Capital of Poland since 1596 Warsaw is a dynamic European capital city.
Poland’s largest city and the nation’s urban, cultural and commercial center, this is a city that was completely destroyed during the period 1939-1945. From the ashes and rubble has come a majestic capital; one based on the work of wonderful Italian Bellotto who was the court painter of the Polish King.
Today, almost every building in Warsaw dates to the post-war era – what little remains of the old structures is confined largely to the restored districts of Stare Miasto the ‘old city’ and Nowe Miasto the ‘new city’.
Alongside these stands the most distinctive monument of them all in the Palace of Culture and Science also known as the ‘wedding cake’. Built during the 1950’s this classical Stalinist ornament has a dominant place in the city center containing museums, staterooms, conference facilities within its 42 floors.
Just as the city of Warsaw has become a modern and well laid out city so the main football club – ‘Legia’ reside in a modern football stadium built on the site of the old crumbling Polish army stadium.
Formed by Mashal Pilsudski’s legionaries in 1916, the Central Military Sports Club or ‘Legia Warsawa’ began playing at its current home in 1930.
The golden years for Legia came in the 1960’s.
Legia boasted a squad with many famous Polish national team players including Kazimierz Gorski and Lucian Brychczy.
Like many of the teams in Eastern Europe, the club was helped through an association with the military.
Many of these teams were also helped by the national sporting adherence to athletic excellence, a concept so favored by the communist rulers.
With it being almost impossible to leave the country due to the restrictions of the regime, the Polish league had an assortment of sides and the national squad of international class football players.
The Legia squad included Tomaszewski and Denya the latter of whom is regarded as the clubs’ greatest ever player.
During the 1970’s the club made a huge impact in European football and likewise did the same during the 1980’s and 1990’s. The Polish national meanwhile performed admirably at the World Cups in 1974, 1978 and 1982 – they were the Croatia of the time.
A lot of the football murals in Poland can be seen in similar places to that in which it exists within other countries – namely along railway lines or on train carriages.
In many working class neighborhoods, the art can be politically incorrect in tone particularly if located near areas of poverty or industrial decline. In the case of the work dedicated to Legia, its best creative forms are located in urban areas in close proximity to the stadium.
Much of Poland is rural and one of the indications of approaching a city or town can be the slow but steady proliferation of meaningless tagged graffiti.
In the case of Legia Warsaw, a lot of the work is clearly welcomed – there is an ‘our ground, our rules’ mindset and this proves to be central to the visual locality of the work.














