Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital of Poland, on the Vistula River in the east-central part of the country. Its symbol is the Mermaid of Warsaw, a siren with a sword and shield whose bronze statue stands in the Old Town Market Square.

Warsaw grew from a fortified settlement of the dukes of Masovia in the 13th and 14th centuries. Sigismund III Vasa moved the royal court there from Kraków in 1596, and his column stands in front of the Royal Castle. The Constitution of 3 May, among the first written national constitutions in Europe, was adopted at the castle in 1791. Fryderyk Chopin grew up in the city and studied at its conservatory before he left for Paris. The Old Town was rebuilt after the Second World War from paintings and drawings, and the reconstruction is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

CD Projekt, the maker of The Witcher video games and of the GOG game store, has its headquarters in Warsaw. E. Wedel makes chocolate and Ptasie Mleczko sweets at its factory in the Praga district, and PZU, the insurance company, is based in the city.

The Royal Castle, the residence of the kings of Poland, was rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s and holds paintings by Canaletto of old Warsaw. Łazienki Park, the summer garden of King Stanisław August, has a palace on an island and a monument to Chopin where piano concerts are played in summer. The Palace of Culture and Science, a gift of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, has an observation terrace near its top. The Copernicus Science Centre on the riverbank lets children and adults test experiments in physics and biology.