ROCARE EAP Warsaw

Warsaw was almost completely destroyed during World War II. Aerial photographs of its Downtown from 1945 show what looks like a “sea of ruin.” The destruction of the city’s buildings was conducted purposefully by the Nazi army in 1944 in the wake of the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising and was estimated at about 80%. Reconstruction was commenced immediately following liberation in 1945 and the political decision of the then communist authorities that Warsaw, not Lublin, shall be the capital of Poland.

An areial photo of destroyed Old Town - 1945

Warsaw THE URBAN STRUCTURE OF HISTORIC PART OF WARSAW CITY -

NECESSITY OF MAINTENANCE & RESTORATION HISTORIC BUILDINGS AS THE CITY’S MAJOR HERITAGEROCARE – VIENNA 16-17 SEP. 2009

REGULATION PLAN OF WARSAW from 1916 prepared by Polish Architects

The prestige and renown of Prof. Jan Zachwatowicz had a great impact on the political decisions to rebuild the historical monuments and recreate historical urban layouts of Warsaw; he was the Conservator General for Historical Monuments from 1945 to 1957. Prof. Zachwatowicz organized the Department of Historical Architecture within the framework of the Office for the Reconstruction of the Capital (BOS) established in 1945. It is in that department that architect Waclaw Podlewski developed the plans for the reconstruction of the Old Town that were consistently implemented under the management of prof. Zachwatowicz and prof. Biegański in collaboration with Mieczysław Kuzma.



In parallel, the Commission for the Study of Old Warsaw conducted architectural and conservation studies commenced prior to the war; this proved vital for the drafting of conservation guidelines for the rebuilding of the historical Old and New Town complexes. The practice of such broad and rapid reconstruction work demonstrated that the faithful recreation of historical monuments is impossible, or rather that it is at odds with the social and political objective of reconstruction which was to have been the integration of the reconstructed historical complexes with the contemporary life of a “socialist society.”

Changes in spatialarragement of Old Town-buildings (in coulor) prior to 1939 and state followingpartial reconstruction (blackline), 1956.

Warsaw THE URBAN STRUCTURE OF HISTORIC PART OF WARSAW CITY -NECESSITY OF MAINTENANCE & RESTORATION HISTORIC BUILDINGS AS THE CITY’S MAJOR HERITAGE

ROCARE – VIENNA 16-17 SEP. 2009

Prof. Zachwatowicz consciously promoted a “selective and creative” approach to rebuilding and reconstructing historical monuments in the face of the political situation of the Poland of that time. He argued that the exceptional scale of wartime destruction justifies deviation from strictly conservation–oriented reconstruction. What was called the layering of various architectural styles was removed from specific historical monuments during their reconstruction. This pertained to the frontal facades that were designed on the basis of iconography or, if there were no archival materials available, their likely original look by “analogy.”

The reconstruction of St. John’s cathedral is an example of this principle. The cathedral was remodeled by architect Adam Idzkowski over the years 1836–1840 was not rebuilt; instead, both the church’s interior and elevations underwent “re–Gothisation.” Very often, political policy determined the shape of the reconstruction. This was especially true of church buildings that were refused permission for the reconstruction of high spires for fear that they would prove to be an excessively visible dominant feature in the city’s panorama. The erstwhile political doctrine only acknowledged Gothic, Renaissance, and Classical architecture as having value. The recreated buildings of the Old and New Towns made up of burghers’ houses on narrow Medieval lots were redesigned to meet new housing needs, where new designs for ancillary buildings deep within the lot made it possible to achieve more dwelling units and provide them with lighting from the yards. In practice, reconstruction pertained to the recreation of the fronts of the houses, although even in this case contemporary detail was applied where the subject matter of the elevation made reference to the Socialist Realism style.

Changes in spatialarragement of New Town- buildings (in coulor) prior to 1939 and statefollowing partialreconstruction(black line), 1956.



Thanks to the efforts of the conservation services, the more valuable buildings from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries that made up very important elements of the city’s prewar identity were also successfully encompassed by reconstruction and conservation protection. This scope of conservation protection was much more difficult to force through because the Eclectic style that was the most common for the architecture of that period was seen by the socialist authorities as being an “anachronism” from the capitalist period. It is for this reason that during the initial period of reconstruction, the Eclectic ornaments of tenement house elevations were often removed.

