Old Town and New Town Guided Walking Tour Warsaw

Castle Square, the Royal Castle and its gardens

The walk begins on Castle Square at the foot of Sigismund's Column, a 22-metre column raised in 1644 for the king who made Warsaw the capital. Facing it is the Royal Castle, the residence of Polish kings and the seat of parliament, destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt between 1971 and 1984 with donations from Poles around the world.

Below the castle, the terraced Royal Castle Gardens step down toward the Vistula. Restored and reopened in recent years, they are a calm green corner with flower beds and views that few visitors find on their own. Your guide brings you here first, so you understand the castle from both sides before entering the Old Town. If you plan to see the castle museum later, the guide can advise on Royal Castle tickets and opening hours.

Old Town Market Square and the Warsaw Mermaid

The Market Square is the heart of the Old Town, framed by tall merchant houses painted in ochre, red and green, many with decorated facades and carved portals. In the centre stands the Warsaw Mermaid with sword and shield, the symbol of the city, which appears on Warsaw's coat of arms and in many local legends.

Around 85 percent of the Old Town was destroyed in 1944, and what you see today is a careful post-war reconstruction based on drawings, photographs and old paintings. UNESCO listed it in 1980 for exactly this reason. Nearby your guide shows you one of the narrowest house facades in the city, barely one window wide, a curiosity linked to the old taxes on frontage.

St John's Archcathedral, the city walls and the Barbican

Just off the square stands St John's Archcathedral, a Gothic brick church from the 14th century where Polish kings were crowned and married. Next to it is the Jesuit Church, with a tall baroque facade. Both were rebuilt after the war, and the walls of the cathedral still carry traces of the fighting of 1944.

At the edge of the Old Town, the red-brick city walls and the semicircular Barbican, a 16th-century fortified gateway, show how the medieval town was defended. A short detour leads to a viewing terrace above the Vistula, with wide views of the river and the Praga district on the far bank. These spots answer a common question, what to see in Warsaw Old Town beyond the main square.

Warsaw New Town

Through the Barbican you cross into the New Town, founded at the end of the 14th century and a separate town until 1791. It is quieter than the Old Town, with a sloping Market Square, a cast-iron well and baroque churches. Freta Street, its main lane, has small cafés and a traditional pastry shop that your guide can recommend.

On this street stands the house where Poland's double Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist was born, now a small museum. The New Town is often missed by visitors who stop at the Barbican, which makes this part of the Warsaw Old Town guided tour especially rewarding for photography and for a slower look at everyday Warsaw.

Ghetto boundary markers and the Warsaw Uprising Monument

Near the end of the walk your guide shows you the boundary markers set into the pavement where the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto once stood. Between 1940 and 1943 hundreds of thousands of Jewish residents were confined behind it, and in April 1943 they rose up against the occupiers. The markers are quiet, simple and deeply moving.

The tour ends at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasiński Square, unveiled in 1989. Its bronze figures show insurgents emerging from under a collapsing slab and soldiers descending into a sewer, which the fighters used to move through the city during the 63 days of the 1944 uprising. Your guide spends about 15 minutes here explaining what happened and how it shaped modern Warsaw.