Park Świętokrzyski, Warsaw

Park Świętokrzyski forms a planted pause beside the Palace of Culture and Science, within the block framed by Świętokrzyska, Marszałkowska, and Emilii Plater streets. It opened on the twenty-second of July, nineteen fifty-five, after Tadeusz Nurkiewicz shaped it as part of the palace grounds. Creating this landscape removed sections of Pańska, Sienna, Zielna, and Wielka, streets that had run through this area.

As you follow the paths, notice how the planting softens the immense urban setting. The park received about four hundred trees and seven thousand shrubs, with some young plants brought from Szczecin and Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, while linden trees arrived here from another part of Warsaw. Its present name comes from Świętokrzyska Street, whose name recalls the Holy Cross Church; earlier names tied the park to Stalin Square and then to the palace.

Find the Janusz Korczak Monument among the grounds. It was unveiled in two thousand six where Korczak’s orphanage had operated during the wartime occupation. For a brief period, this park also hosted a public forum modelled on London’s Speakers’ Corner, intended as a place for unpermitted demonstrations and public expression.