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By the Vistula River stands the formidable Warsaw Citadel, dominating the surrounding area. The well-preserved fortress is an obligatory component of any city tour and the place of a special interest for history lovers.
As a response to the November Rising of 1830-1831 the Citadel was built soon after, in 1832. It served as a fortress for a Russian garrison (Warsaw at that time was occupied by Russia), political prison and execution ground. Russian Tsar Nicholas I intended it not only to defend the city from possible attacks but in the first place to repress any patriotic and national movements in the city and to intimidate the citizens. For that time it was an outstanding military construction and could accommodate a troop of 16,000. During its long history about 40,000 Polish patriots, participants of independence movements and revolutionary activists became prisoners of the Citadel and were executed or exiled later. The most famous prisoners of the Citadel at various times were national Polish hero Jozef Pilsudski (marshal and statesman), artist Alexander Sochaczewski, communist Rosa Luxembourg and revolutionist Feliks Dzierzynski, who later became the head of the first Soviet secret police organization. The Citadel was used as a prison up to the middle of the 1920s. Then after a short break it again started functioning as a prison for political convicts but this time not under the Imperial Russian authorities, but the Nazis.
Nowadays the 10th pavilion of the Citadel, that earlier served as a prison, houses the branch of the Independence Museum. Its exhibition elucidates the history of Poland from the 18th century division of the country between Russia, Prussia and Austria up to the 20th century. The visitors can walk around the labyrinth of tunnels and prison cells that have been quite well preserved. On display there are paintings, prison relics and firearms. On the outside there is a small arsenal of heavy-duty military equipment of the World War II, including T-34 and T-54 tanks, and a world-famous Russian rocket launcher Katyusha. There you'll also find a Nazi bunker dating from 1940, a cemetery and the Gate of Execution, which is a place, where in 1864 national heroes Traugutt and Dabrowski were executed in front of a crowd of 30,000.
This stronghold for almost two centuries remains a symbol of martyrdom and struggle for independence for the Polish nation. Nowadays it is one of the best-preserved military fortresses in Poland and a very popular walking area with picturesque park, playgrounds for children and a duck pond.
