bench

    A poet who left forever to always stay close

    An elderly priest in a cassock and glasses sits on this bench, absorbed in a book. This is Jan Twardowski — a Catholic priest and one of the most beloved Polish poets of the 20th century, whose verses about love, faith, and parting touch the deepest corners of the soul. The life-sized bronze figure captures his calm, slightly pensive posture with a modest walking stick resting on his knees, as if he has just sat down to rest. And if you press the button on the bench, you can hear the living voice of Twardowski himself reciting his own poems.

    Crazy fact

    The bench has a built-in audio player, and pressing the button plays a recording of Jan Twardowski reading his own poems.

    Photo: Mateusz Opasiński, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Directions

  2. 5 min walk · 340 m

    Casimir Park

    A royal garden that turned into an underground university

    Sit for a moment by the pond — it's one of the last refuges of the European green toad in Warsaw. In the 17th century, King John II Casimir Vasa created one of the most prestigious gardens in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth here, complete with fountains, sculptures, and mysterious grottos. The Swedish Deluge devastated this splendour, but the park revived — first as a botanical garden, later as part of the University of Warsaw. Today it's a quiet green slope at the base of the Warsaw Escarpment, where the story of royal leisure intertwines with the drama of the German occupation.

    Crazy fact

    After the 'Swedish Deluge', the garden was so thoroughly destroyed that the area was long used for cattle grazing.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  3. 5 min walk · 390 m

    University Library Roof Garden

    A free rooftop garden with a view of the Vistula

    • hidden gem

    One of the largest rooftop gardens in Europe: footbridges, streams, climbing vines and viewpoints. Free entry, open from spring to autumn.

    Crazy fact

    The library’s façade is eight copper “pages”, 4×7 m: Plato in Greek, the Book of Ezekiel in Hebrew, an Arabic treatise on animals, the Rigveda in Sanskrit, Kochanowski, physics formulas and the score of a Szymanowski étude.

    Photo: Szczebrzeszynski, Public domain

    Directions

  4. 5 min walk · 390 m

    Vistula Boulevards

    A riverside promenade facing a wild shore

    The left bank is lined with boulevards, cafés, loungers and fountains. The right bank has sandy beaches, willows and almost untouched nature.

    Crazy fact

    The Vistula is often called Europe’s last big “wild” river: in Warsaw its islands and right bank are part of the Natura 2000 protected area. So the capital has beavers, and terns nest on the sandbanks.

    Photo: Cybularny, CC0

    Directions
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Surprise Walk

2 h 4.5 km 12 stops Start: Old Town

  1. Tin-Roof Palace

    A roof that named a palace and witnessed a prince's turbulent life.

    At the end of the 18th century, the music of Warsaw's most brilliant salons filled these halls: Prince Józef Poniatowski hosted lavish balls and theatrical performances, his heart belonging to the enigmatic Frenchwoman Henriette de Vauban. It was here that he received Marshal Murat before becoming Minister of War and leaving the palace forever, only to perish in the waves of the Elster. Today, it is part of the Royal Castle, where the prince's private apartments are preserved, and the unusual copper roof recalls its original architectural charm. Inside, you can see oriental carpets and even a mysterious Masonic cellar with a massive vault.

    Crazy fact

    Prince Józef Poniatowski's romantic companion, the French Countess Henriette de Vauban, lived in this palace with him and his sister for 17 years.

    Photo: A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Directions

  2. 4 min walk · 300 m

    Kanonia

    A courtyard with a wishing bell and a one-window house

    • hidden gem

    A quiet triangular courtyard behind the cathedral. It was once the parish cemetery; later the canons lived here — hence the name.

    Crazy fact

    In the middle stands a bronze bell from 1646. It was cast for the Jesuits in Jarosław, but its sound was rejected, and for centuries it drifted from storeroom to storeroom until it settled here in 1972. Legend: walk around it touching it with your hand, and your wish will come true.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  3. 4 min walk · 320 m

    Jan Kiliński Monument

    A shoemaker who “escaped” captivity and left a note

    • hidden gem

    Jan Kiliński was a Warsaw shoemaker who in 1794 led the townspeople in an uprising against the Russian garrison and became a colonel. He stands with his sabre drawn, as if still chasing someone out.

