Parade Square

Parade Square

Plac Defilad w Warszawie (Parade Square) is a square in downtown Warsaw. Located between ulica Świętokrzyska (Holy Cross Street) in the north, Aleje Jerozolimskie (Jerusalem Avenues) in the south, ulica Marszałkowska (Marshal's Street) in the east and the monumental Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw from the west, it is one of Warsaw's central squares.

It is one of the youngest squares in Warsaw, built in the 1950s together with the Palace of Culture and Science. It was used extensively by the government of People's Republic of Poland for various propaganda parades. It has lost its importance after the fall of communism, becoming ironically the site of a giant marketplace. Criticized for unplanned ugliness and chaos of such primitive marketplace in the center of a modern capital city, several plans have been made to modernize it and/or replace with something else (which have caused protests from local merchants). The latest plans are related to a construction of a Museum of Modern Art in its place (2015) and general gentrification of a square with a new concert hall, different skyscrapers and other facilities. It's the fourth largest city square in the world and the largest in the European Union.