THE symbol of Warsaw, Poland, is a mermaid wielding a sword and a shield. As early as the late 1300s, surviving paintings of coats of arms show a a creature with a human head, arms and torso, a dragon’s tail, wings and bird legs (this corresponded to what the old Greek sirens looked like). Over time, the image was streamlined and amended to show a mermaid. The story goes that when some fishermen found a mermaid trapped in a net, they took pity and set her free and in thanks, the mermaid took up arms and has defended Warsaw ever since. There are representations of the mermaid, big and small, in sculpture and paintings, all over the city.
Maspeth has a sizable Polish immigrant and second generation population. This grocery, Syrena Market, at 56th Road and 61st Street, has a representation of the mermaid on its awning (however, mermaid in Polish is syrenka, with a K).
I noticed this relatively new mural on the 61st Street side. The Polish at the bottom reads: “Poland forever in the heart.”
Warsaw, the Greenpoint community center / concert venue at Driggs Avenue and Eckford Street, has a relatively new rendering of the Warsaw Mermaid. Several big names are playing in the spring of 2022 including Henry Rollins and the MC5.
There have been murmurs and rumors of a Newtown Creek Mermaid, but that was shown to be a rat with a mop in its teeth.
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3/23/22
3 comments
Looks like they would carry Schaller & Weber products
There was a long-running record company, based in Warsaw, called Syrena, which operated from roughly 1904 to the outbreak of World War II; evidence that the sort of naming you see in the market, here, reflected the power of the image in the imagination of Poles.
Whenever I visit the “old neighborhood “, I always get my cheese babka fix at the Synera Market.