Nowomiejska Street at Freta Street before the war, when the Barbican's remains were hidden among tenement houses
Rubble filling Nowomiejska Street, which leads from the Old Town Market Square to the Barbican
Reconstruction of the Barbican's brick walls
The rebuilt Barbican seen from Nowomiejska Street
The Barbican and the reconstructed city walls seen from Podwale Street
The Barbican's outer face seen from the moat
The Barbican seen from Nowomiejska Street
The Barbican, a semicircular fortified gate in Warsaw's city walls, was built in the mid-16th century on the road from the Old Town to the New Town. After losing its defensive role it was partly demolished and built over with tenement houses, and only fragments were uncovered during restoration work in the late 1930s. The area was devastated in 1944, and the Barbican was reconstructed in 1952–1954 from old drawings and the surviving remains. Today it is a pedestrian gateway between the Old and New Towns, part of the Old Town UNESCO World Heritage Site.