Warsaw and it's Metropoletan Area

Warsaw covers an area of 495 sq km (191 sq mi).

The city is subdivided into 11 local districts (gminy).

The Wisła bisects the city; major commercial and historic districts are concentrated on the west bank, and residential neighborhoods occupy the sprawling Praga districts on the east bank.

Downtown Warsaw encompasses the Śródmieście district on the west bank.

North of this is the famous Old Town, which lies at the end of Warsaw's best-known thoroughfare, known as the Royal Way (Trakt Królewski).

Along this boulevard, called Krakowskie Przedmieście in Old Town, Nowy Świat in downtown, and Aleje Ujazdowskie to the south, are some of Warsaw's most famous landmarks: the Polish president’s residence, the restored 19th-century Europejski and Bristol hotels, the rebuilt Royal Castle, the mid-17th-century Zygmunt column (a bronze statue of King Zygmunt III atop a tall column), and the Old Town Square.

Numerous neoclassical and baroque palaces and churches line the Royal Way, which terminates at the Wilanów Palace on the southern edge of the city.

The Holy Cross Church and an early-19th-century statue of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus are both located on Krakowskie Przedmieście.

Shops and cafes dominate Nowy Świat in downtown, while Aleje Ujazdowskie, the southernmost section of the Royal Way, is lined with foreign embassies.

The Sejm building, where Poland’s parliament meets, is located a block east of Ujazdowskie, just north of Ujazdowski Park. Łazienki, on Ujazdowskie, is one of the city's best-known parks.

It features a neoclassical palace constructed for King Stanisław II Augustus and a statue of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin built in 1926.

In summer, open-air Chopin recitals have been a regular event at the park on Sundays.

Central Warsaw is dominated by the Palace of Culture and Science, which occupies an entire city block two blocks west of Nowy Świat.

At 230 m (750 ft), it was the second tallest building in Europe when it was completed in the 1950s.

Nearby on Aleje Jerozolimskie is the Central Station, built in the early 1970s.

Other postwar landmarks in downtown include the Marriott-LIM tower and the Hotel Forum.

Marszałkowska, running north-south across the city center, is second only to Nowy Świat as a shopping street in Warsaw.

Although downtown Warsaw contains some apartment blocks, such buildings are much more noticeable away from the city center.

The Old Town was reconstructed to replicate what existed before World War II, but most of the rest of the city was built in a modern, postwar style.

Most of Warsaw’s residents live in high-rise apartment blocks around the city center.

The few parts of the city that escaped wartime destruction—for example the popular east bank (Praga) area known as Saska Kępa—offer less-dense, prewar-type housing.

Although the city expanded outward from the 1950s to 1970s, in the 1990s a major wave of reconstruction took place in the city center, with new hotel, office, and condominium blocks erected on cleared sites.

Automobile ownership has grown tremendously since Communism fell in 1989, and traffic jams are frequent in Warsaw's underdeveloped road system.

There is no beltway around the city; Europe's main east-west highway cuts through the heart of Warsaw, contributing to enormous road wear, air pollution, and traffic problems.

There are only a few bridges over the Wisła, but the inadequate Syrena Bridge was to be replaced by a wider bridge in 2000.

In 1995 Warsaw’s subway opened. Although it has relieved some congestion, the subway runs only north-south, so it has not eliminated any of the heavy east-west traffic.