THE POLISH CAPITAL AND ITS STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1915, Page 5

THE POLISH CAPITAL AND ITS STORY.

• Warsaw, in point of population, is the twentieth city of. the world. It is larger than any city in the United King-, dom outside of London, and.the only .city in Germany that exceeds it in size is Hamburg. With its population of 827,000 fit is about one-third larger than Brussels. New Zealanders will best appreciate its size when it is stated that it has 17.0,000 more inhabitants than Sydney. The city is beautifullyi situated on the west hank of the Vistula, and is distant by rail 387 miles from Berlin and 01)5 miles from Petrograd. It stands on a terrace 120 to 130 feet above the river to which it descends by steep slopes, leaving a broad bench at its base. The suburb of Praga, on the- opposite bank of the Vistula, which is liere 450 to 600 yards broad, is connected 'with Warsaw by two bridges—the railway bridge, which passes close under the guns of the Alexander citadel to the north, and the Alexander Bridge (1000 ft. long, built in 1805 at. a cost of £034/100), in the centre of the two. Witih its large popup lation, its beautiful river, its ample communications, and ite commerce, its university and scientific societies, its palaces, and numerous places of amusstucnt, Warsaw is one of the most animated cities of Eastern Europe. ■ Situated in a fertile plain, on a great navigable river, below its .confluence with the Pilica and the Viepry, which, drain Southern Poland and above its confluence with the.Narew and Bug, which tap a wide regionto the east, Warsaw became in medieval times the clSef entrepot for the trade of those fertito and populous valleys with;. Western Europe. It is connected wth six trunk railway lines with Vienna, Kieff, and South-western Russia,. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Danzig, and Berlin. The city possesses important iron and steel industries, and manufactures of plated silver carriages, boots, and shoes (annual turnover £8,457,000), millinery, hosiery,,gloveß, tobacco,.sugar, and all sorts of small artistic house decorations. The population has grown rapidly, from 101,008 in. 1860, 276/100 in 1872, and 436,750 in 1887, to 758,420 in 1901.

The streets of Warsaw are adorned with many fine buildings, partly palaces, illustrating the Polish nobility's love of display, partly churches and cathedrals, and partly public buildings erected by the municipality or private publio gardens *ad several monuments further embellish, the city. The university has a remarkable library of more than 500,000 volumes, rich natural history collections, a fine IbcAasnie garden, and an astronomical observatory. The theatre for Polish drams and the ballet is a fine building which includes two theatres under the same roof; but the pride of Warsaw is-its theatre in tlie lazienki Gardens, which were laid out in the eighteenth century in an old bed of the Vistula by King Stanislaub Poniatowski, and have beautiful shady alleys, artificial ponds, aai elegant little 1 palace, several imperial villas, and a | monument to John Sobiieski, King of Poland, who delivered Vienna from the Turks in '1083.. Here an artificial rain on an island makes an -open-air theatre. In the Church of the Holy Ghost Is tine heart and monument of IF. F. Chopin* the musician, and a monument to the) astronomer Copernicus. Imtlie outskirts of Warsaw are many more;or less noteworthy villas and palaces. The history of Warsaw from the sixteenth century on is intimately connected with that of IPoland. The precise date of the foundation of the town is not known, but a castle is supposed tx> have been erected on its site by Conrad, i Duke of Jfazovia, in the ninth century. Until 152-G it was the residence of the Dukes of Mazovia, but when their dynasty became extinct it was annexed Poland. When Poland and -.Uthuanda were, united, Warsaw was chdSen as tfie 1 Royal residence. Sigismund Augustus (Wasa) made it in laoO the Teal capital of Poland, and from 1572 onwards the. election of the Kings of Poland took place on the field of Wola. on the westcm outskirts of the city. From the 17thcentury possession of Warsaw was continually disputed between the Swales, the Russians, the Brandenbnreers, and the Austrians. In llTfit the Russhrjis took possession of the town, and secured the election of Stanislaus Poniaiow.ski,, which led in 1773 to the first partition' of Poland. In November. 17IM, the Russians took it again, but the next year, in: \tlie third partition of Poland. Warsaw '< •was given to Prussia, in November, I'SOii, the town was occupied by the troops of Napoleon, and after the peace of Tilsit, in ISO 7, was made the capital of the independent Duchy of Warsaw; but the Austrians seized it on Apsril 21. 180i>, and kept possession of it until'.June 2, when it once more became independent. The Russians finally took it.on February 8, 1813.