When was Warsaw founded?
Warsaw, New York
The Town of Warsaw was founded in 1803 from the Town of Batavia (in Genesee County). In 1812, part of Warsaw was used to form the new town of Town of Middlebury. Again in 1814, Warsaw was reduced to form the Town of Gainesville.
Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw
Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw () was the parliament of the Duchy of Warsaw. It was created in 1807 by Napoleon, who granted a new constitution to the recently created Duchy. It had limited competences, including having no legislative initiative. It met three times: for regular sessions in 1809 and 1811, and for an extraordinary session in 1812. In the history of Polish parliament, it succeeded the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was followed by the Sejm of the Congress Poland.
Royal Castle, Warsaw
In the 1339 the Papal Legate in Warsaw heard a case brought by the King of Poland, Casimir III the Great, against the German Teutonic Order. He claimed that they had illegally seized a slice of Polish territory — Pomerania and the Kujawy region. The documents in this case are the earliest written testimony to the existence of Warsaw. At that time a fortified town surrounded by earthen and wooden ramparts, and situated where the Royal Castle now stands, it was the seat of Trojden, Duke of Masovia. At the end of the 13th century, during the Duke's Conrad II of Mazovia reign, the wooden-earthen gord called Smaller Manor () was built. The next duke, Casimir I, decided to build the first brick building here at the burg-city's area the Great Tower ().
Church of St Francis in Warsaw
In comparison with other Polish cities, the Franciscans arrived relatively late in Warsaw, in 1646. They arrived thanks to King Władysław IV Vasa's chaplain - Italian Franciscan, Vincent Skapita. A religious, royal secretary Jakub Sosnowski donated the square, and the politician Zygmunt Wybranowski donated capital, and the two decided to create a church and a Franciscan monastery in Warsaw. The king agreed to this on 6 November 1645, and the Bishop of Poznan Andrzej Szołdrski issued a canonical license on 16 April 1646.
Konin
The 19th century began with the general, European disorder of the Napoleonic Wars, which neither eastern Greater Poland nor Konin escaped. At the start of the century, the Duchy of Warsaw ("Księstwo Warszawskie") was created as a Polish autonomous region, dependent upon Napoleon I Bonaparte. The Napoleonic Wars gave Poles hope of regaining national independence, and they strongly supported Napoleon. On November 9, 1806, Poles took control of Konin and quickly organized a new, town government. The following year, the town was formally incorporated into the Duchy of Warsaw.
The subsequent collapse of the Napoleonic Empire resulted in the establishment of a new order in Europe, as well as within the Polish territories, including Konin. The Congress of Vienna, assembled in 1814-1815 to arrange political changes on the continent, awarded Russia the majority of territories formerly held by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ("Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów"). Konin itself was incorporated into Russia as a part of Congress Poland ("Królestwo Kongresowe"), a pseudo-autonomous region that was a Russian dependency and which recognized the tzar as its ruler. The town was also designated as the capital of a sector within the "gubernya" of Kalisz; the sector encompassed two counties, Konin County and Pyzdry County. From an administrative standpoint, Konin's sector constituted the westernmost territory of the Russian state.
Warsaw Department
Capital city: WarsawIn 1815 it was transformed into Masovian Voivodeship.
History of Warsaw
In 1925, there lived 1,000,000 people in Warsaw. In the next 5 years, the city's wealth doubled thanks to a good economic situation on the world. It enabled to build new, broad streets as well as a new airport. The first airport, a temporary one, opened in 1921 in the park "Pole Mokotowskie". The second, permanent, airport opened in Okęcie, where it remains. The city government worked out plans for a metro, but construction was hampered by the outbreak of World War II. they opened the first radio station, which had a range that covered almost all the Polish territory.
Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw
The main centre of the medieval and early modern Polish philosophy was Kraków - history of philosophy in Warsaw begins in the 18th century. In the pre-partition Varsovian institutions, the Collegium Nobilium and the Szkoła Rycerska to the lecturers of philosophy belonged Antoni Wiśniewski and Marcin Nikuta. In the 19th century, after the foundation of the University of Warsaw in 1815, due to russification of the schools Polish philosophy, both idealist and positivist, developed mainly outside universities. Among main Polish philosophers connected with the 19th century University of Warsaw were Adam Zabellewicz and Henryk Struve.
History of Warsaw
By July 1944, the Red Army was deep into Polish territory and pursuing the Germans toward Warsaw. Knowing that Stalin was hostile to the idea of an independent Poland, the Polish government-in-exile in London gave orders to the underground Home Army (AK) to try to seize the control of Warsaw from the Germans before the Red Army arrived. Thus, on 1 August 1944, as the Red Army was nearing the city, the Warsaw Uprising began.
Festung Warschau
In the German language, Festung Warschau ("Fortress Warsaw") is the term used to refer to a fortified and well-defended Warsaw. In the 20th century, the term was in use on three occasions during World War I and World War II. It was used when the Germans threw back the Russian advance in 1914, where Warsaw came within distance of the fighting in October. The term resurfaced during the September 1939 German invasion of Poland. Later in the second war, the term resurfaced between September 1944 and January 1945, when the retreating Germans tried to establish a defense in the city against the advancing Soviet Union.
During the invasion of Poland in 1939 the German troops reached the outskirts of Warsaw on 9 September. The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) assumed that the unfortified city damaged by countless terror bombing raids would be taken by German motorized units without any resistance and issued a press and radio release stating that the capital of Poland was taken. However, the German motorized assault was defeated and the advancing troops were forced to retreat with heavy casualties. From 8 September the city started to be referred to as "Fortress of Warsaw" in German broadcasts, which was to justify the aerial bombardment of civilian targets.
Postage stamps and postal history of Poland
Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, was founded in 1558 and postal markings were first introduced in 1764. The three partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795 saw the independent nation of Poland disappear. The postal services in the areas occupied by Germany and Austria were absorbed into those countries' postal services. In 1772 the area occupied by Austria was created into the Kingdom of Galicia, a part of the Austrian Empire. This lasted till 1918. The Duchy of Warsaw was created briefly, between 1807 and 1813, by Napoleon I of France, from Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. In 1815, following Napoleons’ defeat in 1813, the Congress of Vienna, created Congress Poland out of the Duchy of Warsaw and also established the Free City of Kraków. Congress Poland was placed under the control of Russia and the postal service was given autonomy in 1815. In 1851 the postal service was put under the control of the Russian post office department regional office in St Petersburg. In 1855 control was restored for a while to the Congress Kingdom but following the uprising in 1863 again came under Russian control from 1866 and continued until World War I. In November 1918 the Second Polish Republic was created.
Warsaw
Warsaw flourished in the late 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), a Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley, as well as the expansion and modernisation of trams, street lighting, and gas infrastructure.
History of Warsaw
Another result of the Great Sejm works directly concerned Warsaw: on 21 April 1791 it passed the City Act, which cancelled "jurydykas". Since that time, Warsaw and its former "jurydykas" have constituted a homogeneous urban organism under one administration. As a memento of this event, April 21 is celebrated as the Warsaw Day.
