Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

On my way to the office I took a 100m detour down ul. Myśliwiecka with the intent of capturing the atmosphere of ul. Profesorska, one of Warsaw's shortest and steepest streets, on a sunny winter's day. Above: Looking down Myśliwiecka. The red flag on the left belongs to the Tunisian consulate.

Right: Here we are then - the top of ul. Profesorska; pedestrians only. Steep steps (take care: slippery when covered in snow) lead down to ul. Hoene-Wrońskiego.

Note the original white-on-blue enamelled street name sign; reminiscent of Art Nouveau Paris, certainly pre-war, quite unusual. Rusty though, and in dire need of artistic restoration.

Any Warsaw street that's both short and steep is likely to be one that runs down the Vistula escarpment towards the river. This topographic feature gives the city, otherwise quite devoid of contours, some welcome hilliness. There's no comparable escarpment on the Praga side of the river, however. Left: All the buildings along both sides of this street are zabytki - listed heritage sites.


Quite atypically Warsaw. A wonderful little excursion adding just a few minutes to my journey time brought me so much aesthetic pleasure. Below: Looking up ul. Profesorska. The bottom end is accessible to residents' cars.

Below: Villa on the corner of Profesorska and ul. Hoene-Wrońskiego. Note the pre-war style street lamps, the so-called 'pastorałka' or shepherd's crook. It would be an improvement to the look of ul. Myśliwiecka if the modern lamps were replaced by pastorałki too.