The Old Town in one day
Walk
Warsaw's Old Town can be covered in a single afternoon, with no car and no transport ticket. Here is a route that starts a few steps from our front door.
Start: the Barbican
The Barbican closes the Old Town from the north. It is about a 3-minute walk from Brzozowa.
From Brzozowa Street the Barbican is about a 3-minute walk, from Piwna about 4. This 16th-century brick fortification separates the Old Town from the New Town and makes the most convenient starting point: from here you can follow the city walls down towards the Vistula or head straight into the narrow lanes.
The Old Town Market Square
A few hundred metres further the Market Square opens up - 3 minutes from Brzozowa, 2 from Piwna. The townhouses around it were rebuilt after the war from old engravings and paintings, and in the middle stands the Mermaid, the city's coat of arms. Early in the morning the square is almost empty, and that is when it looks its best.
Castle Square and the Royal Castle
From the Market Square you walk down to Castle Square - just 2 minutes from Piwna, about 7 from Brzozowa. Sigismund's Column, the oldest secular monument in Warsaw, rises above it, and the square is closed off by the bulk of the Royal Castle.
Krakowskie Przedmiescie
From there the route continues by itself: Krakowskie Przedmiescie is the city's grandest street, lined with churches, palaces and the University of Warsaw. It is about 11 minutes on foot from Piwna and about 16 from Brzozowa.
How long it takes
Times measured on foot from our addresses on Brzozowa and Piwna, rounded to full minutes.
If you have more time
Still within a reasonable walk you will find the Copernicus Science Centre (about 25 minutes) and the Warsaw Rising Museum (about 48 minutes). The Palace of Culture and Science is about 39 minutes on foot, or a few minutes by metro from the Ratusz-Arsenal station.