A parade ground turned into a garden
For most of the 19th century this was open ground — the Field of Mars (Pole Marsowe), a drill and review square named after the Champ de Mars in Paris. Between parades it hosted fairs and exhibitions, an agricultural one in 1876 and a hygiene exhibition in 1887. The site proved too small for exhibitions on that scale, so part of it was turned into a public park instead.
The commission went to Franciszek Szanior, the leading Polish garden designer of the period, and the work ran from 1893 to 1896 under Warsaw's mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz. On 5.7 hectares Szanior laid out a landscape park: irregular groups of trees, curving paths and open lawns, cut across by straight avenues. The land to the east went to the Ujazdowski hospital, and a strip by Na Rozdrożu square to a church, so the park is what was left of the parade ground.
The pond and the bridge
The centre of the park is the Ujazdowski pond, 0.4 hectares of water designed by the engineer William Heerlein Lindley, who also built Warsaw's water supply and sewers. Water drops into it over granite blocks stacked to look like a natural outcrop.
Across the southern end runs Lindley's bridge, and this is the park's real curiosity. Its span is reinforced concrete — the first in the Kingdom of Poland, and by most accounts only the second concrete bridge in the world, after a Swiss one of 1894. It takes a few seconds to walk over and looks entirely unremarkable, which is part of the appeal.
Sculpture, trees and a weighing machine
- Gladiator by Pius Weloński (1880) and Perseus by Théodore Gruyère, from around 1900.
- Eve by Edward Wittig (1911), among the best-known pieces of public sculpture in the city.
- A monument to Ignacy Jan Paderewski by Michał Kamieński, added after the Second World War, and a memorial stone to the children's writer Stanisław Jachowicz (1930).
- A public weighing machine made in 1898, installed here in 1912 and still in use.
- Three trees protected as natural monuments — a black walnut, a Schwedler's maple and a pedunculate oak — plus a chestnut avenue in the western section.
The 20th century here
In September 1939 the park was used to bury defenders of the city. In the spring of 1944 the occupying authorities barred Poles from entering, and after the fighting the grounds had to be cleared of mines before being handed back to residents in April 1945.
The park entered the heritage register on 1 July 1965 under the number 168/3, and a full restoration of paths, planting and park furniture was completed in 2002. It is fenced and locked at night, unlike the open riverside parks, and an auction house now occupies the north-eastern corner.
Getting there and what to combine it with
- On foot — the park sits on the Royal Route, about fifteen minutes up Aleje Ujazdowskie from Trzech Krzyży square, with Łazienki Park immediately to the south.
- By bus — services along Aleje Ujazdowskie stop on both sides of the park, at Piękna street and at Na Rozdrożu square.
- By metro — Politechnika station on line M1, then a quarter of an hour along Koszykowa street.
- By car — this is the embassy district, with scarce paid parking; public transport is easier.
- Worth knowing — half an hour is enough for the park itself, which makes it a good pause between Nowy Świat, the Ujazdowski Castle contemporary art centre and Łazienki.
How to get there and practical info
- Location
- central Warsaw, on Aleje Ujazdowskie between Piękna street and Na Rozdrożu square
- Size
- 5.7 hectares, including a 0.4-hectare pond
- Laid out
- 1893–1896, designed by Franciszek Szanior as a landscape park
- Protection
- heritage register since 1 July 1965, number 168/3; three trees are protected as natural monuments
- Time needed
- thirty to forty minutes, longer with the playground or a break by the pond
- Nearby
- Łazienki Park and Ujazdowski Castle to the south, Trzech Krzyży square and Nowy Świat to the north
- Current hours and tickets
- entry is free; the park is fenced and closed at night, and is managed by the Warsaw city green space authority
When to go
The park at its best: chestnuts in flower, fresh lawns and birds all around the pond.
Deep shade under mature trees keeps it noticeably cooler than the avenue outside. Benches by the water fill up at lunchtime.
This is when Szanior's planting shows its purpose, with species turning colour at different rates and the park changing week by week.
With the leaves down you can read the whole composition — path lines, cascade and the structure of the bridge. In a hard frost the pond freezes over.
Other sights in Warszawa
Straight-line distances from „Ujazdów Park" — calculated from real coordinates. By road it is often further.
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