Picketts in Poland: Chopin in Warsaw

Poland's most famous "son" is Chopin....Frederyk Chopin. On Saturday (Sept. 16) we spent a few hours learning a little more about him in our city of Warsaw.

In Warsaw, we have seen a monument built to honor Chopin,

a museum about him....

....and his music,

and even Warsaw's airport is named after this hometown, world-renowned musician.

There are also 15 different black marble benches in and around Warsaw's Old Town that are dedicated to Chopin....near places where he lived or that were significant in his life.

We went looking for some of these benches and actually found 9 of the 15.

I convinced Mark not to drive our car but to take a Metro....and then walk a few blocks to where the benches are. En route to our first stop we saw a Euro-Cup display still growing in a hillside garden.

We also walked past this famous statue…Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory. This statue actually is a monument to the Heroes of Warsaw....honoring the thousands of citizens who fought against and died under the Nazi rule from 1939 to 1945.

The first Chopin site we found was a little restaurant named "Honoratka". Chopin frequented this place with other Polish young adults...and it is still in use today. This little restaurant was not open at the time we saw it...but we would enjoy returning to it one day.

We found our first Chopin bench on The Royal Route...the street ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście (a name that I am still trying to pronounce correctly). The Royal Palace is in the background. As we followed our maps, we walked on roads new to us...but we arrived to an area that we were familiar with...the entrance to "Stare Miasto", or Old Town.

Each bench has a map engraved with the location of all of the benches, and explanations in both English and Polish of the significance of each site in Chopin's life. There is also a button that will activate a recording of a snippet of Chopin's music. This bench was very close to the Music Conservatory that Chopin attended.

Our next stop did not have a Chopin bench, but it was a building significant to Chopin. Here he performed a number of concerts in 1823. One newspaper wrote of Chopin….

"....we can no longer be jealous of Vienna for having J.P. Liszt; our capital has someone equal to him, and perhaps even more perfect."

I loved this quiet little street…Kozia….

….a little side street that Chopin would travel down in order to get to the main street Miodowa.

And we found another Chopin bench close by! It was one of my favorite Chopin benches on our Saturday visit.

As we walked down this narrow street, we noticed the stucco peeling away from the brick on some of the buildings. We wondered how old these buildings were...knowing that so much of Warsaw was destroyed during WWII….but these bricks looking possibly older.

Here we found a small memorial to fallen citizens at the hands of Nazi Germany.

We had a map and a list of the benches...but the benches were not always easy to find. Sometimes we had to look around for a while in order to find the benches. Here we found a bench and the Nike statue is in the background. So we actually passed within a short block of this bench when we first started walking and hadn't even realized it!

Chopin frequented cafes and shops in all of the areas we saw, and he even bought sheet music at small music stores close by.

The grey building in the two photos below used to be the Royal Polish Post Office and later a train station. It is said that this is the place where Chopin departed from Warsaw on his way to Vienna....never to return to his homeland.

After Vienna, Chopin moved to Paris and lived the remainder of his life until he died at the young age of 39.

Distraction #1....while looking for the Chopin benches we kept hearing very loud engine noises...as if cars were street racing close by. We found out that Warsaw was indeed hosting a street car race....and we even stopped by to take a look.

The cars were loud and noisy....and sped by quickly....we think they were just have practice runs when we stopped to have a look.

A lot of streets were closed off….

….but the closures didn't affect our search for Chopin benches.

This is the Church of the Visitation. When Chopin was a teenager, weekly masses for his age group were held at this church, and Chopin played the organ at the masses.

This church received very little damage during the war and….

….the organ still has some of the original pipes that were on the organ when Chopin played it.

This is the Presidential Palace, where the President of Poland works. We have seen this building many times, but we did not realize there was a Chopin connection to this site.

Here is where Fryderyk Chopin first appeared in public at a concert….when he was only 8 years old.

I loved the last quote on this bench as it shows the true character of an 8 year old...and not the music prodigy that he was. "...dressed in a velvet suit with white embroidered edging, he boasted to his mother after the concert...'Everyone admired my beautiful collar' ".

Four lions guard the entry to the courtyard of the Presidential Palace....just as in the days when Chopin performed here.

Distraction #2....as we walked down ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście in search of the Chopin benches....we started seeing a continual stream, and then a river of people walking past us, going the opposite direction.

We soon learned it was the middle of a Warsaw Walk-a-thon. What a great day to be out walking....

We found the entrance to Warsaw University's main campus, and walked through the grounds until we found....Kazimierzowski Palace, currently the administration building of Warsaw University.

In 1817 the Chopin family consisted of six members…Frederyk, his parents, and three sisters. They moved to a larger apartment....directly across the path from this palace. It was here that the elder Chopin taught French Literature to high school students.

It was so quiet here....Mark pushed the button to play the music and I could hear it clearly on the other end of this building! It probably does not get as much use as the benches directly on the main street. (What's that street's name again? Krakowskie Przedmieście - say it fast five times!)

This is where the Chopin family lived....their second residence in Warsaw.

In addition to teaching French, Chopin's parents also ran a boarding school for boys from wealthy landowning families.

Chopin and his family lived here from 1817-1827 (Chopin was 7-17 years of age).

Below is the Czapski Palce...the 3rd residence for the Chopin Family. They lived here in 1827. Freyderyk had his own apartment upstairs.

Here many of Chopin's friends, artists and other young people visited Chopin and listened to him practice and play his beautiful music.

Distraction #3….19th-century bicycles, as part of the Walk-a-thon. We both enjoy riding our bikes here in Warsaw....especially Mark. I found it most interesting how these young bicyclists hardly held onto to anything….

….in fact they were holding a flag and moving their hands most of the time. We think they were advertising the walkathon...interesting they were not walking...but they sure had people's attention!

The Church of the Holy Cross

Chopin lived the last 19 years of his life in Paris. When he died, the ruling Russian Tsarists refused to allow his body to be returned to Warsaw. So his sister, "….according to Chopin's expressed desire to have his heart laid to rest in a free Poland..." brought his heart to Warsaw.

Today the urn containing Chopin's heart rests inside one of the pillars of the Church of the Holy Cross. We have been in other cities where a notable person's heart is entombed in a church, so it may have been common in European history. The inscription on the urn reads: "Where your treasure is found, there is also your heart".