History of Warsaw
Growth of railways turned Warsaw into an important railways hub, as lines were opened to Vienna (1848), Saint Petersburg (1862), Bydgoszcz (1862), Terespol (1867), Kovel (1873), Mlava (1877), Kalisz (1902), along with several shorter lines. In 1875 and 1908, two railway bridges were built. In 1864, the first iron road bridge on stone supports, "Most Kierbedzia", opened. It was one of the most modern bridges in Europe at the time. Today, the Śląsko-Dąbrowski bridge lies at the same supports. Only then the city's authorities started to rebuild Praga, which was heavily damaged during the Kościuszko's and November Uprisings, as well as by Napoleon's war. In 1862, the University was opened again, in 1898 the Nicholas II Technical Institute (the Warsaw Technical University's predecessor) was established.
Warsaw Uprising Monument
The Warsaw Uprising, which broke out on 1 August 1944 and lasted until 2 October 1944, was one of the most important and devastating events in the history of Warsaw and Poland. Up to 90% of Warsaw's buildings were destroyed during the hostilities and the systematic destruction of the city carried out by the Germans after the uprising.
Warsaw Confederation
The Warsaw Confederation, signed on 28 January 1573 by the Polish national assembly ("sejm konwokacyjny") in Warsaw, was the first European act granting religious freedoms. It was an important development in the history of Poland and Lithuania that extended religious tolerance to nobility and free persons within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and is considered the formal beginning of religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although it did not prevent all conflict based on religion, it did make the Commonwealth a much safer and more tolerant place than most of contemporaneous Europe, especially during the subsequent Thirty Years' War.
History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)
The same two regions and the capital city of Warsaw experienced also a moderate awakening in the area of industrial activities and urban business enterprises. A major trading house was established in Warsaw by French Huguenots in 1723. Manufacturing businesses were created by a number of magnates in various regions. Among the most important was the developing iron industry in southern and central Poland (Old-Polish Industrial Region). These modest signs of industrial progress occurred within the Commonwealth with a nearly half-century delay not only in comparison to Poland's western and southern neighbors, but also with respect to Russia.
Places of worship in Warsaw
This article is a list of places of worship in Warsaw, Poland, both current and historical. It includes Catholic, Uniate, Protestant and Orthodox churches, as well as synagogues and shrines of other denominations. Note that the list includes also places of worship that were destroyed some time in the past and are currently non-existent. Throughout its existence, Warsaw has been a multi-cultural city. According to a census of 1901, out of 711,988 inhabitants there were 56.2% Catholics, 35.7% Jews, 5% Greek orthodox Christians and 2.8% Protestants. Eight years later, in 1909, there were 281,754 Jews (36.9%), 18,189 Protestants (2.4%) and 2,818 Mariavites (0.4%). This led to construction of hundreds of places of religious worship in all parts of the town. Most of them were destroyed in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. After the war the new communist authorities of Poland discouraged church construction and only a small number of them were rebuilt.
Warsaw
From the Warsovian football teams, the most famous is Legia Warsaw – the army club with a nationwide following play at Polish Army Stadium, just southeast of the centre at Łazienkowska Street. Established in 1916, they have won the country's championship 13 times (most recently in 2018) and won the Polish Cup 19 times. In the Champions League season 1995/96 they reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to Panathinaikos Athens.
History of the Jews of Jasło
In 1914, the Russians occupied the city for four days. The Jews suffered during this time period at the hands of the central powers and government. During this time period, Austrian planes would occasionally bomb the city. The government also began to restrict trade in an anti-Jewish nature. As the war worsened, Jews were continuously blamed for the predicament of the rest of the citizens of Jaslo. This led to anti-Jewish attacks from citizens. The Austria-Hungarian empire collapsed in 1918 with the end of World War 1, and the state of Poland emerged with its capital at Warsaw.
Warsaw, Kentucky
Warsaw began as a landing on the Ohio River in 1798 called "Great Landing". In 1805, founder Colonel Robert Johnson surveyed and built a road from this landing to his former home in Scott County, Kentucky. The landing soon became a busy shipping port.
Siege of Warsaw (1794)
Warsaw, the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was one of the key strategic areas for all sides in the Kościuszko Uprising. Secured by the Poles during the Warsaw Uprising in April, it was threatened by the forces of the Imperial Russia and Kingdom of Prussia. The leader of the Uprising, Tadeusz Kościuszko, gathered forces to defend Warsaw, and around 7 to 11 July fought a delaying battle at Raszyn.
Warsaw
Liberated by Napoleon's army in 1806, Warsaw was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw. Following the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the centre of Congress Poland, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia. The Royal University of Warsaw was established in 1816.
Warsaw Fortress
After Poland regained its independence in 1918 the dismantling of some fortifications resumed, others were taken over by the Polish Army and used as storage sites or barracks, though over the years these were gradually abandoned. Some forts were briefly prepared for defense during the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, others saw heavy fighting during the siege of the city in September, 1939 though their defensive strength was vastly reduced due to advances in military technology. Today many of the forts are still in existence, but some were built over and no trace of them remains. At present the city lacks a unified concept for their use, though their historical value is recognized. They are mostly not maintained and hence not open to the public for sightseeing. Only the Citadel and some of its adjacent forts are well maintained and open to tourists.
Jewish cemeteries of Warsaw
Nowa Jerozolima Cemetery, or a cemetery of one of numerous Jewish villages founded in the area of Polish capital in 17th and 18th centuries. It was closed down in late 18th century and the village itself was incorporated into Warsaw to become the namesake of Aleje Jerozolimskie, one of Warsaw's principal streets. In early 19th century, during the Austrian occupation of Warsaw, the cemetery was closed down and the ashes were moved to cemetery in Powązki.
Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw
Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw was promulgated by Napoleon on 22 July 1807 in Dresden. Together with the Napoleonic Code it was a significant reform of the Polish law and government in the new Duchy of Warsaw. The constitution provided for a bicameral Sejm and for a Council of Ministers. The new laws abolished serfdom and legal distinction by social classes (nobility, peasantry, townsfolk) by introducing a principle that all people are equal before the law. Serfdom was abolished, and personal liberty guaranteed. Duchy of Warsaw was a satellite state of France, with no diplomacy of its own. King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony became duke of Poland, and had control over foreign policy; a French representative was to reside in Warsaw and had significant influence over Duchy government. The duchy's army was subordinate to the French Army. It was, nonetheless, considered a liberal constitution for its time.
History of the Royal Castle in Warsaw
Between 19–20 December 1806 and 1–30 January 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor, spent his time at the Castle. Here in 1807 he made the decision to form a Warsaw duchy, which was to be ruled by the Saxon prince Frederick August I, using the Royal castle as his residence. Prince Józef Poniatowski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army and Marshal of France, resided in the Copper-Roof Palace joined to the Castle. After the creation of the constitutional Kingdom of Poland (1815) its parliaments met here at the Castle. As Kings of Poland, the Russian Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I also resided in the castle when they stayed in Warsaw. During the November Uprising, on 25 January 1831, the Sejm debating in the castle dethroned Tsar of Russia, Nicholas I as Polish king.
