Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
Following lunch on Sunday 25th September, which marked the official end of the 2016 Eastern Archdeaconry Synod, quite a number of the Synod members stayed on for an afternoon walking tour through the centre of Warsaw. It was good to have the opportunity to see something of the Polish capital before returning to Prague the following day.
The first building that caught my eye after the taxi dropped me off in the city centre, was the tower of the Palace of Culture and Science. This building is a classical example of Stalinist-Baroque architecture and bears a striking resemblance to Hotel International here in Prague, located just a few hundred metres from the Chaplaincy Flat. Both are based on the design of Moscow State University.
The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, built between 1952-55, was a ‘gift to the citizens of the city from the nations of the USSR’ 😉 During the communist era, it was seen as a symbol of Soviet domination and, as my Polish guidebook says, ‘still provokes extreme reactions, from admiration to demands for its demolition’.
Ministry of Finance building, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
Other examples of post-WW2 architecture are not so ostentatious such as this building which houses the Polish Ministry of Finance.
Our walk took us the length of Nowy Swiat, one of the historic thoroughfares of Warsaw, which later becomes Krakowskie Przedmiescie. Both streets are lined by a series of attractive buildings, but knowing how much is original, as against that which has been rebuilt since the destruction of World War Two, is difficult to tell.
The Church of the Holy Cross, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
This is the baroque fronted Church of the Holy Cross whose main claim to fame is being the burial place of the heart of the composer Frederic Chopin.
Church of the Visitation, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
Two other Churches along this ‘Royal Route’ as it is known, are the Church of the Visitation……
Carmelite Church of the Assumption of the BVM, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
……and the Carmelite Church, dedicated to the Assumption of the BVM.
Presidential Palace, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
In between is this grand palace which, since 1994, has been the official residence of the President of Poland.
Balcony © Ricky Yates
Here, a balcony is being supported by four male figures, an architectural feature which can also be regularly observed in Prague, except that in Prague, the figures are more commonly female 🙂
The Royal Palace, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
The Royal Route ends in plac Zamkowy/Castle Square, which is actually more triangular than square 🙂 The original castle was built between 1598 – 1619. Sadly, this was utterly destroyed by the Nazis during World War Two and the current impressive building is a complete reconstruction undertaken between 1971 – 1988.
From the square, there is the view below, across the Vistula River, to a very recent addition to the Warsaw skyline – the National Football Stadium, completed in early 2012 in advance of Poland and Ukraine, hosting the European Football Championship.
National Football Stadium, Warsaw © Ricky Yates
A Great City Ricky. Come back and see us. Thank you so much for this. Love from us both, David and Hanna
A great city indeed, David. Thank you for taking us all along the ‘Royal Route’ and for your planning & hospitality which made the Synod meeting go so well.
What a lovely city!! In Sweden we have plenty of families with Polish origin, in my parish very much so. They often speak of the beauty of their country. Many of them have become “Swolish,” a little of both. You are truly blessed, I have said it before.
You get to preach in all these wonderful cathedrals, walk all these lovely streets and squares, meet all these people from all kinds of cultures and enjoy the differences and similarities . I suppose you have the right nerve to go through with it, travelling, attending big gatherings, changing language and keeping things together. I understand that you serve and meet much more than exile Brits, but to the people in your congregations it must mean a lot to worship in their own language.
Does the Church of England pay for your work and do you have accommodation arranged where you live, like a flat? You moved to that new place, perhaps there is no flat connected to your ministry in Prague? When church of Sweden establish in other countries at least the priests and sometimes deacons and musicians have a free flat or apartment of some kind. Wages, however, are rather low.
Still, our beloved church , simple or grandiose, needs to be alive and hard-working all over the world. We are part of something much larger than we can imagine. A sign of hope.
Yes Solveig – Warsaw is a lovely city. I wish I’d had more time to explore it rather than just a stroll through the centre for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. Poland is well worth visiting. Sybille and I spent two weeks there a year ago. There are twelve posts about our trip here on the blog, posted between October through to December 2015.
Regarding my Prague congregation – they are much more than the Brits abroad, as you suggest. They are English-speakers from around the world, a sizeable minority of whom are second or third language English-speakers.
