Syrenka; guardian of Warsaw
- Joëlle Przytula-Bertherin
- Apr 7, 2022
- 3 min read
Anyone who knows me well, knows I've always loved mermaids. So when I heard this amazing story I couldn't resist sharing it.
It's said that the famous little mermaid had a twin sister that was just as adventurous. Both mermaids spent most of their days in the Baltic sea. One day, at the shore of Gdańsk, they decided to go their separate ways. The first sister traveled to Denmark, where her famous statue stands today. The second sister decided to swim up the river Vistula, the longest river in Poland.
She passed many villages, and was amazed by what she saw. After many days of traveling, she came to a village that she fell in love with; Warsaw.
She spent her days exploring the fishing bay, studying the humans and sometimes even spooking the fishermen by tampering with their fishing nets. One day the fishermen got fed up with the strange creature that broke their nets, causing them to catch less fish. They decided to catch it.
When they saw that the creature was actually a mermaid (Syrenka, in Polish), they were amazed by her beauty. Once she started singing her beautiful song their anger soon vanished. They freed her and befriended her.
One day a rich merchant came to see the famous Syrenka and got enchanted by her beauty. He was a greedy man, and thought it a good idea to take her on tour across the land, so he could make money off of her. Infatuated and selfish, he paid some men to catch her and locked her up. The mermaid, of course, was very unhappy and sang a melancholic song. When the fishermen heard that the mermaid got kidnapped they got very angry and thought of a plan to free her together with the townspeople. The plan worked and they brought Syrenka back to the harbor. The mermaid was so grateful that she promised she would be the guardian and protector of Warsaw for the rest of her life.
Another version of the story talks about the mermaid meeting Prince Kazimierz on shore. The prince got lost in the woods and the mermaid showed him the way home. They fell in love, and Kazimierz built the city now known as Warsaw, to honor Syrenka. The city forever maintained the connection between the two.
Today in Warsaw, there are a lot of symbols that show the importance of Syrenka, especially in the old town. The famous story can actually can be traced back to1390, when a royal seal was made in her image. That's pretty impressive, but did you know that Pablo Picasso made a drawing of her on an interior wall in the west part of the city during his visit in 1948? The family who lived in the apartment weren't so happy with this masterpiece however. They got so fed up with the flow of people that were attracted by the drawing, that they wanted it removed...and actually succeeded in 1958! With permission, they painted over the drawing and it was forever lost. Wow!
I visited Warsaw with my family a few years ago and I noticed mermaids everywhere. Because we were traveling through Poland, and only visited for a day, I didn't take the time to read up on it's history. I wish I did. It would have made our visit so much more interesting if I had known what the many mermaids were about. So if you every visit this beautiful city, keep your eyes open for them.
Who knows, maybe Syrenka is still out there, protecting the capital...
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