Warsaw, Kentucky
Warsaw is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Kentucky, United States, located along the Ohio River. The name was suggested by a riverboat captain, who was reading "Thaddeus of Warsaw", by Jane Porter, when the city was being founded.
Warsaw, Illinois
The city is notable for its well-preserved downtown with a number of remaining historic businesses. Founded by German immigrants, the Warsaw Brewery opened in 1861 and operated for more than 100 years, ending production in 1971. The facility was renovated and reopened in 2006 as a bar and restaurant.
Destruction of Warsaw
The Central Military Library, containing 350,000 books on the history of Poland, was destroyed, including the Library of Polish Museum in Rapperswil deposited there for safekeeping. The collection of the Rapperswil Library was transported to Poland in 1927. The library and the museum were founded in Rapperswil, Switzerland, in 1870 as "a refuge for [Poland's] historic memorabilia dishonored and plundered in the [occupied Polish] homeland" and for the promotion of Polish interests. The greater part of library's collections, originally 20,000 engravings, 92,000 books and 27,000 manuscripts, were deliberately destroyed by the Germans in 1944.
Rakowiec, Warsaw
Rakowiec is a neighbourhood in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Part of the borough of Ochota, it originally was a separate village, established in the Middle Ages. Nationalised by the Russian authorities in the late 19th century, the village was occupied by one of the forts of the Warsaw Fortress. After Poland regained her independence, in 1930 the area was incorporated into Warsaw, and residential areas were soon built there.
Education in Warsaw
The University of Warsaw ("Uniwersytet Warszawski", 55,000 students, 19 faculties) was established in 1816, when the partitions of Poland separated Warsaw from the oldest and most influential Polish academic center, in Kraków. Warsaw University of Technology ("Politechnika Warszawska", 31,000 students, 18 faculties) is the second academic school of technology in the country, and one of the largest in Central Europe, employing 2,000 professors. It was established in 1898 as the Nicolas II's Technical Institute, in 1915 changed the name at the present one. Other institutions for higher education:
Battle of Warsaw (1705)
The Battle of Warsaw (also known as the Battle of Rakowitz or Rakowiec) was fought on 31July 1705 (Gregorian calendar) near Warsaw, Poland, during the Great Northern War. The battle was part of a power struggle for the Polish–Lithuanian throne. It was fought between Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński and their allies. Augustus II entered the Northern war as elector of Saxony and king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and had formed an alliance with Denmark–Norway and Russia. Stanisław Leszczyński had seized the Polish throne in 1704, with the support of the Swedish army of Charles XII of Sweden. The struggle for the throne forced the Polish nobility to pick sides; the Warsaw Confederation supported Leszczyński and Sweden, and the Sandomierz Confederation supported Augustus II and his allies. The conflict resulted in the Polish civil war of 1704–1706.
Warsaw New Town
The Warsaw New Town is a neighbourhood dating from the 15th century in Warsaw, Poland. It lies just north of the Old Town and is connected to it by "ulica Freta" (), which begins at the Warsaw Barbican. Like the Old Town, the New Town was almost completely destroyed by the Germans during World War II and rebuilt after the war.
Warsaw, Alabama
The community was originally called Jamestown, in honor of Jamestown, Virginia. The name was then changed to Warsaw, likely in honor of Warsaw, Virginia, where some of the earlier settlers of the area arrived from. Warsaw was incorporated by the Alabama Legislature in February 1839. A post office operated under the name Jamestown from 1832 to 1842, and under the name Warsaw from 1842 to 1910.
Tourist attractions in Warsaw
The area around Warsaw also offers many tourist attractions - medieval castles, mansions of the Polish nobles and historic places. Around the city county many medieval monuments can be found including Romanesque church and monastery in Czerwińsk (1129–1156) west of Warsaw, and Czersk castle (1388–1410) a legendary ruined castle sitting atop an escarpment about from Warsaw. 16th-century parish church in Brochów at the Bzura River, west of Warsaw, where Chopin's parents were married (1806) and Fryderyk was baptised is another interesting monument. The church was constructed as a fortified Gothic shrine. Bieliński Palace in Otwock Wielki (1682–1689), from Warsaw city center, houses the Museum of Interiors while palace in Jabłonna, north of Warsaw, is a part of an 18th-century elegant palace-and-park complex. Żelazowa Wola about west of Warsaw is the birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin. The annex of the former 19th-century mansion of the Chopin family was turned into a museum devoted to the composer. A 19th-century health spa in Konstancin-Jeziorna is located about south of Warsaw. A narrow-gauge train museum in Sochaczew, about from Warsaw, has the largest collection of narrow-gauge trains in Europe.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Warsaw
The Archdiocese of Warsaw is a Catholic ecclesiastical territory or diocese in Poland encompassing the Polish capital. It was erected on October 16, 1798. 
It was elevated to an Archdiocese on June 30, 1813.
High School No. 1, Bydgoszcz
Following the First Partition of Poland signed in St. Petersburg on August 5, 1772, Bydgoszcz was incorporated into Prussian territory. In the following year the College of Bydgoszcz was converted into a gymnasium. The defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806 lead to the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw, and on February 19 1807, the takeover of Bydgoszcz under Polish rule became official. The city became the capital of a department (an administrative unit).
Within the newly established College - so called "Central School"- a department of Polish language was created. The opening took place on 11 September 1808, during a ceremony where representatives of administrative department and military were present. The building, devastated by the previous war, was repaired with founds from the Board of Education Duchy of Warsaw and other contributions. At the same time, townspeople raised money to pay the salaries of the 6 professors. In September 1808, the school received 50 students. After a few years, the renown dignity of the Central School took over the old and successful High School in Toruń. During this period, the University of Bydgoszcz was deeply transformed into a real establishment of higher education. In September 1812, the famous writer and politician Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz visited the institution.
The Decision of Vienna Congress, liquidating Duchy of Warsaw and dividing its lands between the three partitioning powers, moved Bydgoszcz to the Prussian Empire, as became the capital of one of the two new divisions of the prussian Grand Duchy of Poznań. The stature of the city as a center of administrative and business increased, along with the development of education facilities, offering secondary education opportunities to Bydgoszcz inhabitants.
History of Warsaw
In autumn of 1918, the revolution broke up in Germany. On 8 November, German authorities left Warsaw. On 10 November Józef Piłsudski came at the Warsaw-Vienna Station. On 11 November the Regency Council gave him all military authority—and on 14 November, all civil authority. For this reason, the 11 November 1918 is celebrated as the beginning of the Poland's independence. Warsaw became the capital of Poland.
Old Market square, Bydgoszcz
At the beginning of the 19th century (Napoleonic Wars), the Old Market Square was the location where important "political" speeches were made: on December 6, 1806, an anti-Prussian uprising was publicly proclaimed, and on 19 February 1807, a decree supporting the Duchy of Warsaw was solemnly read. Today's Provincial and Municipal Public Library building then housed the seat of Bydgoszcz Department and the ex-Jesuit college hosted the main school of the region. The Duchy of Warsaw ceased to exist in 1812, and Bydgoszcz was incorporated anew into the Kingdom of Prussia.
