Feature 75 EYE ON TRAVEL

WONDERS OF Get to know Warsaw through its royal past when you attend the ESCRS Winter Meeting next year by Maryalicia Post

ince the 19th century, stylish Varsovians have gone to Nowy Swiat – New World Street – to stroll, shop and sample cafe life. SIt is home to the city's most fashionable boutiques, jewellery shops, restaurants and cafes, including the venerable café, Blikle at Chandelier in the Palace on the Water 33 Nowy Swiat. (General Charles de Gaulle loved Blikle's doughnuts.) In the 18th century, however, it would have been better known as a section of Warsaw's Royal Way that linked the summer palace and the winter castle of the last monarch of . As King Stanislaw Augustus Poniatowski changed residences with the season, so was his collection of 2,246 paintings carted down this route from Warsaw’s Royal Castle his winter castle to his summer palace – and back again. The king made this trip for the last time in 1794. The following year, Poland was split between its neighbours, Prussia, Austria and Russia, and Poland's last monarch was to live out the last three years of his life as a virtual prisoner in Russia. Throne room in the Royal Castle, Warsaw Surprisingly, given the city's devastation in World War II and its subsequent long often strolled these avenues when period as a Communist state, it's still he and his family lived in rooms that are possible to get a feeling for the refined now a museum in the Academy of Fine court life of this enlightened, well-meaning Arts at 5 Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. ruler. Begin at the baroque Royal Castle in (As he had requested, the composer's heart the Old Town, where one richly furnished is buried in a pillar of the neighbouring gilded room follows the other. Even more Church of the Holy Cross.) remarkable than the opulence hidden The Fryderyk Chopin Museum is a behind these austere walls is the fact that five-minute walk from Nowy Swiat. The this is a reconstruction of the castle that was The Palace on the Water, Lazienki Park 21st century museum, installed in the 17th demolished by the Nazis. century , employs cutting- A catastrophic fire had preceded the edge audiovisual technology to bring the summer residence. Set on an island in a damage and was turned into a museum by ultimate destruction of the castle in Chopin story to life. There are five floors lake, a pair of classic colonnades links the the Communists. For details, visit: http:// 1944. Townspeople joined castle workers of exhibitions. A swipe card activates palace with the shore on either side. www.wilanow-palac.pl/palace.html. in salvaging all they could carry of the monitors, projectors and speakers; there are Although the 18th century painted ceiling Because February temperatures in furnishings, works of art and elements of 14 individual music-sampling stations. You of the Bacchus Room was deliberately Warsaw range from 1 degree centigrade the interiors. In the decades that followed, can see Chopin's last piano, a lock of his destroyed by the Nazis, they were routed above to 6 degrees below zero, a hat or private individuals risked their lives to hair, letters to his sister, portraits and first before carrying out their plans to blow up earmuffs, gloves and a muffler are essential. hide these treasures from the Communist editions of his manuscripts. The museum is the building; the walls were even drilled Waterproof, slip-proof shoes are a good authorities. The rescued elements were open Tuesday through Sunday from 11.00 for dynamite charges, but Lazienki Palace idea. A winter tip: warm up with a hot, invaluable when work on the reconstruction to 20.00. Free entry on Tuesday. On other was spared and is today the favourite spiced beer in any pub or savour the began in 1971. The Polish community at days, tickets are issued for admission on the summertime destination of Varsovians. legendary hot chocolate in an E Wedel home and abroad provided the funds, and hour. Book online at www.chopin.nifc.pl The Royal Route continues to Wilanov, “chocolate lounge”. in 1984, the reconstructed rooms were open or through your concierge. to the public for the first time. a 17th century palace, some 10 kilometres Five kilometres down the Royal Route from the Royal Castle and a one-time Interacting with Chopin As you from the castle is the exquisite Lazienki summer residence of King Jan III. By the walk along the Royal Way, you'll come The 17th ESCRS Winter Meeting will be Palace, the Palace on the Water. Originally time Stanislaw came to the throne, Wilanov upon granite benches programmed to play held in Warsaw from 15-17 February. was the private property of a noble family. Chopin at the press of a button. Fourteen the bathing place of an aristocrat, it was Visit Maryalicia Post’s website at: Exceptionally, Wilanov, known as the of them were installed in 2010 as part of the bought by King Stanislaw in 1764 and after www.maryaliciatravel.com. considerable alteration, became the royal “Polish Versailles,” suffered only minor war celebrations of the composer's bicentenary.

EUROTIMES | Volume 17 | Issue 9