Ujazdowski Park

In the Middle Ages, this whole area was covered by a small village called Jazdow, from where Ujazdowski Castle gets its name. When the royal capital was moved to Warsaw in 1596, the area became more and more popular among royalty and noblemen for their countryside homes. The village was eventually relocated a kilometer or two to the west to make way for the creation of the Pole Marszowe (Field of Mars), a military parade ground modeled on the Champ de Mars in Paris.

This era of opulence ended with the Partitions and the fall of the last King of Poland. A military ground not being perceived as necessary for an occupied people, the Russian rulers decided to turn the grounds into a public park, using it for annual fairs and amusements, including merry-go-rounds and outdoor stalls in the summer.

Ujazdowski Park was eventually re-landscaped with a view to impress. It includes a high stone terrace overlooking a long, fountain-filled canal that stretches out some way beneath the riverbank escarpment (reachable by steep, winding stairs), and out toward the Vistula. The canal is spanned by the second-ever reinforced concrete bridge in the world, and in its day was the height of modernity, with gas lighting, a children's playground, sculptures by modern artists and a public weighing scale that has been in continuous use since 1912.

Today, you can take a peaceful stroll through the garden, getting away from the noise and rush of the main thoroughfare, and remember a time when the speed of life in a major metropolis was something quite different to what it is today.