Stone Stairs

Main data:

Year of construction: approximately 1550
Designer: ???
Location: Upper part - from Krzywe Kolo St. to Brzozowa St., lower part - from Brzozowa St. to Bugaj street

This small street is one of the nicest places on the Old Town, and, what is more, you can never meet crowds here, differently as on nearby Market Square. Actually this place should not be called a street, no vehicle would enter it, because all street is actually stairs.

The lane consists of two parts: upper part from Krzywe Kolo street to Brzozowa street and lower, which is moved a little bit to the north, from Brzozowa street to Bugaj street.

The Stone Stairs probably existed already in 16th century. The street led then to the White Gate, located at the Town Walls from the side of Vistula. But the stairs were then probably wooden, so its today's name would not be yet appropriate, so it was called Przechodnia (which can be translated as Connecting Street or Passage), Ciasna (Tight Street) or Piesza (Pedestrian Street). In the 18th century the stairs were converted into the stone ones and its today's name became popular.

In 1806 Napoleon, during his visit to Warsaw, together with Jozef Poniatowski used the stairs to go down to Vistula. We can read from the description of this walk, that he rather did not like this place, as it was dirty and neglected.

Today the stairs' condition is much better, because they were renovated lately. So it is really a place worth visiting.

The entrance to Stone Stairs from Krzywe Kolo street, next to Old Town Market Square

A view down the Stone Stairs, from Krzywe Kolo street

Stone Stairs - a view from the half of the upper part

A view on the lower part of the stairs from Brzozowa street

A view from Bugaj street, at the bottom end of the stairs