Grochów

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Grochów is a suburb of Warsaw, officially part of the borough of Praga Południe. Currently it is one of the most notable residential areas of right-bank Warsaw. It is heavily built up with blocks of flats. However, there are still many houses remembering the times from before the Second World War and lots of green areas, which brought to the whole Grochów the name of the lungs of Warsaw. Despite many communist plans, this place has not been changed into strictly industrial one, even though it had been suchlike in the 19th century.

[edit] History

For centuries, Grochów was a small village at the eastern outskirts of Praga. The fields of Grochów and nearby Kamion saw the election of Henryk Walezy (in 1573) and August III Sas (in 1733) as Polish kings, since these fields were chosen as the seat of the Polish election Sejms. Until the late 18th century the village was the property of the bishops of Płock and shared the fate of the nearby Kamion. Since 16th century the field of Grochów was about 2.6 square kilometres in size and was one of the biggest undivided fields in all of Masovia. However, the Swedish Invasion of 1656 was a complete disaster and a prosperous village was completely looted and burnt to the ground, only 9 houses remained. in 1780 Grochów was bought by king Stanisław August Poniatowski who gave it to his nephew, Prince Stanisław Poniatowski. The latter soon built a small manor in the village, the first house there to be built out of anything besides wood. He soon subdivided the village onto eight separate properties, selling each to a different family. This led to a period of prosperity as the village was rebuilt and started to act as one of the most important centres of grain production and trade for the nearby city of Warsaw.

The Battle of Grochów took place on April 25, 1809 between the Polish forces of Józef Chłopicki and the Russian army of Hans Karl von Diebitsch. Grochów was severely damaged in the fighting and even in 1827 it had only 105 inhabitants and 22 houses, but the population grew again rapidly and by the end of 1820s several weaving plants and tobacconists' shops were founded. Another battle took place in the vicinity of Grochów during the November Uprising on February 25, 1831, and was named after the nearby woods, the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska. Until 1850s several other small factories were located in the village, including ones for candles, soap, matches, paints, champagne wine and a brewery, as well as the first steam-powered laundry in Central and Eastern Europe. Such a growth led to the rapid increase of the number of inhabitants who settled along the Warsaw-Terespol road (which was renamed Grochowska Street soon afterwards). Finally, in 1916, after the creation of the Kingdom of Poland as a puppet state of Germany, the village of Grochów became a part of Warsaw and a seat of Grochów Area of Warsaw (Komisariat XVII Grochowski).

After Poland regained her independence in 1918 Grochów and all the nearby villages started to grow rapidly. Grochów itself soon lost its rural and industrial character and was gradually converted into a borough built up with blocks of flats. New streets were paved, gas, running water and sewer networks were installed and it soon became one of the most popular places for companies and societies to build cheap houses for their members.

During World War II Grochów escaped destruction and from the early 1960s it saw a new period of rapid growth and expansion as new areas were heavily built up with blocks of flats.