Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/400

Rh 376 WARSAW the Vistula by Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, and have beautiful shady alleys, artificial ponds, an elegant little palace with ceilings painted by Bacciarelli, several impe rial villas, and a monument to Sobieski. An artificial ruin on an island makes an open-air theatre, the stage of which is separated from the auditorium by a channel of water, and the decorations of which blend with the parks and the palace behind. Two other public gardens, with alleys of old chestnut trees, are situated in the centre of the city. One of these, the Saski Ogrod, or Saxon garden (17 acres), which has a summer theatre and excellent fountains, and is richly adorned with statues and flowers, is one of the most beautiful in Europe ; it is the resort of the Warsaw aristocracy. The Krasinski garden, now some what less frequented, and many other smaller squares and gardens in the theatres of which Polish and German companies give their summer representations, contribute very much to the enlivenment of the streets of &quot;Warsaw; while the variety of smart national costumes still worn by the Polish peasantry gives colour and brightness to the crowds which throng them. Warsaw is semicircular in plan, the diameter, nearly 5 miles in length, lying along the Vistula. The central point of the life of the place is the castle (Zamek Krolewski) on Sigismund Square. It was built by the dukes of Mazovia, enlarged by Sigismund III. (whose memorial stands opposite) and Ladislaus IV., and em bellished by Stanislaus Augustus. At present it is inhabited by the &quot;governor-general of the provinces on the Vistula,&quot; and its pictures and other art treasures have been removed to St Peters burg. Four main thoroughfares radiate from it : one, the Krakow- skie Przedmiescie, the best street in Warsaw, runs southward. It is continued by the Nowy Swiat and the Ujazdowska Aleja avenue, which leads to the Lazienki gardens. Many fine buildings are found in these two streets: the church of the Bernardino convent; the house of the benevolent society ; the Carmelite church, now closed, where the crown archives of Poland are still kept ; the rich Radziwill palace, now inhabited by the governor-general ; the university, Saxon Square, on which Nicholas I. ordered the erection of a memorial to the Polish generals who refused to take part in the insurrection of 1831 and were therefore shot by the insurgents ; the Saxon garden behind the square ; the fine palaces of the Potockis, the Oginskis, the Uruskis, &c. ; the church of the Holy Cross, erected in 1682-96, the richest in Warsaw ; the palace of the Krasinskis, with library and museum ; the statue of Copernicus, by Thorwaldsen, erected in 1822 by national subscrip tion ; the house of the friends of natural history, now a gym nasium ; the palace of the Zamojskis, now confiscated and trans formed into a building for subalterns of the garrison ; the church of St Alexander, erected to commemorate the re-establishment of the kingdom of Poland ; and the deaf and dumb asylum. The Ujazdowska Aleja avenue, planted with lime-trees and surrounded by cafes and various places of amusement, is the Champs Elysees of Warsaw. It leads to the Lazienki park, and to the Belvedere palace, now the summer residence of the governor-general, and farther west to the Mokotowski parade ground, which is surrounded on the south and west by the smoky chimneys of the manufacturing district. Another great street, the Marszaikowska, runs parallel to the Ujazdowska from the Saxon garden to this parade ground, on the south-east of which are the Russian barracks. The above- mentioned streets are crossed by another series running west and east, the chief of them being the Senatcrska, which begins at Sigismund Square and contains the best shops. The palace of the archbishops of Gnesen and primates of Poland, confiscated by the Prussian Government, and now used by the ministry of education, the bank of Poland, the fine mansion-house burned in 1863 and now rebuilt as police bureau, the small Pod Blachoi palace, now occupied by a chancery, the theatre, the old mint, the chief post- ofBce, the beautiful Reformed church, the exchange, the school of subaltern officers, and several palaces are grouped in Senators Street, which is joined from the north by Miodowa Street, in which are situated the fine church of the Capuchins, erected in 1683 to commemorate the victory of John Sobieski over the Turks, the palace of the archbishops of Warsaw, and the Russian cathedral. To the west Senators Street is continued by Electors Street, where is the very elegant modern church of St Charles Borromeo and the Chtodna leading to the suburb of Wola, with a large field where the kings of Poland used to be elected. In Leshno Street, which branches off from Senators Street, are the Zelazna Brama, or Iron Gate, in the market-place, the gostinyi dvor or bazaar, the arsenal, and the Wielopolski barracks. The cemeteries, the summer barracks of the troops (Powonzski lager), and the artillery barracks lie to the north-west. To the north of Sigismund Square is the old town Staro Miasto the Jewish quarter, and farther north still the Alexandrovsk citadel. The old town very much