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Letter from Poland :: Edgy Warsaw

PR dla Zagranicy
Jo Harper 26.08.2015 13:35
  • Edgy Warsaw
A Spanish visitor to Warsaw asks how much the city had spent on creating the effect of a wild river bank. “It’s great landscaping,” he allegedly said. “Must have cost an arm and a leg.” Our visitor wasn’t really to know, of course. It is very rare, after all, to have a wild river bank running through a capital city. As apocryphal stories go there is one that reveals a lot about Warsaw, its river and also its personality.
Varsovians walk across River Vistula: photo - PAP/Tomasz GzellVarsovians walk across River Vistula: photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Jo Harper trawls the banks of the river in search of answers.

Where development in New York, London and Tokyo may have been driven by commercial property prices with public spaces under threat, now often trying to look eco-friendly, two-million strong Warsaw has had such a wild space right on its doorstep, by default, design and neglect in equal measure.

The Vistula is a wild river with limited regulation and limited apparent ‘use.’

With the beach under Poniatowski Bridge packed with revellers this summer, and the low level of the water exposing more relics of a Jewish Warsaw that was seemingly lost, the river is back in the news.

The Vistula has been a barrier separating Warsaw and Praga, some say Europe and Asia, as some wags suggest.

There was only one permanent bridge in the 17th century and that collapsed during a severe winter. Thereafter there were temporary pontoon structures until the mid-19th century.

Then the Vistula gradually from the 18th century and dramatically from the late 19th century shifted eastwards, creating the area of Powiśle. The islands and inlets on the left side were regulated by Dutch settlers in Saska Kępa, while the authorities tried to exploit the Vistula commercially by building Praga Żerański and Czerniaków ports on the left bank.

Development after the war was due to communist neglect. The authorities continued the pre-war plans for boulevards and grand communications, for example the Wisłostrada.

The Vistula has also been the main city sewer. The right-bank escarpment had magnificent gardens reaching down to the river’s edge but was used to push waste into the stream.

Powiśle later became a huge shanty town–cum-rubbish-tip in the 19th century. Little wonder that trendy Warsaw gradually turned its nose and back.

After the War, any attempt at revitalisation seemed to be checked by increasing pollution upstream and the Włocławek sluice put paid to any river traffic which could ply the length of the river. The ports and the tourists faded away, victims of central planning.

In 2006, the mayor promised to clean up the Vistula and eliminate the problem of raw sewage being dumped into the river. Today Warsaw treats all its waste water and the Czajka sewage treatment plant is the largest environmental project in Europe to date, with funding from the EU.

The left-bank is for culture with boulevards, cycle lanes and trendy cafes over a tunneled Wisłostrada, while the right- bank with its beaches and woods and wildlife will be the nature part.

Artists have also been drawn here. The Transformations Art Festival by the Vistula in 2009 organised by the Impact Foundation was an attempt to reintroduce the river to the city. Elżbieta Jurkowska, Project Coordinator at the Impact Foundation, says the aim has been to bring tourists and the local community to the river banks and awaken their interest for cultural events held in abandoned public spaces.

The green oasis on the Praga side is home to about 80 species of bird. Green areas occupy 28 percent of the city and the banks of Vistula are inhabited by weasel and marten. Other wild animals in the Warsaw area include elk, deer, bobcats, beavers, otters and mink. The only weasels in London and New York sit in swanky offices.

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