Bemowo
Bemowo is a district of the city of Warsaw, Poland. It has an area of 24.95 km2, and in 2024, it was inhabited by 128,895 people, making it the 7th most populous and 8th largest district of the city. Located at the west edge of the city, it borders districts of Bielany to the north, Wola and Żoliborz to the east, and Ursus and Włochy to the south, with its western border forming the city boundary. There, it borders municipalities of Ożarów Mazowiecki and Stare Babice in Warsaw West County. The district is dominated by residential areas, predominantly featuring high-rise multifamily housing estates such as Nowe Bemowo in the northeast, Górce in the centre, and Chrzanów, Górczewska, Jelonki, and Lazurowa in the south. The area also features a few low-rise single-family neighbourhoods, including Boernerowo, Fort Radiowo, and Groty in the northwest, and Friendship Estate, Nowy Chrzanów, and Stare Jelonki in the southeast. The district also includes the Warsaw Babice Airport, the campus of the Military University of Technology. Additionally, it has the Bemowo metro station, with two more, Lazurowa and Karolin, currently being under construction.
By the 15th century, within the modern district were present villages of Górce and Groty. In the following centuries, more communities were also founded, including Chrzanów, Jelonki, Karolin, and Parysów. In the second half of the 19th century, four forts were built there as part of the fortifications of the Warsaw Fortress, erected around the city by the Imperial Russian Army. In 1923, the Fort IIA was adopted to house the broadcasting infrastructure of the Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Exchange, at the time, one of the largest radio communication stations in the world. It provided stable connections for worldwide communications. It was later destroyed in 1944. In the late 1920s, Jelonki and Górce began developing as suburbs, and in the 1930s, Boernerowo was also founded in the north. In 1950, the Warsaw Babice Airport was opened in the northern Bemowo, which was used by the military until the 1990s. Additionally, in 1951, the Military University of Technology was opened in the district, and in 1952, the Friendship Estate was also constructed in its central east. In the 1970s and 1980s, numerous large high-rise multifamily housing estates were built across Bemowo, including Nowe Bemowo, Nowe Górce, Górczewska, Jelonki, and Lazurowa. In the 2000s, new housing developments were also constructed in Chrzanów and Fort Bema.
The area was incorporated into warsaw in 1951, originally becoming part of the Wola district. In 1994, it was separated into its own administrative unit, the municipality of Warsaw-Bemowo, which was restructured into the Bemowo district in 2002.
Toponomy
The district was named Bemowo in 1998, after the Bem Fort, a historic 19th-century fortification in its northwestern corner, which itself honours Józef Bem, an 18th- and 19th-century engineer and military officer, and veteran of the November Uprising. The name, formed from his surname Bem, with the addition of the suffix -owo, means Bem's settlement. Previously, from 1947 to 1987, it was used as the name of Boernerowo, one of the district's neighbourhoods.History
Until the 20th century
By the 15th century, within the central area of the modern Bemowo, were present villages of Górce and Groty, which were owned and inhabited by the petty nobility. The same century, Chrzanów was founded in the south, and in the 16th century, Parysów was also established in north. Between 1655 and 1656, the villages in the area were devastated and destroyed by the Swedish army during the Second Northern War, and were rebuilt afterwards.In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, the combined Prussian and Russian forces took up positions on the Swedish Mountains, a set of dunes near Parysów, to besiege the nearby city of Warsaw, with their artillery cannons. They were attacked by Polish forces, led by Józef Poniatowski, which managed to briefly occupy the dunes, before being pushed back. They were again captured in an attack led by Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. Another skirmish took place at the Swedish Mountains in 1831 during the November Uprising, when Polish–Lithuanian insurgents, following heavy fighting, were pushed out by the Russian forces, led by Ivan Paskevich.
In the 18th century, Górce came into prosperity, thanks to the proceedings of the election seym, during which nobility members elected monarchs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, held at the nearby fields of Młynów, Koło, and Powązki. The village provided the attendees and the staff with housing and food.
In the 19th century, the villages of Jelonki and Nowy Chrzanów were founded in the south. By that time, the village of Karolin was also present in the area.
In 1867, the area of the modern city district was divided into several municipalities, with Blizne including Chrzanów, Górce, Groty, and Jelonki, Młociny including Parysów, and Skorcze including Karolin.