recalls old Germany by its narrow streets and old buildings ; it has the church of St John at its entrance, and farther down the cathedral, which is the oldest church of Warsaw, having been built in the 13th century and re stored in the 17th. The citadel, erected in 1832-35 as a punish ment for the insurrection of 1831, is of the old type, with six forts too close to the walls of the fortress to be useful in modern warfare. The railway bridge, built in 1865 and 570 yards long, begins under the walls of the citadel and is protected on the right bank of the Vistula by the Sliwnicki tctc dcpont. The suburb of Praga, on the right bank of the Vistula, is poorly built and often flooded ; but the bloody assaults which led to its capture in 1794 by the Russians under Suwaroff, and in 1831 by Paskevitch, give it a name in history. Industry and Trade.- Warsaw has of late become industrially important, and now has more than 320 establishments employing nearly 20,000 workmen, and producing to the amount of nearly 40 million roubles annually. The leading industries arc the produc tion of plated silver ware, with a wide market throughout Russia, machinery and engines, chemicals, musical instruments, especi ally pianos, carpets, boots, and shoes, largely exported, carriages, woollen cloth, leather wares, spirits, and beer. The trade of Warsaw is considerable. Nearly 14,000,000 cwts. of coal and 4,800,000 cwts. of miscellaneous goods are imported by rail from the south-west (Kielce, Lodz, and Galicia), and 3,200,000 cwts. of manufactured goods, corn, flax, &c. , are exported in the same direction. Corn and flax are imported to the amount of 7,000,000 cwts. from the south-east and east, and exported to Prussia to the amount of 5,300,000 cwts. by rail and partly down the Vistula, while the total railway traffic is represented by 34,400,000 cwts. of merchandise brought in and 18,000,000 cwts. sent away. To all this must be added the traffic on the Vistula (about 3,000,000 cwts. ). A great proportion of the trade is in the hands of Germans, especially of Jews. The suburbs of Warsaw are surrounded by villas, palaces, and battlefields. Wilanow, the palace of John Sobieski, now belonging to the Potockis, was partly built by Turkish prisoners in a fine Italian style, and is now renowned for its historical portraits and pictures. It is situated to the south of Warsaw, together with many other fine villas (Morysin, Natoliu, Krolikarnia, which also has a picture gallery, &c. ). The Marymont, an old country residence of the wife of John Sobieski, and the Kaskada, much visited by the inhabitants of Warsaw, in the north, the Saska Kempa on the right bank of the Vistula, and the castle of Jabtona down the Vistula are among others that deserve mention. The events associated with the name of Praga have been already alluded to. Among other battlefields in the neighbourhood of Warsaw is that of Grochowo, where the Polish troops were defeated in 1831 after a gallant fight. Raszyn saw its fields covered with blood in the war of 1809 with Austria ; at Maciejowice, 50 miles up the Vistula, Kosciuszko was wounded and taken by the Russians in 1794 ; and 20 miles down the river stands the fortress of Modlin, now Novogeorgievsk, fortified by Napoleon, taken in 1813 by the Russians, and the last stronghold of the Poles during the insurrec tion of 1831. History. The history of Warsaw from the 16th century onwards is intimately connected with that of POLAND (q.v.). The precise date of the foundation of the town is not known. The banks of the Vistula between the Pilica and the Narew must have been inhabited from a very early period, and it is supposed that Conrad, duke of Mazovia, erected a castle on the present site of Warsaw as early as the 9th century. Casimir the Just is supposed to have fortified it in the llth century, but Warsaw is not mentioned in annals before 1224. Until 1526 it was the residence of the dukes of Mazovia, but when their dynasty was extinguished the laud of the Mazurs, till then independent, was annexed to Poland. When Poland and Lithuania became united, it was chosen as the royal residence. Sigismund Augustus (Wasa) made it the real capital of Poland, and from 1572 onwards the election of the kings of Poland took place on the field of Wola. From the 17th century possession of it was continually disputed by the Swedes, the Russians, and the Brandon biirgers and the Austrians. Charles Gustavus of Sweden took it in 1655 and kept it for a year ; the Poles retook it in July 1656 but lost it again almost immediately. Augustus II. and Augustus III. did much for its embellishment, but it had much to suffer during the northern war. Charles XII. took it in 1702, but in the following year peace was made between the Swedes and Stanislaus Lezczynski, and it became free again. The disorderly rule of the Rzec Pospolita opened a large field for Russian intrigue, and in 1764 the Russians took possession of it and secured the election of Stanislaus Poniatowski, which led in 1773 to the first partition of Poland. In November 1794 the Russians took it again, after the bloody assault on Praga, but next year, in the third partition of Poland, Warsaw was given to Prussia. In November 1806 the town was occupied by the troops of Napoleon, and after