Along a Vistula River withered by extreme heat, Poles keep cool and carry on

In photos

Let’s Vist again, like we did last summer

How Poles keep cool on Warsaw’s Vistula River as extreme weather puts it in poorer health

Photography by Anna Liminowicz

Warsaw

The Globe and Mail

Published August 20, 2026

In a summer of record-high temperatures across Europe, urban beaches are important assets. In Warsaw, locals head to the Vistula, a river whose natural sandy beaches are a refuge in the heart of the Polish capital.

‘I used to live in Krakow, but there the Vistula is one big stretch of concrete,’ says Lukasz Zblewski, enjoying a sausage on the riverside beach. Now a Warsaw resident, he spends many of his free hours here.

From an outdoor workout park to a designated cycling trail, the riverfront gives Warsaw residents plenty of opportunities to stay active. It’s the result of decades of redevelopment designed to bring Poles closer to nature.

From an outdoor workout park to a designated cycling trail, the riverfront gives Warsaw residents plenty of opportunities to stay active. It’s the result of decades of redevelopment designed to bring Poles closer to nature.

Roza Tomczyk, 6, treasures the shells that she digs from the riverbank. Here, the water is fresh, but follow the Vistula north to its estuary and you’ll be in the brackish Baltic Sea, east of Gdansk.

Roza Tomczyk, 6, treasures the shells that she digs from the riverbank. Here, the water is fresh, but follow the Vistula north to its estuary and you’ll be in the brackish Baltic Sea, east of Gdansk.

Parts of the Vistula hit record low levels this summer – so much so that two of Poland’s coal-fired power plants had to cut output to save water. Jan Piotrowski, the Warsaw mayor’s representative for the Vistula, says conserving the river is a personal priority: ‘The least I can do is enjoy it, protect it and leave it in a better condition for future generations.’

Artur Jasinski, right, and his wife, Sandra Jasinska, second from left with baby Helenka, brought their three-month-old daughter to the Vistula for the first time. With them around the barbecue are Alisa Petrovska and Aaron Trotter, from Kyiv and Northern Ireland, respectively.

‘We’re here on a date,’ Malgorzata Madzinska Jajkiewicz says at the beach with Mariusz Jajkiewicz. Married for 43 years, they have lived apart for the past five, each caring for elderly mothers who live near the Vistula. ‘The time we spend here is our holiday.’

Kamil Obluski, 25, is working his final shift at an ice-cream kiosk on the river. He’s taking a break from his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, but may return to Warsaw in eight months. By then, the locals will be back on the beaches for more fun in the sun.

Human nature: More from The Globe and Mail

The Decibel podcast

If Warsaw had to put the value of the Vistula River into numbers, which ones would it choose? In 2021, when “ecoassets” were a nascent concept in urban planning, reporter Kathryn Blaze Baum spoke with The Decibel about what it really means. Subscribe for more episodes.

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