In 1866, the Fort III was built near Groty, as part of the series of fortifications of the Warsaw Fortress, erected around the city by the Imperial Russian Army. In the 1880s, there were also built Fort IIA near Stare Babice, Fort IV near Chrzanów, and Fort P near Parysów. They were decommissioned in 1909 and partially demolished in 1913. From 1924 to 1939, the Bem Fort housed an ammunition factory.
Several brickworks across the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Bogumił Schneider's factory in Jelonki, which operated from 1846 to 1940. They sourced clay locally, leaving behind pits, which over time flooded, forming numerous ponds. Most of them were later filled in in the 1940s, during the development of new housing in the area, with several remaining to this day.
20th century before the Second World War
In 1916, a dirt runway aerodrome was built between Parysów and Fort IIA, for the German Air Combat Forces. In 1919, it was adapted by the Polish government for the use of the Aviation Institute of Technology, a government research institution of aviation technologies. It operated until 1939, and its institutions were inherited in 1953 by the Air Forse Institute of Technology, with majority of its laboratories now located within the nearby neighbourhood of Fort Bema, in the complex centred around 6 Księcia Bolesława Street.In 1920, a wooden building near Parysów, was adopted into the St. Josaphat Church belonging to the Catholic denomination. According to some theories, said structure could have been the St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Church of the Eastern Orthodox denomination, dating to 1872, however, others suspect it would have been deconstructed by then. In 1966, it was replaced with a new, larger brick building.
In 1923, the Fort IIA was adopted to house the broadcasting infrastructure of the Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Exchange, at the time, one of the largest radio communication stations in the world. The complex included ten 127-metre-tall steel radio masts, placed in the nearby Bemowo Woods, in an area spaning 4 km. They were operated with the 200 kW Alexanderson alternators powered by a 500 kW Diesel engine, providing stable connections and large range, which allowed for worldwide communications, conducted with the Morse code. In 1926, the complex was connected to the power plant in Pruszków, and in 1938, two more radio masts were added. The Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Exchange also had its receiver infrastructure in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, and the Central Operations Office in Warsaw.
In 1927, Jelonki was divided for the construction of villas in accordance to the principles of the garden city movement. In 1932, the settlement had been renamed to Miasto-Ogród Jelonek. A marketplace, known as the John III Sobieski Square, now known as the Castellan Square, was also built there. In the 1920s, a low-rise neighbourhood with single-family detached homes was also developed in Górce.
In 1933, a small suburb of Boernerowo, originally known as Osiedle Łączności, was developed nearby the Fort IIA. It was proposed by Ignacy Boerner, the Minister of Post and Telegraphs, to combat the rising housing crisis in the city, and create homes for the employees of the nearby Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Exchange. The estate consisted of detached houses made from wood, to provide affordable housing and keep construction costs low. The construction began in July 1933, and by 1939, the neighbourhood included 275 houses and several other buildings, such as a school, a Catholic chapel, and stores. It had a permanent population of around 1,500 people. nIn 1933, the suburb of Kolonia im. Aleksandry Piłsudskiej, was also founded nearby, to provide housing to veterans and their families. Both settlements were joined. In 1936, the suburb was transferred from the municipality of Młociny to Blizne. In 1971, Church of Our Lady of the Sharp Gate was built in place of the former chapel.
In October 1933, Boernerowo was connected to Wola via a tram line, originally designed as B, and later also called A22 and B22. Its tracks went through Księcia Janusza Street and Obozoba Street, connecting to the suburb via a road next to the Bem Fort. It operated until the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and was reactivated in 1946, as line 20. In 1950, it was replaced by a new line on Dywizjonu 303 and Kaliskiego Streets. In 2011, it was shortened to Kaliskiego Street.
