Street and house signs in Warsaw

When you visit the streets of Warsaw, you must have come across colored signs and stands with the names of streets and districts.

All of them are included in the system of local signs for the capital of Warsaw, which is called MSI, Municipal Information System in Warsaw.

MSI was developed in 1996-1998 and implemented in 1997-2002. At first, the system was used for the Warsaw-Centrum commune, and then for all districts of the Polish capital.

The names of streets in all districts of Warsaw are written on the plates in white letters on a blue background, at the bottom of the plate on a red background is the name of the microdistrict. The exceptions are Stare Miasto and Królewski Trakt (Stare Miasto Trakt Królewski), where the blue color on the plates is replaced by brown.

Thus, MSI markings are mainly represented by distinctive blue and red plates. The system includes:

street signs; signs with house numbers; shields with district boundaries; signs showing the way to districts, streets and other points of Warsaw;

pillars on which there may be signs with street names; arrows showing the way to the nearest toilet, telephone, mail, etc.; signs showing directions to offices, monuments, embassies, etc.; signs informing about the paid parking zone; billboards with information about the people who gave names to streets, squares or the origin of their names;

large, illuminated information points with plans and information about districts, neighborhoods, streets and routes.

The MSI system has more than 95,350 elements and is administered by the Warsaw Municipal Road Administration.

Elements of the Municipal Information System cannot be associated with the names of residential microdistricts.

There are discrepancies between the MSI division and the administrative division of the city, inconsistency with the territorial division of the city according to TERYT,

inconsistencies in the location and names of places with names and historical boundaries.

Nevertheless, the introduction of unified signs is a big plus for Warsaw residents, city visitors and tourists.