Warsaw University Library

The great gallery of knowledge, books from the best and brightest, spans the horizon inside this expansive place, an escape from the ignorance of the outside world that you seem to run to more often these days. The cascade of casual readers annoys your concentration at first, but you quickly fall into another amazing world of ideas as your eyes climb over the pages of a fresh novel. Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly 260 kilometres (160 mi) from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres (190 mi) from the Carpathian Mountains. Warsaw is also known as the "phoenix city", as it recovered from extensive damage during World War II during which 80% of its buildings were destroyed. The first fortified settlements on the site of today's Warsaw were Bródno (9th/10th century) and Jazdów (12th/13th century). After Jazdów was raided, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa. The Płock prince Bolesław II of Masovia, established this settlement, the modern Warsaw, about 1300. In the beginning of the 14th century it became one of the seats of the Dukes of Masovia, becoming the capital of Masovia in 1413. Fourteenth-century Warsaw's economy rested on crafts and trade. Upon the extinction of the local ducal line, the duchy was reincorporated into the Polish Crown in 1526. During World War II, central Poland, including Warsaw, came under the rule of the General Government, a German Nazi colonial administration. All higher education institutions were immediately closed and Warsaw's entire Jewish population – several hundred thousand, some 30% of the city – were taken to the Warsaw Ghetto.