Warsaw [antikvár]

CITY OF HOPESunt alii toto cataphracti corpore pisces;Scutum Sireni squama sit una satis.Na herb Warszawy (To the Coat-of-Arms of Warsaw), 1679.I.Among the now numerous family of European capitals Warsaw is one of the youngest. Whichis not to say that it is the smallest or the least known.Its credentials as a city are of more recent date than those of Prague, or even of Berlin orStockholm: in fact, it was not founded until the last quarter of the 13th century. And only inthe 16th century did Warsaw become the seat of kings, not to be formally proclaimed thecapital until the reign of Stanislas Augustus, the last king of Poland (176495), at which timeits population also first crossed the 100,000-mark.But, although the brilliant development of the city at this turning-point in its history wasslowed down by the country's loss of independence (1795), not even the more than 120 yearsof foreign rule (17951918) were able completely to arrest this development or to channelit in a direction desired by the occupant.Flanked on all sides by a belt of formidable fortifications which prevented all normal territorialexpansion, Warsaw was steadily becoming a more and more populous city. The number ofresidents rose from half a million in 1893 to one million in 1925, and to 1,300,000 in 1939. Inanother ten years, the population of the city would have certainly jumped still further ahead;that it did not do so was due to the appalling events of 1944 when, following the defeat of the