ul. Nowomiejska - the crowdest street

Warsaw Old Town street - ul. Nowomiejska, the crowdest street

Linking two major sights - the Old Square and Barbakan - it is inevitably the Old Town's most crowded street, trodden by hordes of visitors at any time of the year. The earliest records of its name are from the 15th century, when it was already one of the town's thoroughfares leading to the New Town Gate and the New Town itself.

In 1607 ul. Nowomiejska was ravaged by a great fire. After rebuilding, it looked even more splendid, lined with a plethora of taverns, eateries and cafés, and became a centre of trade, especially with merchants from Gdańsk. In the early 19th century the area between the two lines of walls was cleared and turned into a marketplace stretching between Podwale and Szeroki Dunaj. In 1944 almost all buildings in ul. Nowowiejska were destroyed save no. 10 and the ground floors of several other houses.

The most interesting houses along ul. Nowomiejska include: the Mayor's House (no. 1), where Jan Dekert, the famous mayor of old Warsaw, once lived; no. 5, which is a fine example of a patrician house; and the Pauline House (no. 10), which escaped the war almost undamaged. Particularly noteworthy is the Pauline Church of the Holy Spirit and St. Paul the Hermit (no. 23), which evolved from a wooden chapel of the Holy Spirit Hospital that was built under the Mazovian dukes and destroyed in 1656.