Park Skaryszewski, Warsaw

Park Skaryszewski is a spacious urban park, created from former pastureland and shaped by architect Franciszek Szanior. Its origins reach back to 1905, and the grounds cover 58 ha. The park later carried the name of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the pianist, composer, and politician associated with Poland’s independence; that name was restored in 1980.

Locals often shorten the name to “Skaryszak.” Look toward Kamionkowskie Lake, an old channel of the Vistula now used for recreation. Near the rose garden, the sculpture Dancer shows a young woman caught in ecstatic movement; Stanisław Jackowski made it in 1926.

By the lake, on a small hill, Olga Nieniewska’s Bathing woman dates from 1929. The park also holds a memorial to British pilots whose aircraft was shot down during the Warsaw Uprising on 13 August 1944. Margaret Thatcher unveiled that memorial in 1988, with Sergeant Henry Lloyd Lane present as the sole survivor of the crash.

Another memorial honours Polish victims of the attacks in New York and was unveiled in 2002. An amphitheatre hosts concerts and film screenings, giving this historic landscape a living cultural role.