Some Westerners once asserted that "Warsaw will not re-establish itself on earth, and there will be no hope for at least 100 years." Yet modern, classical, historical, scarred, rejuvenated... these words superimposed into the Polish capital of Warsaw today. In World War II, Warsaw was almost razed, with more than 85 percent of the city's buildings destroyed, and ruined walls and scorched earth. After Warsaw was freed from the war in 1945, the city was rebuilt as it was, not only maintaining the style of the medieval ancient city, but also building a new urban area, exceeding the pre-war scale and level.