Explore Warsaw

Holy Cross Church is a Baroque church on Krakowskie Przedmieście, opposite the University of Warsaw, served by the Vincentian Fathers since 1653. An urn with the heart of Frédéric Chopin has been set in one of its pillars since 1882. Destroyed in 1944–45, the church was rebuilt by 1953; the statue of Christ carrying the cross stands on the front steps.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Piłsudski Square occupies the arcade that is the only surviving part of the Saxon Palace, destroyed in 1944. Since 1925 it has held the remains of an unidentified soldier who fell in the defence of Lwów, with urns of earth from battlefields. An eternal flame burns and a military guard is changed every full hour.

Castle Square is the triangular square in front of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, where the Royal Route begins, surrounded by historic townhouses. On its south-west side stands Sigismund's Column, erected in 1644 for King Sigismund III Vasa, who moved the capital from Kraków to Warsaw in 1596. The column was toppled in 1944 and re-erected in 1949.

St. John's Archcathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, a Brick Gothic church on Świętojańska Street in the Old Town, first built in the 14th century. Blown up in 1944, it was rebuilt after the war in its Gothic form; the crypts hold the Dukes of Masovia, King Stanisław August Poniatowski, Henryk Sienkiewicz and Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

The Old Town Market Square is the centre and oldest part of Warsaw's Old Town, laid out in the late 13th century and lined with tall burgher houses. German troops blew it up after the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and it was rebuilt to its prewar appearance by 1953. A statue of the Warsaw Mermaid stands in the middle.

The Warsaw Barbican is a semicircular brick fortification on Nowomiejska Street between the Old and New Towns, built in 1540 to designs by Jan Baptist the Venetian to guard the city gate. Largely demolished in the 19th century and damaged in 1944, it was rebuilt in 1952–54. Visitors walk through its gate and along the reconstructed city walls.

The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes commemorates the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and stands where the first armed clash of the uprising took place. Designed by Nathan Rapoport with architect Marek Suzin, it was unveiled in April 1948; its bronze reliefs show the ghetto fighters and the deportation of Jews. The POLIN Museum stands opposite.