    Crazy fact

    In 1942 underground scout Alek Dawidowski removed a German plaque from the Copernicus Monument. In revenge, the Germans hauled Kiliński off to the basement of the National Museum. Soon an inscription appeared on the museum wall: “I’m here, people of Warsaw! Jan Kiliński”.

    Photo: Alina Zienowicz Ala z, Public domain

    Directions

  4. 3 min walk · 220 m

    Barbican (Barbakan)

    A fortress that was obsolete almost as soon as it was built

    This red semicircle from 1548 guarded the northern gate. But artillery advanced so fast that the Barbican soon lost its point as a fortress — later, people simply lived in it.

    Crazy fact

    When the Barbican was rebuilt in 1952–1954, the bricks came from dismantled Gothic houses in Nysa and Wrocław. So part of Warsaw literally arrived from Silesia.

    Photo: Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  5. 2 min walk · 170 m

    Marie Skłodowska-Curie House

    Birthplace of the woman with two Nobel Prizes

    • ticket to go inside

    Maria Skłodowska was born in 1867 on ulica Freta. Universities didn’t admit women back then, so she studied at the underground “Flying University” and then left for Paris.

    Crazy fact

    Her lab notebooks are still radioactive. They’re kept in lead boxes at the National Library of France. Radium’s half-life is 1,600 years, so not long to wait now.

    Directions

  6. 5 min walk · 390 m

    Warsaw Uprising Monument

    Bronze figures forever frozen in a desperate sprint from a collapsing building.

    This monument is an attempt to cast in metal the tragedy and heroism of the 63 days of 1944. One part shows insurgents bursting from the rubble of a dying city, while the other depicts figures descending into a manhole. It was from here, Krasiński Square, that a desperate five-hour evacuation of 5,300 resistance fighters through the sewer system began in September 1944.

    Crazy fact

    The Soviet army purposefully halted its advance just outside Warsaw and refused to allow Western Allied planes to land and refuel on Soviet-held territory, ensuring the uprising was crushed.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions
More stops (6)

  1. 2 min walk · 140 m

    Miodowa Street

    Where gingerbread was baked, a king was kidnapped, and a Liberator crew was buried

    On a November night in 1771, King Stanisław August Poniatowski was ambushed by the Bar Confederates right on the cobblestones of this street. He was dragged from his carriage and wounded, marking one of the era's most brazen political crimes. Today, it is one of Warsaw’s most prestigious thoroughfares, where archbishops’ and magnates’ palaces stand shoulder to shoulder with churches. The special atmosphere is created by the 'pastoral' lanterns and granite slabs, which recall an early attempt to lay the city’s first asphalt here.

    Crazy fact

    In 1829, Edward Klopmann covered the pavements with Warsaw’s first asphalt at his own expense, but the experiment was a complete failure.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  2. 5 min walk · 400 m

    Krasiński Garden

    The fight for the Arsenal began with a victory right here, on the western edge of the park

    On the evening of November 29, 1830, on the western outskirts of the garden, the November Uprising insurgents won a battle against the Volhynian Regiment, which allowed them to capture the nearby Arsenal with its weapons. The site of that clash is now marked by a commemorative boulder by the pavement. During World War II, the park found itself outside the Jewish ghetto, and in the Warsaw Uprising, the 'Chrobry I' battalion fought here, their fallen soldiers commemorated by a monument.

    Crazy fact

    In 2012, during a controversial revitalization, 337 trees were cut down here—about a third of all the plantings—which sparked real protests from residents

    Photo: Matpol222, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Directions

  3. 9 min walk · 660 m

    Blue Skyscraper

    A skyscraper on the site of the Great Synagogue

    • hidden gem

    The Great Synagogue stood here — one of the largest in Europe. On 16 May 1943 the Germans blew it up to mark the crushing of the Ghetto Uprising.