Poland
Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the 10th century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, accepted Christianity with the Baptism of Poland in 966, as the new official religion of his subjects. The bulk of the population converted in the course of the next few centuries. In 1000, Boleslaw the Brave, continuing the policy of his father Mieszko, held a Congress of Gniezno and created the metropolis of Gniezno and the dioceses of Kraków, Kołobrzeg, and Wrocław. However, the pagan unrest led to the transfer of the capital to Kraków in 1038 by Casimir I the Restorer.
Poland A and B
In this divide it has to be noted that Poland's borders were changing over the centuries. They moved westward after 1945, to reflect the Poland of the Piasts and the Poland of Jagiellonians. For instance, Warsaw was initially a settlement in eastern Poland. When it became a capital city in the 16th century, and historically in the developed as a central part of the Kingdom of Poland (the Crown), later western-central part of the Commonwealth. Now is situated in the central-eastern part of it. The slower growing western provinces are often former German regions which were already densely populated and well-developed in terms of infrastructure and industry before 1945, now populated mostly by Poles from the former Eastern Polish regions. For example, the above-mentioned Olsztyn was part of Prussia since the times of the Teutonic Knights.
Warsaw New Town
The historic district of the New Town was formed at the turn of the 14th century as an independent city. The official recognition of the New Town occurred in 1408, when it was separated from the Old Town by an act issued by Janusz I the Old, Duke of Masovia. At that time the new city encompassed the territory of the New Town Market Square and streets - "Freta, Kościelna, Koźla, Przyrynek, Stara" and "Zakroczymska". It was independent from the Old Town authorities and had its own vogt, council and a town hall. In 1411 the Parish Church of St. Mary was erected, and according to the 1546 mensuration there were 204 estates in the Warsaw New Town. The largest investment of that time was the Sigismund Augustus bridge built between 1568-1573 by Erazm Cziotko (c. long). Unfortunately it was destroyed in 1603 by the drifting ice floes.
Warsaw Uprising (1794)
The Warsaw Uprising of 1794 or Warsaw Insurrection () was an armed insurrection by the people of Warsaw early in the Kościuszko Uprising. Supported by the Polish Army, the uprising aimed to throw off control by the Russian Empire of the Polish capital city (Warsaw). It began on 17 April 1794, soon after Tadeusz Kościuszko's victory at the Battle of Racławice.
Sochaczew
In 1807 Sochaczew became part of the Duchy of Warsaw; several months later the town almost completely burned. In 1815, it was transferred to Russian-controlled Congress Poland. On January 16, 1817, the District of Sochaczew was created, with its seat in Łowicz. In August 1818 Sochaczew burned again, after that fire, the center of the town was rebuilt (1819–1823), and the market square was paved. By 1828, the population grew to 3,200, out of which 76% was Jewish. The area of Sochaczew saw several skirmishes during the January Uprising. In 1867, the County of Sochaczew was created, but the town, due to its mostly wooden architecture, burned in several fires. In 1903, Sochaczew received rail connection with Warsaw, and by 1908, its population grew to almost 10,000. On December 2, 1913, art silk plant was opened by a Belgian investor in the district of Boryszew.
Royal Castle, Warsaw
Between 19–20 December 1806 and 1–30 January 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor, spent his time at the Castle. Here in 1807 he made the decision to form a Warsaw duchy, which was to be ruled by the Saxon prince Frederick August I, using the Royal castle as his residence. Prince Józef Poniatowski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army and Marshal of France, resided in the Copper-Roof Palace joined to the Castle. After the creation of the constitutional Kingdom of Poland (1815) its parliaments met here at the Castle. As Kings of Poland, the Russian Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I also resided in the castle when they stayed in Warsaw. During the November Uprising, on 25 January 1831, the Sejm debating in the castle dethroned Tsar of Russia, Nicholas I as Polish king.
Warsaw (disambiguation)
Warsaw is the capital city of Poland.
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact, formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defence treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955 per the London and Paris Conferences of 1954, but it is also considered to have been motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe.
Administrative division of Duchy of Warsaw
Administrative division of the Duchy of Warsaw was based on departments, which were headed by prefects. It was a solution adopted after the French model, as the entire Duchy was in fact created by Napoleon, and based on French ideas, although the departaments were divided into traditional Polish powiats (counties). There were six initial departments, which had previously made Kingdom of Prussia’s province of South Prussia (1793/95 - 1807), but after the 1809 Polish–Austrian War, and the Treaty of Schönbrunn, their number increased to ten (as the Duchy territory was expanded following the annexation of West Galicia). Each department was named after its capital city.
Warsaw Courthouse Square Historic District
Warsaw was named after the capital of Poland, the homeland of the county's namesake, Thaddeus Kosciusko. Beginning in 1834, settlers arrived, a blacksmith shop and several dwellings were built. A year after being platted it was chosen as the county seat. In 1854 Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway came to town and growth began.
History of Kraków
In the late 18th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned three times by its expansionist neighbors: Imperial Russia, the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia. After the first two partitions (1772 and 1793), Kraków was still part of the substantially reduced Polish nation. In 1794 Tadeusz Kościuszko initiated a revolt against the partitioning powers, the Kościuszko Uprising, in Kraków's market square. The Polish army, including many peasants, fought against the Russian and Prussian armies, but the larger forces ultimately put down the revolt. The Prussian army specifically took Kraków on 15 June 1794, and looted the Polish royal treasure kept at Wawel Castle. The stolen regalia, valued at 525,259 thalers, was secretly melted down in March 1809, while precious stones and pearls were appropriated in Berlin. Poland was partitioned for the third time in 1795, and Kraków became part of the Austrian province of Galicia. 
When Napoleon Bonaparte of the French Empire captured part of what had once been Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) as an independent but subordinate state. West Galicia, including Kraków, was taken from the Austrian Empire and added to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809 by the Treaty of Schönbrunn, which ended the War of the Fifth Coalition. The Congress of Vienna (1815) restored the partition of Poland, but gave Kraków partial independence as the Free City of Cracow. The city again became the focus of a struggle for national sovereignty in 1846, during the Kraków Uprising. The uprising failed to spread outside the city to other Polish lands, and was put down, resulting in the creation of the Grand Duchy of Cracow within the Austrian Empire. In 1850 10% of the city was destroyed in the large fire.
History of Warsaw
After the fall of Kościuszko Uprising, The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was finally divided between the three neighbors (the 3rd partition, 1795): Russia, Prussia and Austria. Warsaw found itself in the Prussian part and became the capital of the province South Prussia ("Südpreussen").
Warsaw dialect
The Warsaw dialect (called "Gwara warszawska" in standard Polish, pronounced ), or Masovian, is a regional dialect of the Polish language centered on Warsaw. The dialect evolved as late as the 18th century, under notable influence of several languages spoken in the city of Warsaw. After the destruction of Warsaw in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 the Warsaw dialect has been in decline. It is estimated that in modern times it is almost extinct as the native language and is preserved mostly in literary works.
