Brzeska Street & the Backyard Shrines
Why is it significant?
Walk slowly along Brzeska and glance through the arched gateways as you pass. Beyond the dark passages you will see courtyards, washing lines, a bicycle, a few pigeons... and every so often, against a wall or in a corner, a little glass case with a statue of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by plastic…
Key Facts
| Place | Brzeska Street & the Backyard Shrines |
|---|---|
| Address | ul. Brzeska 12, 03-737 Warszawa, Poland |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.25230, 21.04280 |
| Part of Walk | Warsaw's Right Bank: Praga's Bears, Bazaars, Vodka and Backyard Shrines |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk slowly along Brzeska and glance through the arched gateways as you pass. Beyond the dark passages you will see courtyards, washing lines, a bicycle, a few pigeons... and every so often, against a wall or in a corner, a little glass case with a statue of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by plastic flowers and candles.
These are kapliczki podwórkowe, backyard shrines, and Praga has dozens of them. Most date from the Second World War. Under the German occupation there was a curfew, gathering in large groups was dangerous, and any walk across town could end in a street round-up. So the tenants of each building made a shrine in their own courtyard and prayed there together in the evenings, close to home, behind their own gate.
Many still carry dates and names from those years, or plaques remembering residents who never came back from the camps or from the Uprising. And the tradition did not stop in 1945. In May, the month of Mary, neighbours still gather in some of these courtyards in the evening to sing the old Marian hymns, often led by the oldest women of the house. The shrines are repainted, the flowers are changed, the candles are lit, by people who have never asked anyone for money.
Brzeska itself had a hard reputation. For decades it was spoken of as one of the toughest streets in Warsaw, poor, overcrowded and neglected, the place taxi drivers did not like to stop. In recent years renovation has reached it, and the street is changing fast, but the courtyards still belong to the people who live in them.
So a word of etiquette: these are homes, not museums. Look from the gate, keep your voice down, and if a resident is there, a simple dzień dobry, good day, goes a long way. Now head back toward Targowa and slip into the market that fills the block between Brzeska and Targowa, through its side gate.