On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of Warsaw's reconstruction, organized by the City of Warsaw, DSH invites you to Saturday-Sunday city walks with Jerzy S. Majewski and Tomasz Markiewicz, exploring the most interesting, lesser-known locations in the capital related to the city's reconstruction as part of the series "BUILDING A NEW HOME – UNKNOWN STORIES." As guide Tomasz Markiewicz emphasizes: The street currently consists of two sections separated during the construction of the Palace of Culture and Science and the creation of the Parade Square. The first, central section serves as a pedestrian zone and runs from Nowy Świat Street to the "Wiecha" passage. The second is located in Wola and runs from Jana Pawła II Street to Miedziana Street. Chmielna Street owes its name to hop gardens that once grew nearby. Over the years, its character changed from a rural path to an urban street. During World War II, the city center was devastated. Chmielna Street was not spared, suffering damage as early as 1939 due to its proximity to the bombed Main Railway Station. After the fall of the 1944 uprising, the Germans burned the section of Chmielna from Marszałkowska to Żelazna Street. Later, major post-war investments brought further demolitions and destruction. Little remains of the old buildings. Even after 1860, Chmielna, despite its considerable length (2 km), was sparsely built up, with many wooden houses still present. The section between Żelazna and Twarda Streets developed the slowest, despite its convenient location near exit roads. After the initial tracks of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway were laid, the value of undeveloped agricultural land began to rise rapidly, attracting the interest of investors and entrepreneurs. By the end of the 19th century, the street was built up. The facades of tenement houses were adorned with abundant eclectic or neo-baroque stucco decorations. Neo-Gothic styles and brick facades in various shades, from white and yellow to dark red, were also popular on Chmielna. The Bureau of Capital Reconstruction also caused significant damage to Chmielna: from 1946, entire blocks and individual tenement houses were demolished as part of the fight against private initiative. Many secured buildings, covered with new roofs and practically undamaged, were torn down. A similar fate befell the buildings on neighboring streets such as Marszałkowska, Zielna, Złota, Pańska, Sienna, and Śliska. Exceptions were sometimes made, such as the walls of the tenement house at No. 33, which were used after 1946 to build the Atlantic cinema pavilion, one of the first operational cinemas in post-war Warsaw, still active today. The construction of the Palace of Culture and Science, which began in 1952, became a pretext for demolishing the entire burned-out development of Chmielna, and the street itself was split into two unconnected sections. The former western section retained the name Chmielna. The eastern section, from Nowy Świat to Marszałkowska Street, was renamed by a resolution of the National Council of Warsaw on September 28, 1950, in honor of Henryk Rutkowski, a communist KPP activist around whom PRL propaganda sought to create a hero myth. This led to the paradoxical situation where the Chmielna Orchestra, continuing the tradition of Warsaw slang and folklore in its songs, performed on Rutkowski Street. The western section of the street found itself in post-war realities in an area called the "Wild West." This name arose from the fact that for many years, these areas were excluded from the investments and social control of the communist authorities. The area was dominated by ruined buildings and was notorious for illegal activities. The new authorities were not interested in preserving the pre-war urban fabric, so they did not care about the gradual degradation of the tenements there, demolishing them or stripping their facades. One example of such treatment of old buildings is the three tenements on Chmielna Street, numbered 126, 128, and 130, with facades stripped to bare brick. They still stand, empty and uninhabited. By a resolution of the Warsaw-Śródmieście District Council on November 6, 1990, the eastern section of the street reverted to its former name, creating two separate sections of Chmielna Street with pre-war numbering preserved, with the numbering of the western section starting at 98. A plaque embedded in the sidewalk in front of the Palace of Culture and Science (on the southern side) commemorates the non-existent section of the street. A similar fate to the tenements on Chmielna from Marszałkowska to Żelazna and beyond could have befallen the tenements on Chmielna from Nowy Świat to Bracka. Their survival to this day is thanks to private owners who believed in the provisions of the Bierut Decree, which stated they could manage rebuilt buildings on a perpetual lease basis from the city, and they undertook the reconstruction themselves. Private reconstruction of Warsaw was silenced during the PRL years, and during the walk, I intend to talk about it, using Chmielna and its surroundings (courtyards, Bracka, and Szpitalna) as examples. Since it was rebuilt by private owners who placed commercial premises on the ground floors, Chmielna (under the name Rutkowski) was the most commercial street in Warsaw during the PRL years, as private initiative in the form of crafts and small trade was allowed there after the 1956 thaw. 📅 Walk route: The walk will start at the intersection of Chmielna Street and Nowy Świat and end near the Atlantic cinema on Chmielna Street. 📅 UNKNOWN STORIES walk program: - 13.07 (Sunday), 1:00 PM: MARIENSZTAT WITH BRIDGES, guide: Tomasz Markiewicz - 20.07 (Sunday), 1:00 PM: MOKOTOWSKA STREET, guide: Tomasz Markiewicz - 9.08 (Saturday), 1:00 PM: OLD TOWN WITH WALLS, guide: Jerzy S. Majewski - 17.08 (Sunday), 1:00 PM: PRAGA 1945, guide: Jerzy S. Majewski - 14.09 (Sunday), 1:00 PM: CHMIELNA AND SURROUNDINGS, guide: Tomasz Markiewicz - 21.09 (Sunday), 1:00 PM: WSM MOKOTÓW, guide: Jerzy S. Majewski Free admission! See you on the route! BUILDING A NEW HOME In connection with the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the capital's reconstruction in 2025, the DSH team has prepared a program referring to those experiences and including source testimonies and substantive findings about Warsaw's reconstruction that have entered the public space in recent years. The project also aims to introduce unknown audiovisual materials (including testimonies from the DSH Oral History Archive). The substantive coordinator of the DSH "Building a New Home" program is Piotr Jakubowski, deputy director of DSH. The program includes, among others, the outdoor exhibition "BUILDING A NEW HOME" (September–December 2025), the temporary exhibition "WARSAW ANEW. REPORTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS 1945-1949" (September 2025–February 2026), premieres of new editions of the albums "Building a New Home. Reconstruction of Warsaw 1945–1952" and "Warsaw Anew. Reportage Photographs 1945-1949," city walks with Jerzy S. Majewski and Tomasz Markiewicz exploring the most interesting, lesser-known locations in the capital related to the city's reconstruction as part of the series "Building a New Home – Unknown Stories," as well as the "Thursdays with Warsaw's Reconstruction" series, running from March to December 2025. The DSH "BUILDING A NEW HOME" project is part of the cultural program initiated and funded by the City of Warsaw on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the capital's reconstruction. Detailed information: https://dsh.waw.pl https://kultura.um.warszawa.pl
