Would you like to see Warsaw in miniature? Not the one that you can see today but the one that no longer exsist because it was destroyed during World War II. We would like to invite you to Miniature Park, a place where you can see what Warsaw used to look like over a hundred years ago. The aim of this place is to restore a memory about the lost city.
After the World War II Warsaw was destroyed in almost 70 percent. Damage was so big that there were even ideas to move the capital to another city and leave Warsaw untouched as a ruin that would remind a tragedy of war. Luckily this idea did not pass and the decission about reconstruction was made. The scale of this project was huge and it became a symbol of rebirth, like Phoenix from the ashes. In the first years after the war The Old Town, The Royal Route some palaces and a lot of tenanments were rebuilt. It took much longer to rebuild The Royal Castle which was totally destroyed. It was reopened in 1984. It took even more time to reconstruct The Capital City Hall. This building was finished in 1997. Unfortunatelly not all the buildings were reconstructed. Some important palaces, wooden Summer Theatre from one of the Warsaw’s parks or beautiful tenenments that were located in the area of The Palace of Science and Culture has not been rebuilt until today.
The history of Miniarure Park started from one of the non existing buildings – The Saxon Palace. It was a huge building standing in a close center of Warsaw and was blown up by the Germans in 1944, just after the Warsaw Uprising. Today in this place you can see a big and empty square with a few remaining arcades that bring back the memory of tragic war. The discussion has been going on for many years does it make sense to reconstruct this building nowadays. As a part of this discussion the first miniature was made. It was prepared by the supporters of the reconstruction in order to point out that this very important building is missing from today’s Warsaw panorama. This is how the story of Miniature Park began. Soon some other miniatures were created. Now there is 10 of them.
Do you want to find out how such miniature is made? It is a very time-consuming process because the miniature is created of buildings that you cannot see or measure. The first step is analyzing the old engravings, plans, pictures and photographs. After that the architectural design is made. Then it is processed into a three-dimensional image that later on is printed on a 3d printer. All the miniatures are reduced in the 1:25 scale. They are all made very precisely, with all the details. So in the buildings you can see windows, balconys, roof tiles or facade ornaments. See how beautiful it looks:
Wejście do Gościnnego Dworu
Miniatures are not only buildings but also their whole surroundings. So there are trees, horse trams, carriages and cabs. All as they looked in the 1930’s:
There are also figures dressed in costumes from the era.
Miniature Park is located near The Old Town and The Royal Route. We reccommend it to anyone who wants to know the history of Warsaw and find out how this city used to look like before the war.