Second World War
The area was captured by the advancing German Wehrmacht forces during the siege of Warsaw in the Second World War. This included Boernerowo, which was captured on 10 September. It was recaptured by Polish soldiers on the night of 14 and 15 September. On 16 September, the 3rd Battalion, together with the 3rd battery of the 54th Artillery Regiment, moved to the Fort IIA, which they defended from heavy attacks on 17 and 18 September. The next they, the battalion attacked the village of Janów, while German forces began an attack on Boernerowo coming from Stare Babice.On 18 September 1939, Jelonki and Nowy Chrzanów were recaptured in a counter-offensive by the 360th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Armed Forces, commanded by lieutenant colonel Leopold Okulicki. Their forces included four infantry companies, with heavy machine gun platoons, and one mortar platoon. They were also supported by a artillery batteries, a platoon of 7TP light tanks, as well as a company of the Capital Battalion, with the latter being pushed back during the attacks. The motorized platoon suffered heavy loses in an encounter against German Panzer 35 light tanks. The villages were captured with severe losses suffered by the Polish infantry, and remained under Polish control until the capitulation of Warsaw on 28 September 1939. In the morning of 19 September, the Capital Battalion of the Polish Armed Forces, led by Józef Spychalski, began an attack on the German-occupied Fort III, from the village of Blizne Łaszczyńskiego. It was aided by the 8th Company of the 26th Infantry Regiment, attacking from Boernerowo in the north. The German forces pushed back two attacks, causing significant casualties to the Polish side, which fortified its positions 500 metres from the fort. The fort was abandoned and captured on 26 September.
On 27 September, German forces captured the Fort II in Wawrzyszew, exposing Polish positions, and surrounding the 3rd Battalion from the north, capturing the Swedish Mountains. On the same day, the 19th Infantry Division of Wehrmacht captured Boernerowo and the Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Exchange, following the heavy fighting. The battalion suffered devastating losses, with the remaining survivors being captured. Overall, around 85 to 90% of the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion were killed during the siege of Warsaw.
The Bem Fort, defended by the 202nd Company of the 4th Battalion of the 30th Kaniów Riflemen Regiment, and later by the 144th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Armed Forces, despite numerous German attacks, remained under Polish control until the capitulation of Warsaw on 28 September 1939.
In December 1939, while under the German occupation, the 7th Legions Infantry Regiment formed the underground resistance group Madagascar, later renamed Garłuch in 1942. It had its base of operations in Boernerowo, in a house at 11 Boernera Street. Lieutenant Henryk Malec became its commander and was replaced in 1942 by deputy lieutenant Władysław Kłodziński. It became one of the largest groups of Polish resistance, and the main unit operating in the area. In 1941, Tadeusz Towarnick founded the insurgent group Wapiennik, also known as division unit 993/W, with its base of operations in a house at 15 Parkowa Street. Both groups carried out numerous military and sabotage operations against German occupiers and their collaborators.
On 6 January 1940, German officers executed and buried 96 people at the nearby Swedish Mountains. It was one of the earliest mass executions committed in Poland during the conflict. The identity of the victims remains unknown. The bodies were exhumed in 1947.
On 2 August 1944, a resistance company of around 100 soldiers, led by Jerzy Terczyński, cryptonym Straż, was attacked by the occupant soldiers to the north of Boernerowo. The unit was retreating from Żoliborz and Bielany, while being separated and without means of communication with the rest of the insurgent forces. Polish soldiers, while in an open field, were ambushed and surrounded by German forces and shot at with machine guns. Additionally, they were shot at and rammed by a German tank. Over 70 resistance soldiers were killed, with a small number managing to escape, and a few being captured and executed afterwards. The German side suffered a few casualties and injuries.
Through the conflict, hundreds of people moved from Warsaw to Boernerowo in search of refuge after losing their houses due to bombings or expulsion. Due to this, the population of the settlement doubled from around 1,500 to 3,000 people, with new arrivals being taken in by the local inhabitants. During and after the destruction of Warsaw, Władysław Graff, the mayor of Boernerowo, issued the backdated resident registration documents to the refugees. It was done at risk to himself and his family, as, according to German law, sheltering potential insurgents would be punished by death. Simultaneously, people began also moving to Górce, with new houses built there being mostly provisional structures built from wood or rubble recovered from destruction in the city.
During the occupation of the city, German forces used the Transatlantic Radiotelegraph Exchange to communicate with the crews of their U-boat submarines. The entire radio broadcasting infrastructure was destroyed on 16 January 1945, by German forces retreating from the advancing Red Army.
After the settlement was captured by the Red Army, on 17 January 1945, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, set up a base in a former provisional precinct of the Blue Police in a house at 38 and 38A Dostepna Street. They began to capture soldiers of the Home Army operating in the area and held them in a jail in the building's basement. Some soldiers of Garłuch continued activity within the area, engaging in resistance against the Soviet Union, including freeing some of the prisoners.