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Constitution avenue

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The Royal Castle, as the seat of the kings of Poland and the centre of power, was the central building in Warsaw. It determined the dimensions and directions of the city's development. A third Warsaw began to be built around it - Crown Warsaw, in competition with the existing small burgher towns of Old and New Warsaw. It was out of the Crown Warsaw development that the contemporary metropolis was shaped. From the castle three main roads departed, preserved till today in the lay-out of the streets: the royal (Królewski) route to the south, Senatorska to the west (the direction of the electoral fields at Wielka Wola) and the Zakroczym route to the north.