Warsaw
Warsaw was occupied by Germany from 4 August 1915 until November 1918. The Allied Armistice terms required in Article 12 that Germany withdraw from areas controlled by Russia in 1914, which included Warsaw. Germany did so, and underground leader Piłsudski returned to Warsaw on 11 November and set up what became the Second Polish Republic, with Warsaw as the capital. In the course of the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1920, the huge Battle of Warsaw was fought on the eastern outskirts of the city in which the capital was successfully defended and the Red Army defeated. Poland stopped the full brunt of the Red Army by itself and defeated the idea of the "export of the revolution".
The Średnicowy Bridge was constructed for a railway (1921–1931), connecting both parts of the city. Warszawa Główna railway station (1932–1939) was unfinished and destroyed during WWII.
Wrocław
During Wrocław's early history, the control over it changed hands between Bohemia (until 992, then 1038–1054), the Kingdom of Poland (992–1038 and 1054–1202), and after the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Poland, the Piast-ruled duchy of Silesia. One of the most important events during this period was the foundation of the Diocese of Wrocław by the Polish Duke (from 1025 King) Bolesław the Brave in 1000. Along with the Bishoprics of Kraków and Kołobrzeg, Wrocław was placed under the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Greater Poland, founded by Pope Sylvester II through the intercession of the Emperor Otto III in 1000 AD, during the Congress of Gniezno. In the years 1034–1038 the city was affected by Pagan reaction in Poland.
Warsaw
Demographically, it was the most diverse city in Poland, with significant numbers of foreign-born inhabitants. In addition to the Polish majority, there was a significant Jewish minority in Warsaw. According to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 638,000, Jews constituted 219,000 (around 34% percent). Warsaw's prewar Jewish population of more than 350,000 constituted about 30 percent of the city's total population. In 1933, out of 1,178,914 inhabitants 833,500 were of Polish mother tongue. World War II changed the demographics of the city, and to this day there is much less ethnic diversity than in the previous 300 years of Warsaw's history. Most of the modern day population growth is based on internal migration and urbanisation.
History of Warsaw
In 1515, during the Muscovy-Lithuanian War, fire (probably lit by Russian agents) burned a large part of Old Warsaw. Gross social inequality and wealth disparity led in 1525 to the first revolt of the poor of Warsaw against the rich and their abuse of power. This struggle resulted in the so-called third order being added to the city's authorities, sharing power with the two bodies controlled by the patrician class: the council and the assessors. The story of Warsaw's struggle for social liberation dates from this time.
Warsaw
The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were located in Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa. The Prince of Płock, Bolesław II of Masovia, established this settlement, the modern-day Warsaw, in about 1300. In the beginning of the 14th century it became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia, becoming the official capital of the Masovian Duchy in 1413. 14th-century Warsaw's economy rested on mostly crafts and trade. Upon the extinction of the local ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in 1526.
History of Poland (1795–1918)
Although Napoleon promised more than he ever intended to deliver to the Polish cause, in 1807 he created a Duchy of Warsaw from Prussian territory that had been part of old Poland and was still inhabited by Poles. Basically a French puppet, the duchy did enjoy some degree of self-government, and many Poles believed that further Napoleonic victories would bring restoration of the entire commonwealth.
Warszawa Army
The Warszawa Army () was one of the Polish armies to take part in the Polish Defensive War of 1939. Created on 8 September, eight days after the invasion begun, it was an improvised formation charged with the defence of the Polish capital of Warsaw (Warszawa).
History of Warsaw
Warsaw remained the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia to become the capital of the province of South Prussia. Liberated by Napoleon's army in 1806, Warsaw was made the capital of the newly created Duchy of Warsaw. Following the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Warsaw became the center of the Congress Poland, a constitutional monarchy under a personal union with Imperial Russia. During this period under the rule of the relatively liberal Russian Emperor Alexander I, Warsaw experienced much growth such as the founding of the Royal University of Warsaw was established (1816) and what is today's main street of the city—Aleje Jerozolimskie—was marked out. In 1818, the Town Hall on the Old Town Market was pulled down because it had become too small for the city, which had expanded after it incorporated the "jurydykas". The city's authorities moved to Jabłonowski's Palace (by the Great Theater), where it stayed until World War II.
Medical University of Warsaw
The Medical University of Warsaw (Polish name: "") was founded in January 1950, building on the University of Warsaw's former Faculty of Medicine, which had been established in the early nineteenth century. The Medical University of Warsaw is the largest medical school in Poland, and one of the most prestigious.
Suwałki
In 1807 Suwałki became part of the newly formed Duchy of Warsaw and one of the centres of the department of Łomża. After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Congress of Vienna, the area was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland. The status of a "powiat" capital was briefly withdrawn, but it was reintroduced on January 16, 1816, when the Augustów Voivodeship was created and its government was gradually moved to Suwałki. Soon afterwards the older town hall was demolished and replaced with a new one, and General Józef Zajączek financed the paving of most of the town's streets. The cemetery was moved to the outskirts from the town centre, and that area became a town park. Also, the Russian authorities built the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway, which added to the town's prosperity.
Częstochowa
During the Partitions of Poland, Częstochowa was seized by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793, and incorporated into the province of South Prussia, Department of Kalisz (Kalisch). The Old Częstochowa became the seat of a county (see Districts of Prussia). During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1807 Częstochowa became part of the Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815, Russian-controlled Congress Poland, in which it remained until World War One. Old Częstochowa remained the seat of a county in 1807–1830. In 1809, the monastery was unsuccessfully besieged by Austrians (see Polish–Austrian War). On April 2, 1813, Jasna Góra was seized by the Russians (see War of the Sixth Coalition), after a two-week siege.
In 1821, the government of Congress Poland carried out a census, according to which the population of New Częstochowa was 1,036, while the population of Old Częstochowa was 2,758. Furthermore, almost four hundred people lived in several settlements in the area ("Zawodzie, Stradom, Kucelin"). The idea of a merger of both towns was first brought up in 1815. In 1819, military architect Jan Bernhard planned and started the construction of "Aleja Najświętszej Panny Marii"—the "Holy Virgin Mary Avenue", which is currently the main arterial road of the modern city, and which connected Old Częstochowa with New Częstochowa. Finally, both towns were officially merged on August 19, 1826. The new city quickly emerged as the fourth largest urban centers of Congress Poland; larger were only the cities of Warsaw, Lublin, and Kalisz. On September 8, 1862, a patriotic rally took place in the city, in front of St. Sigismund church. As a reprisal, Russian military authorities destroyed app. 65% of Częstochowa's Old Town, and martial law was introduced. During the January Uprising, several skirmishes took place in the area of Częstochowa, with the last one taking place on July 4, 1864 near Chorzenice.
