Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/484

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464 WARSAW 8,300 members of the Greek church. It has an area of 15 sq. m., including 5 sq. m. of open spaces. Most of the city is well built, and hundreds of new structures have been erected recently. It is surrounded by ditches and walls, and has eight gates and an almost impregnable citadel. The fortified suburb of Praga, opposite Warsaw, is reached by a long and magnificent iron bridge, built in 1865, in- stead of the former bridge of boats. The principal parade ground is the Champ do Mars. The finest of about a dozen squares are the Saxon square, with an obelisk in honor of the Poles who remained faithful to Russia in the insurrection of 1830; the square named after Sigismund III., with that monarch's statue on a lofty column ; and the Marieville bazaar, with arcades like those of the Palais Royal in Paris. The most celebrated avenues are the Cracow Suburb, with Thorwaldsen's equestrian statue of Prince Joseph Poniatowski, and the New World. Several avenues are planted with pop- lar and chestnut trees. In 1721 Augustus II. laid out magnificent gardens, which with the Krasinski palace and garden, Constantino square (1867), the royal and Bruhl palaces, and the English park in the Belvedere, are among the chief attractions of Warsaw. Ro- man Catholic and Greek archbishops reside here. There are about 20 Catholic churches, including the cathedral dating from 1360, which communicates with the royal palace. The Greek cathedral of 1842 is very handsome, and that of the Lutherans is the finest of all. The Reformed church is modelled after the Roman Pantheon. There are several large synagogues. The most imposing public building is the royal palace, built by Sigismund III. on high ground commanding the river, and embellished by his successors. It has splendid apartments, where the senate and diet formerly met, and the archives are preserved here. The Saxon palace was the residence of several kings of that line. These and other public and private palaces impart grandeur to the city. Of its former treasures, the Zaluski library of 300,- 000 volumes and other spoils of local collec- tions were in 1795 transferred to the imperial library at St. Petersburg. Among other prom- inent edifices are the extensive new govern- ment palace, a grand theatre, the mint, bank, post offices, and the railway depots in the outskirts, belonging to lines which connect Warsaw with St. Petersburg, Moscow, Cracow, Berlin, Dantzic, and other places, and com- municating by horse cars with all parts of the city. The university was suspended with other institutions after the revolution of 1830- '81, but reopened in 1869; in 1873 it had 946 students and 66 professors. Connected with it are many laboratories, an observatory, and a botanic garden. The other educational institutions include a theological and a rab- binical seminary, several gymnasiums (one for females, who have special schools besides), a school of design, a conservatory of music es- tablished in 1860 and attended in 1876 by about 200 pupils, and more than 60 common and Sunday schools and over 100 private ones. The weekly grain, cattle, and horse markets, and the annual market for wool, are numer- ously attended, as well as the fairs in May and September. In 1872 there were 265 manu- factories of cloth, carpets, pianos, carriages, wagons, saddlery, machines, and numerous other articles, employing 7,234 persons, and producing goods valued at 14,332,788 rubles, being 2,745,953 more than in 1871, and the sub- sequent increase was still larger. Adjacent to the city are memorable battle grounds, and the Lazienki, imperial, and other palaces, a park, a zoological garden with a picture gallery, the Kr61ikarnia or Rabbit garden, and museums, villas, and pleasure resorts. Warsaw is first mentioned in history early in the 13th cen- tury. Subsequently it was the capital of the dukes of Masovia till 1526, when they became extinct. In the next generation it was the residence of King Sigismund II., and from the latter part of the 16th century the Polish kings were elected in the neighboring grounds, of Wola. In 1609, under Sigismund III., it became the permanent capital, although the coronations continued to take place at Cracow. In 1655 it surrendered to Charles X. of Swe- den, and was recovered in 1656 by John Casimir of Poland ; but the Poles were overwhelmed at Pruga by the Swedish monarch and the elector Frederick William of Brandenburg in a three days' battle, and capitulated on July 80. In 1705 Charles XII. occupied it for a short time previous to his conferring the Polish crown on Stanislas Leszczynski. Under the electors of Saxony Warsaw became one of the most brilliant capitals of Europe. The Russians occupied the city from 1764 to 1774. They returned in 1793. The massacre of their garrison in April, 1794, was followed from July till September by a Prussian siege; and Warsaw was finally obliged to surrender to Suvaroff (Nov. 8), after the murderous storm- ing of its suburb. (See PRAGA.) The third partition of Poland placed it under Prus- sian rule, which in November, 1806, was ter- minated by the French occupation. The treaty of Tilsit of 1807 created the duchy of Warsaw, to which the treaty of Vienna of 1809 added western Galicia, increasing the population from 2,200,000 to 8,780,000. King Frederick Augustus of Saxony was at the head of the duchy till the end of the disastrous Franco- Russian campaign of 1812. The Russians re- established their rule over Warsaw early in 1813. In the night of Nov. 29-30, 1830, be- gan at Warsaw the grandest Polish struggle for independence, which virtually ended with the capture of the city by the Russians under Paskevitch, Sept. 8, 1831. The citadel and other strong works were soon erected to con- trol the city ; the principal learned institutions were closed ; and, as most families were in mourning for fallen kinsmen and the lost cause,