Ursynów

Ursynów (Polish: [urˈsɘ̟n.uf] ^ⓘ) is a district of the city of Warsaw, Poland. It has an area of 43.79 km² (16.88 sq mi), and in 2023, it was inhabited by 149,775 people, making it the 5th most populous and 3rd largest district of the city. Located in its western part, it is its southernmost district of the city, bordering Włochy to the west, Mokotów to the north, Wilanów, to the east, with its southern and part of western border forming the city boundary. There, it borders the municipalities of Lesznowola in Piaseczno County, and Raszyn in Pruszków County. The district is dominated by residential areas, with its east predominantly featuring high-rise multifamily housing such as in neighbourhoods of Jary, and Stokłosy in central north, Imielin, Na Skraju, and West Ursynów in the northeast, and Natolin and Kabaty in the central east. The west is dominated by low-rise single-family housing with neighbourhoods of Dąbrówka, Grabów, Jeziorki, Pyry, and Wyczółki.

Ursynów is home to the campus of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, one of the largest and most technologically advanced in Europe. It also includes the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, and Centre for Advanced Materials and Technologies, with the latter being one of the largest high tech research facilities in the country. Ursynów also features several urban parks such as John Paul II Park, Kozłowski Park, Przy Bażantarni Park, and Silent Unseen Park, as well as the Polish Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden and Powsin Centre for Biological Diversity Conservation, which gathers over 10,000 species of plants in its collection, including numerous exotic and rare species. Additionally, the Kabaty Woods, located in the southwest, form the largest forest in the city, with an area of 903 hectares. The district also includes the Służewiec Racecourse, which hosts Great Warsaw Race, the most prestigious horse race in Poland. Ursynów also has five stations of the Warsaw Metro.

By the 9th century, the area was inhabited by the monks of the Order of Saint Benedict, in 1238, there was established a Catholic parish in Warsaw, centered around the St. Catherine Parish, which would later be replaced with its current building in 1848. By that time, the village of Służew was also present in the area, and more farming communities developed in the following centuries. In 1776, there was constructed the Krasiński Palace, later rebuilt in 1860 in the Renaissance Revival. In 1939, in Ursynów was opened the Służewiec Racecourse, then the largest and the most modern horse racing venue in Europe. Throughout the 1930s, a military base in the neighbourhood of Pyry and nearby Kabaty Woods, operated a military complex, which housed a branch of the Cipher Bureau responsible for deciphering German codes and messages. Its team was the first to decipher the coding of the Enigma machine in 1932, used by the German military, sharing their decryption techniques there with British and French intelligence agencies in 1939. During the Second World War, under the German occupation over 300 people were executed and buried in the Kabaty Woods. Between the 1950s and 1970s, around Nowoursynowska Street was developed the campus of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in Ursynów were developed series of large multifamily neighbourhoods. In 1995, there were opened five stations of the Warsaw Metro.

Służew and Wyczółki were incorporated into Warsaw in 1938, while the rest of the modern district was incorporated in 1951. They originally became part of Mokotów, with the area being first separated into its own administrative unit, then the municipality of Warsaw-Ursynów, in 1994. In 2002, it was restructured into the district of Ursynów.