Warsaw 148 years ago shown in a unique collection of photographs

The panorama of the city consists of 10 photos in 25 x 31 format. The cover shows the Royal Castle with its clock tower being renovated. Each photograph is marked with a seal and has the author's signature.

"Most likely it's the only set of reprints of Brandel's photos that can be found in museum and library collections" - the Warsaw Rising Museum said in a press release.

The collection begins with a photo taken facing east, where the Praga district is located. On the other side of the Kierbedź Bridge, a no-longer-existing synagogue at the corner of Petersburska and Szeroka streets (today's Jagiellońska and Kłopotowskiego). Next photos show the Powiśle district with its buildings reaching as far as Solec. Also, the Church of the Holy Trinity and the waterworks designed by Henryk Marconi can be spotted.

The collection also allows us to see the central parts of the city, Krakowskie Przedmieście with St. Anne's Church, the uncompleted Hotel Europejski, Holy Cross Church, Senatorska street, the Grand Theatre and the City Hall, as well as the Branicki and Pac palaces on Miodowa street, and the domes of the then Piarist friars church at the Krasiński Square turned into an Orthodox church. Next, we can see the dense architecture of the Old and New Towns, the Citadel ramparts and St. John's Cathedral in the foreground.

In the last two photos it's possible to spot the railway bridge under construction near the Citadel, granaries and warehouses at the Vistula bank, as well as the Cathedral of Saint Mary Magdalene across the river in Praga.

The Warsaw Rising Museum also tells the story behind the photos. On August 26, 1873, the clock tower of the Royal Castle was surrounded with scaffolding. Konrad Brandel went up the tower and took 10 photos which were meant to put together to form a 360-degree panorama of Warsaw. However, it was not the first panorama of the city. The first one was taken in 1858 by Karol Beyer from the lantern tower of the Holy Trinity Church at today's Małachowskiego Square.

The historic photos by Konrad Brandel are available to be seen at the Warsaw Rising Museum website, set together with present-day equivalents. Thanks to the special sliders, it's very easy to see how the city has changed over 148 years.

Konrad Brandel is considered one of the most interesting Polish photographers of the 19th century.