Plac Grzybowski, Warsaw

Plac Grzybowski is a triangular square in Warsaw’s downtown, framed by Twarda, Bagno, Grzybowska and Królewska streets. It began in the early seventeenth century as open land at a meeting of routes, then developed into the market square of Grzybów, a private settlement named for Jan Grzybowski. A town hall stood here late in the eighteenth century; it later held a prison, and its removal made room for a grain and fodder market.

All Saints’ Church, beside the square, took more than three decades to build and was finished in eighteen ninety-five. This was also a Jewish commercial neighbourhood, known for compact shops selling iron goods. In November nineteen forty, the square lay within the Warsaw Ghetto, divided from the non-Jewish city by a wall.

Fighting during the Warsaw Uprising damaged buildings here, and German forces burned the western frontage after the uprising’s defeat, destroying the Aron Serdyner Synagogue as well. The monument to the Polish underground occupies the center of the square. The paving also preserves the route of former tram tracks, a trace of a transport hub that served this place for decades. During the renewal completed in twenty eleven, the square gained a planted public garden with a shallow pool.