To answer your questions – the Church of England doesn’t pay me for my work here. Nearly all the costs of employing me have to be raised by my congregation. The Church of England does deem us to be a ‘mission post’, meaning the cost of maintaining my Church pension is met centrally in London, which does save the Prague congregation between eight & nine thousand pounds each year. I am housed as part of my job. The Chaplaincy Flat where Sybille & I live, is being bought by the Prague congregation. They are in the eleventh year of a twenty-year mortgage to complete the purchase. Fortunately, it is already worth nearly twice what they paid for it in January 2006.
Hi Ricky,
Beautiful photos as always, Warsaw looks beautiful in that soft sunlight. From what I’ve read about the Nazi destruction of Warsaw following the uprising and the razing of the ghetto before the Soviet advance I doubt there are many original buildings remaining from 1944/45. If the buildings you photographed are restorations they certainly are works of art. Congratulations on another successful Synod and commiserations on it being your last one; you’ll no doubt miss the fellowship and friendship of your many colleagues spread throughout Europe. Thanks Ricky.
Hi Sean,
Thanks as always for your kind compliments regarding my photographs. The late afternoon sunshine certainly did help!
I’m sure that the buildings I photographed are mostly either major restorations following the destruction of WW2 or, as in the case of the Royal Palace, complete reconstructions. For example, I found a black & white photo from 1945 showing most of the front of the Church of the Holy Cross still standing, but with the rest of the Church little more than a pile of rubble. I share the sentiments of your final sentence 🙁
Hello Ricky!!
I have spent some time in Malbork and other Polish places together with you and Sybille. I am quite amazed by your massive knowledge, your interest in European history must be quite intense. The stunning pictures and the interesting history as well as your experience in driving and finding the right way….is very entertaining indeed. I have written some posts on our travelling, but not half as much interesting material to read. I will improve myself, on these blogs I have good role models!!
Thank you for guiding me to that Poland trip!! The architecture reminds a lot of the one in Mitteldeutchland, where we travelled some years ago in search of the Lutheran heart and soul!!! That too was a very nice trip.
Hello again Solveig!
I’m glad you enjoyed all my posts about our visit to Poland a year ago in October 2015. This is exactly the place to leave your present comment as you cannot now leave comments on the posts themselves as they are more than three months old. This is something Sybille set up to reduce the number of spam comments I have to deal with. Thank you for you compliments, both of the photos and my text 🙂
I’m glad that you too, have been able to visit some of the same places as we did in Poland. And like you, we too have visited places with Lutheran historical connections. See http://rickyyates.com/reformation-day-31st-october/ , a post I wrote four years ago.
And how happy I am that I can actually celebrate something good when the world around us is exploding in some everlasting Halloween spell, only the zombies and monsters are for real. I will look in to that post as well, Ricky, I trust it to be just as delightful and interesting as everything else you write. And it will be nice to see if we visited the same places, some just have to be!!
Meanwhile, that very weekend the pope is coming to us, most of his visit is however closed to public. He is holding a great event in a sports arena in Malmö where you can buy tickets, celebrate mass with the Catholics the morning after and the first day he will spend in Lund, celebrating in the Dome with invited guests. I still think it’s a ray of hope that he is here.
Luther would have agreed, I think.
That is the joy of Reformation Day – a very good antidote to the stupidities of Halloween. I hope you enjoy that four-year-old post about our visit to Wittenberg.
Yes – I’d already heard about Pope Francis visiting Sweden at the end of October. I hope the visit goes well. He is certainly far more ecumenically minded than his predecessor and I think Luther probably would have liked him too 🙂
A very nice piece, Ricky! A propos the roof-supporting statues: once upon a time, I read a book about street art in Prague which made a witty remark that whenever the supporting figures are male, they visibly suffer under their heavy burden, whereas female caryatids always appear relaxed, graceful and in good mood. I have been keeping my eyes on them ever since and it seems to be true.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Martin. I think what you read & now observe about street art in Prague, is quite true. The other thing I notice in Prague, is that male figures are always holding onto their loincloths, whilst the ladies are nearly always topless & often revealing everything 🙂 See the last part of my post from February 2011 http://rickyyates.com/prague-architecture-with-its-amazing-variety-of-decoration/