The Warsaw Uprising is not only etched in our memory. Seventy-nine years after its outbreak, we still come across traces of the heroic struggle in urban spaces. That is why the National Institute for Historic Preservation has developed the “Traces of the Uprising” trail. It includes sixty-three sites related to the sixty-three days of the Warsaw Uprising.The trail is available on MonumentApp, the first free app dedicated to monuments
Warsaw was created at least twice. Once – during the fighting, and then – from the rubble. Despite the gigantic reconstruction effort after the war, despite the huge investments after independence in 1989, despite the passage of almost eight decades, some of the wounds of the events of 1944 are still open. Walking around the city, we still come across bullet marks on the walls and damaged buildings. Experts from the National Institute for Historic Preservation have selected sixty-three places – in streets and courtyards, palaces and canals – where the traces of the Uprising can even be touched
Users of the MonumentApp application, following the “Traces of the Uprising”, will visit historical buildings related to the August Uprising. They will get to know the places where fighting took place from 1 August to 2 October 1944. Wandering on the trail of insurgent memorabilia, they will be able to see, among other things, an authentic anchor of Fighting Poland in the courtyard of Stefan Batory High School, a German tank caterpillar in the wall of St. John’s Cathedral, an overburnt 17th-century crucifix in St. Martin’s Church or relics of the Simons Passage, destroyed in 1944
Gunshots on the wall of a school on Stefan Czarniecki Street in Żoliborz. Photo Darwinek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The MonumentApp app not only provides information about specific monuments, but also has a community function. Recipients can co-write descriptions, share their discoveries, show unknown attractions, create their own maps and tour plans. MonumentApp also offers ready-made route suggestions, indicating, for example, places associated with specific periods of history, literary figures or, quite simply, the most beautiful views. The app contains not only descriptions of architecture. MonumentApp tells the story of the monuments through the biographies of historical figures with whom the history of Poland is filled
The marching out of the sanitary patrol of the Women’s Military Service of the Home Army at 9 Moniuszki St., on 5 August 1944. Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
“On 1 August at 5 p.m., as every year, the whole of Poland will pause to pay tribute to the participants and participants of the Warsaw Uprising. The National Institute for Historic Preservation wants to remind us that the heroic uprising lasted as long as sixty-three days, and its traces are not only commemorative plaques. They also include the remains of an explosion at 4 Rakowiecka Street, sculptures from the Brühl Palace, which was blown up by the Germans, or gunshots in the former building of the Polish Joint Stock Telephone Company, or Pasta. The building was captured by the insurgents on 20 August and remained in their hands until the day of capitulation, becoming one of the most important symbols of fighting Warsaw. We encourage you to take a walk along the “Traces of the Warsaw Uprising” and discover these places,” – says Dr Michał Laszczkowski, director of the National Institute for Historic Preservation
The free app can be downloaded here: h ttps://nikz.pl/aplikacja/
Source: National Institutefor Historic Preservation
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