On the occasion of the International Tour Guide Day, which took place on 21^st February, 25 different walks around Warsaw’s historical places were organized by the Council of City Guides PTTK, Varsaviana foundation, KORT TPW branch and Guides Warsaw association. One of the tours was devoted to the Warsaw-Vienna Railroad.

Participants of the tour met at Jerozolimskie Avenue by the Warszawa Śródmieście station. In this place, 170 years ago a terminal station of the railway (Dworzec Wiedeński) was build. First train to Grodzisk departed from here on 14^th June 1845. Another point of the walk was the St. Barbara chapel and the church of St. Peter and Paul by Nowogrodzka Street 51. In 1865, the chapel was renewed by the Railroad employees and became their parish church. Participants of the walk visited the place, where in 1873, the board of Warsaw-Vienna railroad created the training workshop – the ancestor of now defunct Railroad School in Warsaw. The workshop was located till 1953 by Chmielewska Street 88. A memorial stone sponsored by the graduates of the school in 1998 marks the original location of the facility.

A former workshops of the Railroad were also visited. Their erection began in 1852. Part of the complex was a building at Chmielna Street 73, demolished in 2013. The tenement by Pańska Street 100 had more luck – it survived two wars, rebuild of the city, changing governments and building of the nearby underground line.

The walk concluded at… “Siberia”. It’s the nickname of the large area of warehouses, sidings and utility buildings of the former Warsaw-Vienna Railroad goods station, originating back in 1875. The buildings by the Kolejowa Street 8/10 accommodates now countless clubs, car dealers and wholesales. Probably thanks to that, the old walls survived till today being one of the last remnants of the great Railroad.

 

The tour was guided by our colleagues Andrzej Paszke, Zbigniew Tucholski and Marek Moczulski.