Polish Artist Recreates 19th-Century Warsaw... But on Stilts

I don't usually reblog things, but Bored Panda's given me a reason to do that today.

Polish artist and architect Tytus Brzorzowski has painted a series of incredible watercolours of how Warsaw looked before its World War II bombings. One key difference: Everything is shifted toward the sky. He's put buildings on stilts, added open-air bridges far above the ground, and made room for streetcars to visit buildings' upper floors.

Bored Panda describes the paintings:

In his paintings we find narrow, enchanting streets, elegant townhouses and soaring towers. To reduce the shadows of these tight alleys, his buildings rest on towering stilts, creating spaces underneath for pedestrians to stroll. There is just one question: How do you get inside?

Here's what Warsaw looked like in the 1920s:

from Wikimedia

Here's Tytus's version: (more pictures here)

There isn't a good picture of the Vistula River at the Bored Panda link, but this street is kind of like a river with all the fantastical bridges crossing it.

Here's the Warsaw skyline now:

From Jeziorki

Rebuilt Warsaw has a decidedly New World feel, earning it the nickname "City of Skyscrapers" on this message board. I think it looks great - not the "deformed and sealed by the overuse of billboards" Bored Panda reports, although far different from a purely Old World-looking city like Gdansk.

Tytus has an earlier group of watercolours visible on Bored Panda here.