On the trail of Chopin and Marie Curie in a city that has swapped darkness for light

SUSAN NICKALLS

IT was perhaps appropriate that my visit to Warsaw coincided with the final days of the Nato summit earlier this year. With President Obama in town, in fact staying at the hotel next door, security was extra tight with armed police lining the closed-off streets, an assortment of decorated generals loitering in hotel lobbies and a constant soundtrack of droning helicopters and shrill sirens.

For a comparatively young city, Warsaw, with its cafe-lined boulevards, acres of green parkland and modern skyline, has had more than its fair share of war and unrest. Since losing its independence and monarchy at the end of the 18th century, Poland was primarily ruled by occupying forces until 1989 when it established itself as a democracy. As a result the city, located in the heart of Europe, is a mix of eastern and western cultures and influences.

Warsaw became Poland’s capital in 1596 when King Sigismund III Vaza moved his royal residence from Krakow after he became tired of the 1,200-mile commute between Krakow and Stockholm. Sigismund was also King of Sweden and the country’s third elected monarch. His statue, clutching a sword in one hand and a cross in the other, watches over the old town from his 70ft-high perch. It’s said that the city is in for troubled times either when he rattles his sabre or if it ever touches the ground. History has proved this to be true, most recently in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising when a shell from a Russian tank knocked over the column. It’s since been rebuilt with large chunks of the original column now laid out horizontally outside the adjacent Royal Castle. Sigismund’s monument is also a popular meeting point for lovers and tour groups.

It was here that I joined the free walking tour of Warsaw’s old town, a fun-filled two hours with our guide Bartosz (Bart), his dry sense of humour animating the city’s history with the type of tales you won’t find in guide books. In the market square, close to Syrenka the mermaid, who is the symbol of Warsaw, he pointed out the portraits of three young girls painted on the front of a house. These sisters feared they would never find husbands – their father was always too busy to parade them around town – so in an early version of Tinder, they commissioned a painter to draw their likeness on the building to advertise their virtues. Apparently it worked a treat.

Outside the city wall, we paused at Barbakanem, one of the city’s ubiquitous milk bars (bar mleczny), where the Dali Lama once stopped in for a cup of tea, according to Bart. However, he suggests we go elsewhere for pierogi. These filled dumplings are a Polish speciality and woe betide any woman who can’t rustle them up. Apparently Bart’s mother only agreed to his choice of wife once she had passed the dumpling test.

Instead we have lunch at the Bambino Milk Bar in the city centre where the upmarket decor seems at odds with the

PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES After the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 the old town, like much of the Polish capital, was rebuilt. These days the city is a peaceful fusion of eastern and western influences