Muranów — a neighborhood built on the ghetto's rubble. Guided walk

Today's Muranów is unique on a global scale — the whole district was created on and from the rubble of the ghetto, which was leveled during World War II. Walking through contemporary Muranów, it is difficult to find traces of the former Jewish quarter. After the war a new district with new houses emerged; new roads and sidewalks were laid over the grid of former streets, some streets were moved to completely different locations, others changed their names, and a few disappeared entirely. Bohdan Lachert, the designer of the housing estate (as he called it), wanted it to be a kind of monument rising above Warsaw's city center, commemorating the destroyed Northern District. An extraordinary 'Phoenix from the ashes' — a symbol of life triumphing over death: on the processed ruins new life was meant to sprout.

However, the political realities of that time significantly affected Lachert's planned modernist estate. Due to the prevailing doctrine of socialist realism in architecture, part of the district's design was changed and modernist architecture was combined with elements of socialist realism.

During the walk we will learn, among other things:

• Where the refuge for criminals was
• What King Stefan Batory funded
• Why the fountain travelled so many times
• Why we have to climb stairs
• What the father of a famous TV presenter designed
• What the mystery of the windows in Muranów is
• Where the Masons had their lodge
• What the courtyard of the Działyński Palace hides
• What the phenomenal marketing project of Janusz Korczak looked like
• What Dirty Harry will tell us
• Where Chopin performed in Muranów
• Where Babylon once stood

and many other colorful stories about people and places connected with the route of our walk.

Start: 7.03 (Saturday), 12:00, at the entrance to the Arsenal, Długa 52
Duration of the tour: about 90 minutes
End: Andersa 13 (Okrąglak)

The walk will be led by KASIA — a licensed Warsaw guide and a native of Warsaw.
Tel. 505 023 782

Participation in the walk is free, however a tip will be gladly welcomed after the walk.

We gently remind you that we put a great deal of substantive and documentary work into preparing the walk to make it as attractive as possible for you.