Old towns & squares

Old Town Market Square

The Old Town Market Square, measuring 90 by 73 metres, was laid out at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries when Old Warsaw was founded; two streets lead out of each corner. The colourful townhouses you see today are largely a reconstruction — the war destroyed about 85% of the Old Town, which was rebuilt, among other sources, from 17th- and 18th-century vedute by Bernard Bellotto (Canaletto). The Old Town complex is inscribed on the UNESCO list.

From the town hall to the Mermaid

From the early 15th century a brick town hall with a tall tower stood in the middle — it was demolished in 1817. The great fire of 1607 consumed 22 townhouses, and the rebuilding that followed gave the square the shape it kept until 1944. In 1855, when the first modern water supply was launched, a fountain with a Mermaid statue by Konstanty Hegel was placed in the centre — today a symbol of Warsaw.

The four sides of the square

The sides received their names in 1915: Dekerta (north), Barssa (east), Kołłątaja (west) and Zakrzewskiego (south). The Dekerta side was taken over entirely by the Museum of Warsaw — after the renovation completed in 2016, the facades regained their original 1950s colours.

Rebuilt from the rubble

During the Warsaw Uprising most of the townhouses burned or were razed; the Dekerta side survived thanks to reinforced concrete ceilings. Between 1949 and 1953 the square was meticulously reconstructed, with surviving portals (notably townhouses 21 and 31), Gothic niches and wall paintings reinserted. Today it is a square of café terraces, with a Christmas market in winter; allow an hour for a stroll with coffee, and half a day for the whole Old Town.