From the late Middle Ages the area had been occupied by the village of Ujazdów, located several miles south of Warsaw's Old Town.

In 1619-1625 a palace and garden were built here by Giovanni Battista Trevano for King Sigismund III Vasa.

In 1782 King Stanisław August Poniatowski bought the village and relocated it about a kilometer west (near what is now the main campus of the Warsaw Polytechnic), while the old village's area (along the axis of the "Royal Road") was turned into Pole Marsowe (the Field of Mars), a large square for military parades, modeled and named after Paris' Champ de Mars.

After the Russian takeover of Warsaw in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, the area lost its military character and became a venue for annual fairs.

[1][3] The avenue of chestnut trees in the western part of the area was incorporated into the newly founded park.