Szmulowizna

To right-thinking, left-bank-dwelling Varsovians, Szmulowizna (Praga Północ) is that stereotypical place across the river where respectable folk do not stray (especially after dark); it is a place of urban legend - of dingy drinking dens, three-card tricksters, pickpockets, gypsy beggars, burglars' hidey-holes, assorted ne'er-do-wells and muggers on dark street corners waiting for frajerzy from the more respectable parts of town.

Most Varsovians will only visit Szmulowizna - and then unwittingly - when changing to public transport while passing through W-wa Wschodnia railway station.

Above: The view of Szmulowizna that meets the eye when alighting at W-wa Wschodnia. A communist-era landscape that takes me back to the late 1970s.

The central feature here is the half kilometre-long block of flats built in the early '70s, a type of architectural style generically nicknamed Jamnik ('dachshund'), Tasiemiec ('tapeworm') or Mrówkowiec ('antheap'). It looks out over the approaches to the station - car park, tram loop and bus stops - and the station beyond. The entire block (all 430 flats) has one address; ul. Kijowska 11.


Of a sunny Friday morning, Szmulowizna itself does not seem a threatening place. The name comes from Shmuel Jacobovich Sonnenberg a.k.a Zbytkover, an 18th C. Jewish banker and protégé of King Stanislaus August Poniatowski, who was granted these lands by the King.

On westwards from Szmulowizna to Stara Praga, where the architecture is more traditional, more like the stereotype image that left-bank Varsovians have of Praga. Below: fragment of brick tenement building on ul. Brzeska.

A visit on a sleeting, windy night in late November would cast Szmulowizna and Stara Praga in a different complexion, a different klimat.

This time last year:
Jeziorki's Storm of Storms

This time three years ago:
How to tell you're flying over Poland

This time four years ago:
Poppy fields