Feb. 02--If the music of Fryderyk "Frederic" Chopin lights your soul, Warsaw beckons you to walk, sit and listen. The Polish capital, home of the great composer, is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the "Chopin Benches" peppered along the Royal Route connecting the palaces of the city's former elites.
Besides serving as idyllic resting places amid grand churches and stately homes, this series of black stone benches features the music of the maestro. Press a button and a Chopin nocturne, etude or waltz plays. Strolling tourists -- often caught off-guard by the unexpected musical performances -- find themselves stepping closer to listen, have a seat and read (in English or Polish) about the historic significance of the bench's location.
Sites include the Church of the Holy Cross, in whose stone column lays the actual heart of Chopin. His dying request of his sister, Louise, was to secretly bury that organ in the city he loved over the objections of the ruling Russian authorities. At the time of his death at 39 in 1849, Chopin was living in exile in Paris. His homeland had been erased from the maps of Europe and ceased to exist as a nation through a series of partitions. Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian empires each claimed portions of Poland. Chopin, a Polish patriot and nationalist whose romantic and emotional music roused his countrymen, never returned to Poland after the 1830 uprising.
The walking route allows visitors to track the piano prodigy's life, from his family's home to Radziwill Palace, where he gave his first public performance at 8 years old, and the National Theatre, where he played his farewell concert, the Concerto in F Minor, in 1830. Many of the sites were destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Some were rebuilt, but others remain only in memory.
The 15 benches include snippets from his best known pieces, which remain fresh and inspiring two centuries later. Each spot includes a photo code to download a Chopin app with an audio guide to his music and life; http://en.chopin.warsawtour.pl.
Mark Taylor is a freelance reporter.