The reconstruction of Warsaw’s historical monuments was not that obvious at that time and it was in fact not planned on such a grand scale because several spatial reconstruction plans were developed at the beginning of the nineteen–fifties that, in line with socialist ideology, did not assume the rebuilding of historical urban layouts. One such negative example was the 1952 plan for Warsaw’s reconstruction developed under the guidance of Edmund Goldzamt; it assumed new spatially dominant features on the axes of historical urban layouts in areas that were not completely destroyed and had buildings important to the history of Warsaw, including the Royal Castle and the Ujazdowski Castle. The next spatial reconstruction plan (known as the six–year plan) of 1955 also introduced new urban dominating features in the form of monumental buildings located on squares that were often over–scaled when compared to the character of surrounding buildings.



Few of these plan components were erected, but some of the urban layouts, like Plac Defilad [Parade Square] and Warsaw’s tallest building—the Palace of Culture and Science building designed by the Soviet architect Leo Rudniev—dominated the whole of the city’s Downtown in a negative way.The decree on the communalization of land within the limits of Warsaw and the significant degree of destruction of the city’s buildings following the war allowed urban planners lay out new traffic arteries such as the East–West Expressway, including the widening of the old Leszno street and the conducting of a tunnel beneath Miodowa street and Castle Square leading to the new Slasko–DabrowskiBridge across the Vistula River, the North–South Expressway (today’s Jana Pawla II street) leading through the rubble of the Ghetto from Aleje Jerozolimskie to Dzielna streets, and the breaking through of today’s General Anders street from Banking Square and the broadening of Marszalkowska street to Plac Zbawiciela square, including the creation of Plac Konstytucji square in the aftermath of the elimination of some of the buildings of the old Stanislawowski complex. It was along traffic routes that did not cater to such a concentration of automobile traffic back then, that new residential districts were built, including Muranow along the East–West Expressway, the Marszalkowska Residential District (MDM) around the new Plac Konstytucji square and the new Marszalkowska street, the housing estate on Aleja Wyzwolenia street on the former Stanislawowska axis from Plac Zbawiciela square to Plac Na Rozdrozu square, and the housing–retail buildings along today’s General Anders street north of Banking Square.

Palace of Culture and Science building designed by the Soviet architect Leo Rudniev

Plac Konstytucji square and the new Marszalkowska street- Warsaw1956



The Marszalkowska street and Plac Zbawiciela square,- after war reconstruction was formed new Plac Konstytucji square in the aftermath of the elimination of some historical buildings of the old Stanislawowski complex and also Aleja Wyzwolenia street on the former Stanislawowska axis from Plac Zbawiciela square to Plac Na Rozdrozu square.



WARSAW CITY SUBSIDIES FOR CONSERVATION WORKS IN THE HISTORICAL MONUMENTS DURING THE YEARS 2004 - 2008

In 2004 the Department of Heritage Protection of the Capital City of Warsaw drafted a resolution relating to the granting of subsidies for historical monuments within the city limits of Warsaw that was approved by the City Council pursuant to the new Act on the Protection of Historical Monuments and Their Care of 2003. The Director of the Department of Heritage Protection of the Capital City of Warsaw has been successively increasing the volume of subsidy funds in the city budget designated for the conservation of historical objects of importance to the cultural heritage of the City of Warsaw, including objects of the arts and crafts—movable historical monuments. In 2008 the subsidies granted to the owners of historical monuments out of city subsidies for conservation work aimed at maintaining them amounted to over six million €uro (26 800 000 zł).

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Szpitalna street 3 - historic „Wedel house” - elevations after restoration in 2008

Ujazdowskie Avenue - historic palace of Rembieliński - the front elevation after restoration



Białostocka street 4 - historic house – front elevations after restoration - decoration elements probably made from Roman cements



Kłopotowskiego street - historic Jewish „mykwa” (bath building) - on the front elevation elements of decoration made from Roman cements.



Brzeska street no. 7 – historic tenement house - on the front elevation elements of decoration made from Roman cements.



Wileńska street no. 13 - historic tenement house - probably on the front elevation elements of decoration made from Roman cements.



Brzeska street no. 18 - historic building - probably on the front elevation elements of decoration made from Roman cements.



Sierakowskiego street no. 7 - historic building - probably on the front elevation elements of decoration made from

Roman cements.



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ROCARE EAP Warsaw