A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

As before, as temperatures soar Warsaw’s social focus will switch to the river. In June, this will culminate with the customary celebration of Wianki – or, to award it its English title, Midsummer’s Night. Although details had yet to be announced at press time, history is likely to repeat itself with most of events held around the Multimedia Fountain Park below the Old Town. Previously, that’s meant concerts, fireworks and food fairs, as well as a traditional floating of garlands downstream. Tied with Slavic tradition, it’ll also involve flower-laden wooden vessels making their way down the Wisła. Set to attract several thousands of people (and we mean, several thousands), it’s one of June’s most anticipated events.

and was laid to rest in Powązki Military Cemetery. Something of a shrine for fans, her grave is one of the more picturesque in Warsaw, decorated as it is with an ivy-clad trellis and a bronze sculpture of a nude female figure.

Kora’s grave can be found in Powązki Military Cemetery on Row 14 of Section K. Still lost?

It’s to the left of the Smolensk monument.

MA-URI MASSAGE IS NOT ONLY A RELIEF FOR A TIRED BODY, BUT ALSO A REAL FEAST FOR THE SPIRIT.

A massage like no other, Polynesian massage relaxes, eases tension and helps to achieve a perfect physical and emotional balance by introducing harmony between the body, mind and spirit. In addition, in this massage is a wonderful massage of the head, hair and face in addition to cosmetic qualities causes the "exposure" of emotions, and thus, the ordering of thoughts and strengthening of perception .

Smooth movements to the rhythm of calming music give the massage harmony and balance in the human body. After the massage, you feel that you have more energy to act.

Body & Mind massage by HANKA KRASZCZYŃSKA ul. Pełczyńskiego 28 E/lok. 24

Al. Jerozolimskie 45, Hotel Polonia Palace + 48 798 665 254 www.lomilomi.waw.pl

What’s Fat All About?

The story of Gruba Kaśka…

We’ve all been there: stood at the Ratusz Arsenal tram stop, staring in puzzlement at that strange, rotund structure that sits between the fork in the tramlines. What the hell is it, we’ve all asked at one point. In a nutshell, that’s Gruba Kaśka (Fat Kasia), a water tower designed in Classicist style by the eminent architect Szymon Bogumił Zug. Though small in size, it took four years to build and was completed in 1787 to form part of a complex commissioned by the banker Karol Schultz.

Comprising of a luxury hotel, a palace, a coach house and stables, the water tower would form just one element of this ambitious project. Alas, the collapse of Schultz’s bank in 1793 saw these plans scotched and the surrounding land and properties subsequently snapped up by the wealthy Jews that inhabited this part of town.

Set in what was once a square, the water fountain continued to prove useful though, and right up until the outbreak of the war it was used to provide water for horse-drawn cabs. Damaged during the 1944 Uprising, it was modified in the post-war years by Bruno Zborowski who narrowed the doorway and walled-up the windows. Fortunately, it did at least survive the construction of the W-Z highway with the tram tracks arranged so that they would run either side of the building. Restored to its previous form in 2004, today it’s one of Warsaw’s odd little gems.