History of Warsaw
Warsaw's development, however, was accompanied by an intensive assault on Polish national identity. Russian authorities closed Polish schools and built more and more Orthodox churches. These acts were strongly opposed. On 27 February 1861, Russian troops fired on a Warsaw crowd that was protesting Russian rule. Five people were killed. On 22 January 1863 a new uprising broke out. The Underground Polish National Government resided in Warsaw during January Uprising in 1863–4. However, this uprising was mainly in the character of guerilla, therefore Warsaw did not distinguish itself in it. But, as a penalty, President Kalikst Witkowski, the Russian general and predecessor of Sokrates Starynkiewicz, constantly imposed tributes on Warsaw. The last serious riots took place in 1905 (after the St. Petersburg's “bloody Sunday”), when the Cossacks and police fired to the people demonstrating in Warsaw.
In 1897 Warsaw was 56.5% Polish, 35.8% Jewish and 4.9% Russian.
Warsaw, Indiana
Warsaw, named after the capital of Poland in tribute to Tadeusz Kościuszko, platted on October 21, 1836. Warsaw's post office was established in 1837.
Warsaw Citadel
Warsaw Citadel (Polish: Cytadela Warszawska) is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster imperial Russian control of the city. It served as a prison into the late 1930s, especially the dreaded Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel ("X Pawilon Cytadeli Warszawskiej"); the latter has been a museum since 1963.
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw () is a public university of visual arts and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The Academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw University in 1812. As a separate institution it was founded in 1844 during the Partitions of Poland. In an upgrade in 1904 it was named the Warsaw School of Fine Arts; and in 1932 it received recognition as an Academy. At first the institute did not have its own building and classes were held in several locations around the city. Following an architectural competition a design by Alfons Gravier was chosen and construction began in 1911. The building was completed by the outbreak of the First World War.
Warsaw Old Town
The Old Town Market Place ("Rynek Starego Miasta"), which dates back to the end of the 13th century, is the true heart of the Old Town, and until the end of the 18th century it was the heart of all of Warsaw. Here the representatives of guilds and merchants met in the Town Hall (built before 1429, pulled down in 1817), and fairs and the occasional execution were held. The houses around it represented the Gothic style until the great fire of 1607, after which they were rebuilt in late-Renaissance style.
Congress Poland
The "Kingdom of Poland" was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw, a French client state, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when the great powers reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic wars. The Kingdom was created on part of the Polish territory that had been partitioned by Russia, Austria and Prussia replacing, after Napoleon's defeat, the Duchy of Warsaw, set up by Napoleon in 1807. After Napoleon's 1812 defeat, the fate of the Duchy of Warsaw was 
dependent on Russia. Prussia insisted on the Duchy being completely eliminated, but after Russian troops reached Paris in 1812, Tsar Alexander I originally intended to annex to the Duchy the Lithuanian-Belarusian lands, now controlled by the Tsardom, which used to be a part of the First Polish Republic and to unite thus created Polish country with Russia. Both Austria and England did not approve of that idea, Austria issuing a memorandum on returning to the 1795 resolutions, this idea supported by England under George IV and Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson and the English delegate to the Congress, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, so in effect the Tsar, after the so-called Hundred Days, established the Kingdom of Poland and the 1815 Congress of Vienna approved. After the Congress, Russia gained a larger share of Poland (with Warsaw) and, after crushing an insurrection in 1831, the Congress Kingdom's autonomy was abolished and Poles faced confiscation of property, deportation, forced military service, and the closure of their own universities. The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be named for it. The Kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized. It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use, although in the later years of Russian rule it was replaced with the "Privislinsky Krai" (Russian: Привислинский Край). Following the defeat of the November Uprising its separate institutions and administrative arrangements were abolished as part of increased Russification to be more closely integrated with the Russian Empire. However, even after this formalized annexation, the territory retained some degree of distinctiveness and continued to be referred to informally as Congress Poland until the Russian rule there ended as a result of the advance by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915 during World War I.
Warsaw (village), New York
The Village of Warsaw was incorporated in 1843. The central core of the village is known as the Monument Circle Historic District and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Also on the National Register of Historic Places are the Warsaw Downtown Historic District, Seth M. Gates House, Trinity Church, U.S. Post Office, and Warsaw Academy.
Gazeta Warszawska
Gazeta Warszawska (lit. "Warsaw Gazette") was the first newspaper published regularly in Warsaw for an extended period of time. Founded in 1774, it remained active under a variety of names until 1935. The names included the Gazeta Wolna Warszawska ("Warsaw Independent Gazette"; during the Warsaw Uprising (1794)) and Gazeta Poranna Warszawska ("Warsaw Morning Gazette"; after the merger with Gazeta Poranna 2 Grosze in 1925).
Warsaw, Illinois
The city of Warsaw began in 1814, when young Major Zachary Taylor founded Fort Johnson on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River across from the mouth of the Des Moines River. Fort Johnson was occupied only for a few weeks before it was burned. In 1815 another military camp, Fort Edwards, was built nearby at a different location. Warsaw became an important fur trading post and one of the earliest American settlements in northern Illinois.
Festung Warschau
After three weeks of constant aerial and artillery bombardment and assaults, the situation of the civilian inhabitants of Warsaw became dire. Food, water and medicine shortages as well as the Luftwaffe strafing inhabitants and refugees grouped within the city caused Warsaw's civilian authorities to request a cease-fire. Warsaw President Stefan Starzyński and Gen. Walerian Czuma, commander of the Warsaw garrison, decided that further resistance, although possible, would only expose the civilians to unnecessary hardship and signed the capitulation on 28 September 1939. The German text of the capitulation treaty as well as German propaganda used the term "Festung Warschau" to suggest that the failures of the Wehrmacht were due to heavily fortified terrain they had to cross.
Warsaw, as a former Russian fortress, had several older fortifications, e.g. a ring of forts round the city and a citadel, built between 1835 and 1905. But those fortifications failed to prevent the city from being overrun in World War I, as Warsaw was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian troops in 1915.
Warsaw Fire Guard
Warsaw Fire Guard () was a fire fighting unit in the city of Warsaw. Formed as Warsaw's first permanent fire service in 1834, it remained an independent and city-owned venture until its nationalization by the Nazi German authorities during the occupation of Poland following the Invasion of Poland of 1939.
Janusz I of Warsaw
He was the eldest son of Siemowit III, Duke of Masovia and his first wife Euphemia, daughter of Nicholas II of Opava. Due to an error of chronicler Jan Długosz was previously assumed that Janusz I was born c. 1329, and it wasn't until modern time that this date could be corrected until a much later one, c. 1346. Evidence of this fact was that only in 1373/74 he received his own duchy (with its capital in Warsaw).
Old Town Market Place, Warsaw
The Old Town Market Place is the true heart of the Old Town, and until the end of the 18th century it was the heart of all of Warsaw. It originated in the late 13th century, at the same time that the city was founded. Here the representatives of guilds and merchants met in the town hall (built before 1429, pulled down in 1817), and fairs and the occasional execution were held. The houses around it represented the Gothic style until the great fire of 1607, after which they were rebuilt in late-Renaissance style and eventually in late-Baroque style by Tylman Gamerski in 1701.
Warsaw Marathon
The Warsaw Marathon is an annual marathon race, which takes place in the heart of Poland's capital, Warsaw. It's the oldest annual marathon in Poland. It has been held since September 30, 1979. In the first race, the length of the course was just , and not the normal, classic distance of .
