Around the World with the Griffin Post

Warsaw is the capital of Poland, and is located in the central-east part of the country in the Mazowieckie province, which it is also the capital of. While Warsaw isn’t known for being big, beautiful, or durable, it is known for being a phoenix, always being reborn after the depths of war. The city is over 800 years old. While the founding date is unknown, the first mention of Warsaw in documents was in the year 1313, but the settlement formerly known as Warszowa was settled around the year 1300, which turned into what we know as Warsaw. It is home to 1.86 million people and has a GDP of 91.32 billion Euros, or around $108 billion.
Warsaw lies on the Vistula (Wisła) River, which lies about 240 miles southeast of the city Gdańsk, which lies on the Baltic Sea. Warsaw also lies on the Warsaw Plain, which sits around 250-380 feet above sea level. The average temperature of Warsaw is quite mild as it has an average temperature in the 40s during the year, and it drops into the 20s in the winter months, and rises into the 60s in the summer. Snow falls for about two months of the year.
The city has an area of 172 square miles and is split into seven subdivisions, those being Śródmieście, Żoliborz, Wola, Ochota, Mokotów, Praga-Południe, and Praga-Północ. Many Polish landmarks can be found in the city such as the National Shrine of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, St. John’s Cathedral, a monument remembering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, and a statue of Warsaw’s greatest composer, Frédéric Chopin.
The history of Warsaw is known as filled with destruction and rebirth. Starting in 1300, an old town called Jadzow was moved two miles north to Warszowa (Warsaw), and the village now had protection of a castle. In 1339, authority invested into a bailiff, and in 1376, there was a city council. At the end of the century, the growing settlement had a double line of ramparts. 
Sometime in the 15th century, it became the capital of the duchy of Mazovia, in 1526, it became part of the Polish Kingdom, and in 1573, the elections of the king and the city’s first bridge was built over the Vistula River. In 1596 Sigismund III Vasa made the city his royal residence, and in 1611, it officially became the capital of Poland, after being moved from Kraków. It grew massively over the next 40 years as in 1655-1656, the Swedish invaded, which brought the country down for a while and in 1733, the War of the Polish Succession brought the country into economic decay and pestilence. After the war, Poland made many banks, and in 1764, King Stanisław II August Poniatowski started his reign, which started a turning point for the better. He put Warsaw at the center of the Polish Enlightenment, he created the first Polish lay school in 1765, and in 1773, the Committee of Education was formed and took action immediately. Yet in 1791, there was the first partition of Poland, where a parliamentary constitution was formed in the city. There were then two more partitions, which set Warsaw in the region of Prussia. It wasn't for a long time, because in 1806, Napoleon invaded. He created the Duchy of Warsaw, which was reinstated as a capital again. Napoleon eventually fell later when conquering Russia. While still being under other countries, Warsaw and Poland wanted independence, and then started the Russo-Polish War, which the Poles had the advantage, which they then lost and was under 30 years of military rule. It was then kept up under the rule of the Russian Empire in the late 1860s. Nothing of true importance happened until after 1918, when Poland and Warsaw were liberated and gained independence, and Warsaw became the capital again. On September 1, 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, to start WW2. Sadly, more than 10,000 people died and more than 50,000 got injured. This was before there was a lack of supplies and Poland surrendered. Under Nazi rule, many concentration camps were formed, and the Jewish population got heavily destroyed during the Holocaust. The Nazis destroyed everything about Jewish culture during the war, including the Great Synagogue, which has thankfully been restored. In 1944, the Poles made a futile resistance attempt and the Nazis immediately shut it down, killing more than 150,000 in total. During the war, about 600,000-800,000 Poles died in the war. Warsaw became the capital once again, and in 1989, the communist regime finally collapsed, leaving Warsaw to be what it is now.
In conclusion, Warsaw is a tremendous city that has survived time and time again after the brinks of collapse and ruin, stating it as one of the most resilient capitals in Europe.