Warsaw was founded in the thirteenth century. Initially surrounded by a wall of earth, before 1339 it was fortified with walls of brick. Originally, the city grew around the palace of the dukes of Mazovia, which later became the Royal Palace in Warsaw.

The Market Square (Rynek Starego Miasta) was built in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century on the road that connected the palace with the New Town to the north. Until 1817, the main building of the City Hall plaza was built before 1429. In 1701, the square was rebuilt by the Dutch architect van Gameren Tylman, and in 1817 the City was demolished. Since the nineteenth century, the four sides of the market square are the names of four notable Poles who lived on the respective sides: Wyssogota Ignacy Zakrzewski (south), Hugo Kollataja (west), Jan Dekert (north) and Franciszek Barss (this .)

In the nineteenth century, due to rapid growth of the city, the Old Town lost its importance as administrative and commercial center. The historic center began to deteriorate and became home to the poorer classes. It was not until the independence of Poland, after the First World War, local authorities began to address this new district.

Palacio Real.

In 1918, the Royal Palace once again host the highest authority in Poland, now the President of the Republic and its foreign ministry.

In the late 1930s, was mayor Stefan Starzyński, began the restoration of the Old Town restoration was interrupted by World War II.

During the invasion of Poland in 1939, much of the neighborhood was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe in a campaign of terror that took as white residential areas and historical monuments. After the siege of Warsaw in 1939, reconstruction began, but immediately after the Warsaw Uprising (August-October 1944), what was left standing was systematically destroyed by the German army. The statue called "the little rebel" (Mały Powstaniec), built in the medieval city walls, commemorates the uprising.

After the war, the Old Town was meticulously reconstructed by the Poles. Original materials were reused whenever possible, and decorative brick, salvaged from the rubble, were included in their original places. The detailed paintings by Bernardo Bellotto vedutista (XVIII century) and drawings by students of architecture of the interwar period, were essential for reconstruction.