Kraków
Already weakened during the 18th century, by the mid-1790s the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had twice been partitioned by its neighbors: Russia, the Habsburg empire, and Prussia. In 1791, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II changed the status of Kazimierz as a separate city and made it into a district of Kraków. The richer Jewish families began to move out. However, because of the injunction against travel on the Sabbath, most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues. In 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko initiated an unsuccessful insurrection in the town's Main Square which, in spite of his victorious Battle of Racławice against a numerically superior Russian army, resulted in the third and final partition of Poland. In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte captured former Polish territories from Austria and made the town part of the Duchy of Warsaw. Following Napoleon's defeat, the 1815 Congress of Vienna restored the pre-war boundaries but also created the partially independent Free City of Kraków. An insurrection in 1846 failed, resulting in the city being annexed by Austria under the name the Grand Duchy of Cracow (, ).
Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw
In 1807 Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw and granted it a constitution. Like with all Napoleonic legislatures, it was inferior in political power to executive by design.
Warsaw
After World War II, under a Communist regime set up by the conquering Soviets, the "Bricks for Warsaw" campaign was initiated, and large prefabricated housing projects were erected in Warsaw to address the housing shortage, along with other typical buildings of an Eastern Bloc city, such as the Palace of Culture and Science, a "gift" from the Soviet Union. The city resumed its role as the capital of Poland and the country's centre of political and economic life. Many of the historic streets, buildings, and churches were restored to their original form. In 1980, Warsaw's historic Old Town was inscribed onto UNESCO's World Heritage list.
History of Kraków
Kraków (Cracow) is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland, with the urban population of 756,441 (2008). Situated on the Vistula river () in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Kraków from 1846 to 1918, and the capital of Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
The earliest known settlement on the present site of Kraków was established on Wawel Hill, and dates back to the 4th century. Legend attributes the town's establishment to the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a ravenous dragon, Smok Wawelski. Many knights unsuccessfully attempted to oust the dragon by force, but instead, Krakus fed it a poisoned lamb, which killed the dragon. The city was free to flourish. Dragon bones, most likely that of mammoth, are displayed at the entrance of the Wawel Cathedral. Before the Polish state had been formed, Kraków was the capital of the tribe of Vistulans, subjugated for a short period by Great Moravia. After Great Moravia was destroyed by the Hungarians, Kraków became part of the kingdom of Bohemia. The first appearance of the city's name in historical records dates back to 966, when a Sephardi Jewish traveller, Abraham ben Jacob, described Kraków as a notable commercial centre under the rule of the then duke of Bohemia (Boleslaus I the Cruel). He also mentioned the baptism of Prince Mieszko I and his status as the first historical ruler of Poland. Towards the end of his reign, Mieszko took Kraków from the Bohemians and incorporated it into the holdings of the Piast dynasty.
By the end of the 10th century, the city was a leading center of trade. Brick buildings were being constructed, including the Royal Wawel Castle with the Rotunda of Sts. Felix and Adauctus, Romanesque churches, a cathedral, and a basilica. Sometime after 1042, Casimir I the Restorer made Kraków the seat of the Polish government. In 1079 on a hillock in nearby Skałka, the Bishop of Kraków, Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, was slain by the order of the Polish king Bolesław II the Generous. In 1138, the Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth came into effect upon his death. It divided Poland into five provinces, with Kraków named as the Seniorate Province, meant to be ruled by the eldest male member of the royal family as the High Duke. Infighting among brothers, however, caused the seniorate system to soon collapse, and a century-long struggle between Bolesław's descendants followed. The fragmentation of Poland lasted until 1320.
Museum of Warsaw
Museum of Warsaw () (in 1948–2014 "Historical Museum of Warsaw", ) is a museum in the Old Town Market Place in Warsaw, Poland. It was established in 1936.
Warsaw Confederation (1704)
The Warsaw Confederation was a confederation against King of Poland August II the Strong. It was formed on February 16, 1704 in Warsaw. It dethroned August II and declared Stanisław Leszczyński king. In response, the supporters of August II formed the Sandomierz Confederation on May 20. The Warsaw Confederation was eventually victorious in the civil war in Poland (1704-1706), which ended with the Treaty of Altranstädt (1706). Soon, however, after Swedish defeat in the Great Northern War, the Russians prevailed and August II resumed the Polish throne in 1709.
Warsaw
Once described as the 'Paris of the North', Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. Bombed at the start of the German invasion in 1939, the city withstood a siege for which it was later awarded Poland's highest military decoration for heroism, the Virtuti Militari. Deportations of the Jewish population to concentration camps led to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the destruction of the Ghetto after a month of combat. A general Warsaw Uprising between August and October 1944 led to even greater devastation and systematic razing by the Germans in advance of the Vistula–Oder Offensive. Warsaw gained the new title of "Phoenix City" because of its extensive history and complete reconstruction after World War II, which had left over 85% of its buildings in ruins.
Battle of Warsaw (1920)
The battle of Warsaw was fought from August 12–25, 1920 as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and the nearby Modlin Fortress. On August 16, Polish forces commanded by Józef Piłsudski counterattacked from the south, disrupting the enemy's offensive, forcing the Russian forces into a disorganized withdrawal eastward and behind the Neman River. Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded.
Krakowskie Przedmieście
Krakowskie Przedmieście was established in the 15th century as a trade route. It is one of the oldest avenues in Warsaw and the first part of the Royal Route that connects the Royal Castle with King John III Sobieski's 17th century Wilanów Palace at the southern periphery. In the 17th century, palaces and manor houses began springing up along what had by then become the major artery of the new Polish capital. 
During the 18th century, the Italian painter Bernardo Bellotto (better known in Central Europe as "Canaletto"), a court painter to Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, rendered in meticulous detail the streets and architecture of Poland's capital, with its burgeoning population, strong economy, and seats of learning and the arts. It was partly thanks to his paintings that Warsaw's historic district was accurately rebuilt by the Polish people from its deliberate destruction by Germany in World War II, especially following the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
Polonia Warsaw
Polonia Warsaw was formed in the autumn of 1911 as a union of two school teams ('Stella' and 'Merkury'). The founder of the club was captain Wacław Denhoff-Czarnocki, who also came up with the name of the club. Polonia is Latin for "Poland" and is often used by Polish ex-patriates in reference to their communities in other countries. The choice of such a name was a brave decision at the time, since Poland was not an independent country, and Warsaw was a part of Russian partition.
Warsaw
The mermaid ("syrenka") is Warsaw's symbol and can be found on statues throughout the city and on the city's coat of arms. This imagery has been in use since at least the mid-14th century. The oldest existing armed seal of Warsaw is from the year 1390, consisting of a round seal bordered with the Latin inscription "Sigilium Civitatis Varsoviensis" (Seal of the city of Warsaw). City records as far back as 1609 document the use of a crude form of a sea monster with a female upper body and holding a sword in its claws. In 1653 the poet Zygmunt Laukowski asks the question:
Warsaw
Warsaw remained the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the third and final partition of Poland; it subsequently became the capital of the province of South Prussia.
