The Królewska Street Barricade & the Edge of Saxon Garden
Why is it significant?
Walk out of Plac Teatralny along Wierzbowa street until you reach the corner of Królewska street and the leafy edge of Saxon Garden: where office workers now stroll in the shade of chestnut trees, in August 1944 stood one of the fiercest redoubts of the Warsaw Uprising.
Key Facts
| Place | The Królewska Street Barricade & the Edge of Saxon Garden |
|---|---|
| Address | ul. Królewska 16, 00-065 Warszawa, Poland |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.24070, 21.00850 |
| Part of Walk | Sixty-Three Days: The Warsaw Uprising of 1944, from Krasiński Square to Złota Street |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk out of Plac Teatralny along Wierzbowa street until you reach the corner of Królewska street and the leafy edge of Saxon Garden: where office workers now stroll in the shade of chestnut trees, in August 1944 stood one of the fiercest redoubts of the Warsaw Uprising. This was the legendary Barricade on Królewska street, the fortified frontline of the city centre.
The frontline through central Warsaw ran precisely along this curb. To the north, inside the German-held Saxon Garden, were German pillboxes, snipers and tanks; to the south, the insurgent-held city centre. For sixty-three straight days, young volunteer soldiers of the Kiliński Battalion and the Chrobry II Battalion defended this perilous corner from behind high piles of jagged cobblestones, overturned tramcars, furniture and heavy iron railings.
The Germans launched assault after assault supported by Goliath remote-controlled demolition carriers, heavy artillery and dive-bombers. Buildings on both sides of Królewska were pounded into smoking hollow shells, yet the insurgents held the line. Day after day, German tanks tried to break through into Marszałkowska street, and day after day they were repelled with sticky petrol bombs and anti-tank PIAT fire.
The barricade was dubbed the Thermopylae of Warsaw: despite being attacked dozens of times by superior forces, it was never captured until the final capitulation on 2 October 1944. A small bronze plaque on the building at Królewska 16 remembers the young boys and girls who manned this line under continuous fire, guarding the gateway to central Warsaw against overwhelming odds and keeping the red-and-white insurgent flag flying over the smoking ruins of the street.
From the corner of Królewska, walk a few steps east into Plac Małachowskiego, where the grand classical facade of the Zachęta National Gallery and a round Lutheran rotunda face the square.