    Crazy fact

    The skyscraper on its site was begun in the 1960s but not finished until 1991. Urban legend blames a rabbi’s curse.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  4. 2 min walk · 180 m

    Saint John of Nepomuk

    What does the sole remnant of a vanished palace garden conceal?

    In 1733, Marshal Józef Mniszech and his wife Konstancja commissioned this rococo figure to honor their heavenly patron and commemorate their care for the entire family. Today, it is the only surviving fragment of the former garden of the Mniszech Palace, standing exactly where it was originally placed. Take a closer look at the column: the bas-reliefs on its sides depict the saint's four virtues — fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence.

    Crazy fact

    During restoration in 2004, a hidden lead plaque listing all the founder's children was found under the figure; a copy was given to the Belgian Embassy, which now occupies the former Mniszech Palace.

    Photo: Szczebrzeszynski, Public domain

    Directions

  5. 2 min walk · 150 m

    Juliusz Słowacki Monument

    A bronze poet where 'Iron Felix' once stood

    Imagine this: on 29 September 2001, at Bank Square, just a few meters from where a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky once stood, a bronze figure of a Romantic poet is unveiled. This is Juliusz Słowacki, one of Poland's greatest exiled prophets, whose works the Russian authorities feared so much that they blocked any monument to him in Warsaw for a century. Depicted semi-nude and draped in cloth like an ancient hero, he gazes intently at the palace where he once worked as a minor clerk. Inside the granite pedestal, capsules with soil from his grave in Paris and from his parents' graves in Kremenets and Vilnius are sealed — finally bringing him home from all directions.

    Crazy fact

    Hidden inside the pedestal is an 80-kilogram bronze urn containing soil from three different graves: the poet's in Paris, his mother's in Ukraine, and his father's in Lithuania.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

    Directions

  6. 19 min walk · 1.4 km

    Keret House

    A house 92 centimetres wide

    • hidden gem

    A gap between two buildings turned into an art object: a tiny house by architect Jakub Szczęsny for Israeli writer Etgar Keret. Inside there’s a kitchen, a shower, a bed and a table.

    Crazy fact

    At its narrowest it’s 92 cm, at its widest 152. It’s often called the narrowest house in the world. Keret’s mother survived the Warsaw Ghetto.

    Photo: Panek, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Directions
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Where to start

The places with the fullest texts and photos in our catalogue.

  • Evangelical Reformed Parish in Warsaw

    A Calvinist oasis that grew despite a royal ban and survived the flames of the Warsaw Uprising.

    Photo: Marcin Białek, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • Warsaw University of Technology

    A university born three times: from Staszic's dream to evacuation deep into Russia

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Grochów

    A land the king gave to his nephew, who then parcelled it out to various people

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Supreme Administrative Court of Poland

    The court that stands guard over the law, even against government officials

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Warsaw Cross-City Tunnel

    An underground route dreamed of since the Tsarist era

    Photo: Mateusz Włodarczyk, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • National Broadcasting Council

    Guardian of free speech, whose chairman's seat became hotter than the airwaves.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Cathedral of the Holy Spirit

    A church saved from demolition by a Polish professor, preserving its Russian soul in the very heart of Warsaw.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Czapski Palace

    A wooden Radziwiłł manor, the mysterious architect Tylman, and eagles on the gate

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Warszawa Powiśle

    A stop that was meant to have a different name — and became a design legend

    Photo: Gophi, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • Ludwika Narbutta Street

    Here, among villas and schools, Poland's first radio station came to life in 1925

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

  • Powązki

    A princely idyll on Masovian sands: how a muddy stream became a garden of paradise

    Photo: Cezary p, CC BY-SA 3.0

  • Kijowska Street

    A street that remembers the roar of bombs, a bloody drama, and vanished architectural masterpieces.

    Photo: Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

Build your own walk

Pick a mood, the time and a starting point. The route appears on the map, and every stop comes with a text and a photo.

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Hidden gems

The texts are based on Wikipedia and other open sources; photos come from Wikimedia Commons, with author and licence next to each photo. Check opening hours of cafés and museums on the spot.