Discover Warsaw’s remarkable feats, from towering monuments to pint-sized streets, explore the city’s astonishing record holders.
Discover Warsaw’s remarkable feats, from towering monuments to pint-sized streets, explore the city’s astonishing record holders.
Looking as forbidding as the Pentagon, the National Library in Pole Mokotowskie harbours the country’s largest collection of books. Set inside a complex that was constructed between 1962 and 1976, bookworms have quite a choice – at last count (2021), it held 10,011,626 books, manuscripts and general objects. Though losing 800,000 items during the war, several valuable treasures survived after being evacuated to Canada.
Never failing to stir the hearts of the patriotic, the national flag that flutters over Rondo Radosław is the biggest in the city. Measuring 100 sq/m, it first appeared in 2014, a year picked to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, the 25th anniversary of the Third Polish Republic and the 10th anniversary of Poland’s accession to the European Union. The 40-ton mast, meanwhile, stretches out to 63-metres – a respectful nod to the 63-day Warsaw Uprising.
Revealed on New Year’s Eve, 2000, the clock that adorns the Palace of Culture was once the highest timepiece in the world. Featuring the Warsaw mermaid on each clock face, and controlled by satellite signal, it stops for only one day a year – for its annual scrub. Set at a height of 160-metres, it features four clock dials weighing 450 kilograms a piece.
It was about time someone knocked the Palace of Culture off its perch. Having spent 67-years ranked as Poland’s tallest building, the 2022 unveiling of the Varso Tower didn’t just smash a domestic record, but a European one as well. Measuring 310-metres from top-to-bottom, the EUR 500 million office block also ranks as the EU’s highest tower after pushing Frankfurt’s Commerzbank Tower (259-metres) into second. That said, not all are happy with this shift in rankings. Seeing that the final 80-metres of the Varso Tower is comprised of an antenna, cynics have argued that this is a bit of a cheat: the equivalent of a dwarf putting on a five-foot hat before claiming to be the biggest in the room. Less controversial has been the building’s classic form. Designed by Foster + Partners (the same mob behind the Commerzbank Tower), its sleek, elegant design has made it an attractive addition to the city’s silhouette. This year, expect it to win further public favour when viewing platforms on the 49th and 53rd floors open.
As you whizz down Wybrzeże Szczecińskie, it’s impossible not to notice a giant figure stretching out as if grabbing the air. That’s the Kościuszko Infantry Division Memorial, and at 48-tons it’s the heaviest monument found in Warsaw. Cast in bronze and unveiled in 1985, the 16-metre-tall monument depicts one of the soldiers sent in to relieve the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Complete with a billowing cape, the statue’s hero can be seen with his arm reaching forth. The pose has led locals to nickname the monument the “five beers please” statue.
Samborska street in the New Town leads to nowhere – literally. Seen as a leafy dead-end that juts from ulica Przyrynku, the 22-metre cobbled path is Warsaw’s (and Poland’s) shortest street. Historical sources show that it used to measure approximately 100-metres; according to one story, Fryderyk Chopin once challenged himself to compose a tune while walking the street and came up with the Minute Waltz in D flat major. Once the site of a bell-casting workshop, during the Warsaw Uprising insurgents erected a barrier just where Samborska meets Przyrynku. The Nazis pummelled everything around, leaving the street smashed to smithereens. Shortened to its current length but never rebuilt, the street was phased out from city maps before being reintroduced in 2010.
Now nearly 12-years-old, when the Keret House debuted in 2012 it caused a global sensation. Rated as the world’s skinniest house, at its thinnest it’s just 92 centimetres. Designed by Jakub Szczęsny after the architect spotted a small “void” that was splitting two buildings, the house was named in celebration of its first invited guest and patron, the Israeli author Etgar Keret. Found on Żelazna 74, for a while this house would host open days, though post-pandemic these appear to have sadly stopped entirely.
So named because of its snaking length, as opposed to the local fondness for sausage-shaped dogs, the Jamnik (Dachshund) on Kijowska 11 counts as Warsaw longest residential building (and Poland’s third). Completed in 1973, and 508 meters in length, this gruesome apartment block achieved fleeting fame when it featured in the Travis video Love Will Come Through. Home to 1,200 people, its initial unveiling was greeted with rapture in the press, though since it has become better-known as one of the capital’s cult eyesores – ironic given that it was first built to shield people arriving at Wschódnia from the ruined horrors behind. Of its other nicknames, locals also refer to it as the plank, the ant and the tapeworm. Jamnik, mind you, is the favourite, a point affirmed by the presence of a sausage dog mural that was added to the side in 2017.
Re-energised following a lengthy renovation, Kopiec Powstania Warszawskiego features the city’s longest stairwell, its 350 steps taking visitors to a viewing deck whose chief attraction is a giant Kotwica – the anchor-like symbol of the Warsaw Uprising. Built on war rubble, this manmade mound can now rightfully claim to be a tourist attraction and genuine memorial site following the inclusion of an outdoor display documenting the city’s post-war cleanup, as well as the addition of zigzagging steel walkways, spidering trails, fragments of rubble and information boards.
For Warsaw’s teeniest, tiniest courtyard you’ll need to use your nous and trickery – either that, or just follow a resident. Found within Kamienica Kacperskich on Marszałkowska 1, the internal courtyard is a thumb-sized space of just 2x4x8 metres. The host building ain’t bad either. Eight floors tall, when it opened in 1913 it was the talk of the town. Ranked the second highest structure in Poland, notable aspects included three crystal-clad elevators, rubbish chutes and central heating. Although its glory has faded since, it’s triangular form still bears a passing resemblance to New York’s Flatiron Building.
Attached to the Church of the Holy Spirit on Długa 1 sits the smallest address in Warsaw. Although its exact dimensions have never been revealed, all sources agree that there is no small singular address in the city. Built in 1843, it was from here Karol Banasch sold tobacco imported from Constantinople as well as cigars from Cuba and Mexico. Felicjan Cywiński continued this tradition, often rewarding his regulars with a complimentary glass of wine. Such was the buzz about the place, it became a gathering point for anti-Tsarist nationalists looking to covertly drop and exchange information during the 1831 Uprising. Less than half a century on, a new owner scandalized the city – not to mention the adjacent church – when he added pornographic pictures from Paris to the store’s repertoire!
No official records exist to affirm the city’s longest street name, though our dogged research suggests the winner to be Ulica Dwudziestego Pierwszego Pułku Piechoty Dzieci Warszawy – try saying that to your cab driver after a night on the town. Found in Gocław, the name honours a regiment that fought with distinction during the Polish-Soviet War and in the 1939 September Campaign. Among its other actions, the unit defended Warsaw until the capital surrendered. Remarkably, in 2020 plans were revealed to christen a roundabout Rondo Tajnej Komisji Zakładowej “Solidarności” w Zakładach Mechanicznych Ursus. Eventually, the proposal was dropped, but not before one councillor had helpfully observed that locals could shorten the name to RTKZSwZMU.
