Warsaw New Town

Warsaw's New Town is a neighbourhood dating from the 15th century. It lies just north of the Old Town and is connected to it by ulica Freta (English: Freta Street), which begins at the Barbican. Like the Old Town, the New Town was destroyed by the Germans during World War II and rebuilt after the war.

The historic district of the New Town was formed at the turn of the 14th century as an independent city. The official recognition of the New Town occurred in 1408, when it was separated from the Old Town by an act issued by Janusz I the Old, Duke of Masovia. At that time the new city encompassed the territory of the New Town Market Square and streets - Freta, Kościelna, Koźla, Przyrynek, Stara and Zakroczymska. It was independent from the Old Town authorities and had its own vogt, council and a town hall. In 1411 the Parish Church of St. Mary was erected, and according to the 1546 mensuration there were 204 estates in the Warsaw New Town. The largest investment of that time was the Sigismund Augustus bridge built between 1568-1573 by Erazm Cziotko (c. 500 m (1,600 ft) long). Unfortunately it was destroyed in 1603 by the drifting ice floes.

The disastrous time of the Swedish-Brandenburgian invasion (1655–1660), left the predominantly timber buildings of the New Town burned, but because of those events many beautiful and more permanent buildings were erected (the Town Hall, built in 1680; St. Kazimierz Church, 1688–1692; the Kotowski Palace, 1682–1684; the Holy Spirit Church, 1707–1717; and the ornate chapel of the Kotowski family, constructed between 1691-1694) by the most prominent Warsaw architects (especially Tylman Gamerski). After 1791, due to the tenets of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, the New Town was incorporated into the city of Warsaw. That is why the Town Hall was pulled down in 1818.

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