Warsaw
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warsaw (In Polish: Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its biggest city. There are about 2,000,000 people living there. People from Warsaw are called "Varsovians".
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[edit] Geography
Warsaw lies near the middle of Poland on both sides of the Vistula river, and about 350 km (225 miles) from the Baltic Sea. It is about 100 m (325 ft) above sea level.
Warsaw is home to 4 universities and 62 colleges, and many theatres and art galleries.
[edit] History
People began living in this place in the 13th century. By the 15th century, Warsaw had grown enough to be called a city. It became the capital of Poland in 1596.
The city was destroyed several times in its history, but every time it was rebuilt. The most important of these times was during the Second World War. Poland had been occupied by Germany between 1939 and 1944. On 1 August 1944, the people of Warsaw started fighting to free their city. This was called the Warsaw Uprising. It lasted for 63 days, but eventually the people of Warsaw were beaten, and there was almost nothing left of the Old Town. After the war, the Varsovians rebuilt the Old Town from looking at old photographs and drawings. The rest of the city, also destroyed in 90% was not rebuilt, but built from the beginning "the new way". Owners of buildings and realty from before the war are still fighting for the property taken by the communists.