History of Warsaw
Warsaw flourished in the late 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), a Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley, as well as the expansion and modernization of horsecars, street lighting and gas works. Starynkiewicz also founded the Bródno Cemetery (1884), still one of the biggest European cemeteries. As a remembrance of the President, one of the Warsovian squares bears the name of Starynkiewicz, even though he represented the Russian authorities.
Treaty of Warsaw (1705)
A Russo-Saxo-Polish-Lithuanian army was then assembled at Polotsk (Polatsk, Połock, Polockas), another allied army in Saxony, and a third allied force commanded by General Otto Arnold von Paykull (Pajkul) advanced towards Warsaw, where Charles XII and Leszczyński sojourned. Pajkul's Saxo-Polish-Lithuanian horse reached the outskirts of Warsaw on 31 July 1705, where they were defeated. The army at Polotsk was denied westward advance by Swedish forces under Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt. Thus, Leszczyński was crowned king of Poland in Warsaw on 4 October 1705, and Sweden and the faction of the commonwealth represented by Leszczyński signed the treaty of Warsaw on 28 November.
History of Wrocław
In 990 Duke Mieszko I of Poland of the Piast dynasty conquered Silesia and Wroclaw. In 1000 Mieszko's son, King Boleslaw I of Poland established the first bishopric of Silesia, under the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Greater Poland, the See independent of the German Archbishopric of Magdeburg, which had tried to lay claim to jurisdiction over the Polish church. The city quickly became a commercial centre and expanded rapidly to the neighbouring Wyspa Piaskowa (Sand Island), and then to the left bank of the Odra river. Hugo Weczerka writes that around 1000 the town had approximately 1000 inhabitants. and after an uprising in 1037/38 against the church and probably also against the new rulers the bishop and the representative of the Polish king were expelled. In 1038 Bohemia captured the city and owned her until 1054, when Poland regained control. Weczerka writes that between 1079 and 1102 Silesia and Wrocław became temporarily independent. and in 1163 it became the capital of the duchy of Silesia, which – according to Hugo Weczerka – slowly detached from Poland. By 1139 two more settlements were built. One belonged to Governor Piotr Włostowic (a.k.a. Piotr Włast Dunin, Piotr Włost or Peter Wlast; ca. 1080–1153) and was situated near his residence on the Olbina by the St. Vincent's Benedictine Abbey. The other settlement was founded on the left bank of the Oder River, near the present seat of the university. It was located on the Via Regia that lead from Leipzig and Legnica) and followed through Opole, and Kraków to Kievan Rus'.
Polish, Bohemian, Jewish, Walloons and German communities existed in the city.
Siege of Warsaw (1939)
It began with huge aerial bombardments initiated by the Luftwaffe starting on September 1, 1939 following the Nazi invasion of Poland. Land fighting started on September 8, when the first German armored units reached the Wola district and south-western suburbs of the city. Despite German radio broadcasts claiming to have captured Warsaw, the initial enemy attack was repelled and soon afterwards Warsaw was placed under siege. The siege lasted until September 28, when the Polish garrison, commanded under General Walerian Czuma, officially capitulated. The following day approximately 140,000 Polish troops left the city and were taken as prisoners of war. On October 1 the Wehrmacht entered Warsaw, which started a period of German occupation that lasted until the devastating Warsaw Uprising and later until January 17, 1945, when the city was liberated by Soviet forces.
Warsaw Old Town
The Old Town was established in the 13th century. Initially surrounded by an earthwork rampart, prior to 1339 it was fortified with brick city walls. The town originally grew up around the castle of the Dukes of Mazovia that later became the Royal Castle. The Market Square ("Rynek Starego Miasta") was laid out sometime in the late 13th or early 14th century, along the main road linking the castle with the New Town to the north.
Warsaw Stock Exchange
Warsaw became the capital and financial center of Poland in the early 17th century. In the Middle Ages other Polish towns, most of them members of the Hanse, were the leading economic centers of Poland. Merchants from western and southern Europe settled in Poland since the beginning of Polish statehood. They brought the system of organized exchange trading in securities, mostly bills and currencies, to Poland. The oldest Polish bill was issued in 1243 by the Cuyavien bishop Sambor. The main centers of securities tradings were at the lower Vistula, in the 14th century occupied by the Teutonic Knights. The first marcantile exchanges emerged in Gdańsk (1379), Toruń (1385), Malbork (14th century), Kraków (1405), Poznań (1429), Zamość (1590), Królewiec (1613) and Elbląg (1744). Mediaeval mercantile exchanges might have also existed for a short period in Chełmno, Grudziądz and Braniewo.
History of Poland
The Duchy of Warsaw, a small, semi-independent Polish state, was created in 1807 by Napoleon in the wake of his defeat of Prussia and the signing of the Treaties of Tilsit with Emperor Alexander I of Russia. The Army of the Duchy of Warsaw, led by Józef Poniatowski, participated in numerous campaigns in alliance with France, including the successful Austro-Polish War of 1809, which, combined with the outcomes of other theaters of the War of the Fifth Coalition, resulted in an enlargement of the duchy's territory. The French invasion of Russia in 1812 and the German Campaign of 1813 saw the duchy's last military engagements. The Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw abolished serfdom as a reflection of the ideals of the French Revolution, but it did not promote land reform.
Wrocław
The city was first recorded in the 10th century as "Vratislavia", the Bohemian duke Vratislaus I founded here a Bohemian stronghold. "Vratislavia" was possibly derived from the duke's name Vratislav. In 985, Duke Mieszko I of Poland conquered Silesia including Wrocław. The town was mentioned explicitly in the year 1000 AD in connection with a founding of a bishopric during the Congress of Gniezno.
Battle of Warsaw (1656)
The Battle of Warsaw (; ; ) was a battle which took place near Warsaw on , between the armies of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden and Brandenburg. It was a major battle in the Second Northern War between Poland and Sweden in the period 1655–1660, also known as The Deluge. According to Hajo Holborn, it marked "the beginning of Prussian military history".
Mazovia
Since 1918 Mazovia has been a part of the resurrected Poland, being roughly equivalent to the Warsaw Voivodeship. Under the German occupation of Warsaw during World War II, the city’s population decreased sharply as a result of executions, the extermination of the city’s Jews, the deaths of some 200,000 inhabitants during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and the deportation of the city’s left-bank population following the uprising. Shortly after the uprising, Adolf Hitler ordered German troops to destroy the city. The rebuilding of the Polish capital was the main task of the postwar period. Those times Warsaw Voivodeship was still roughly similar to historical Mazovia and used to be informally called so, but in 1975 it was divided into several little voivodeships. However, in 1999 Mazovian Voivodeship was created as one of 16 administrative regions of Poland.
Napoleon Bonaparte Monument (Warsaw)
The Napoleon Bonaparte Monument was erected to honor the French military and political leader Napoleon Bonaparte on the 190th anniversary of his death. Napoleon established the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. Following Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia, the duchy was occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it was formally partitioned between the two countries at the Congress of Vienna. It covered central and eastern part of present Poland and minor parts of present Lithuania and Belarus.