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1

Fragmenty gotyckie na Starym Mieście

100%

Ochrona Zabytków

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1948

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issue 3-4

126-130, 168

FR

Après la destruction barbare de la Vieille Ville de Varsovie par les Allemands, on a découvert, lorsqu’on enlevait les décombres et que l’on renforçait les murs, de nombreux fragments d’architecture bourgeoise gothique, tout à fait inconnus auparavant. Ce sont, pour la plupart, des portails, des niches et des parties de constructions de murs gothiques. On en tiendra compte lors de la reconstruction projetée de Varsovie.

2

Fenomen warszawskiej Starówki

88%

GÓRSKI K. R.

Ochrona Zabytków

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2017

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issue Dodatek Specjalny. Dziedzictwo w Polsce.

156-160

EN

Warsaw’s Old Town is a unique place, both on the map of Poland and that of Europe. Its magic and appeal are irresistible, not only for me, but also – and I am profoundly convinced of this – for its residents and millions of Poles from around the country and the world. The rather small area comprises the historical districts of the Old and New Warsaw (present-day Old and New Towns), and a belt of urban areas surrounding the two ‘Warsaws.’ Contrary to what their names imply, both the Old and New Towns are, in fact, places that are centuries old and which used to have separate municipal identities, autonomous town halls and councils, their own specificities, and distinct coats-ofarms. Notwithstanding the fact that settlement within the present-day area of Warsaw dates back to even earlier times – present-day Stare Bródno and Ujazdów districts – the history of Warsaw proper begins with the founding of the Old and New Town. In order to discuss the historical background, it must be remembered that the New Town (formerly New Warsaw) is slightly more than 600 years old, while the Old Town (the area within the city walls, listed as a UNESCO site) is 150- -200 years older. It was to here that the Mazovian dukes of the Piast Dynasty moved the capital of their Duchy from Czersk in the early 15th century. Soon the Duke’s Castle, built on the high embankments of the Vistula River, started to be surrounded by a quickly expanding fortified settlement, rich in craftsmen’s workshops. The mother of all Warsaw churches, the St. John the Baptist Church (present-day Warsaw Cathedral), was also erected here. The area of the Castle and the Old Town witnessed most of the key events in the history of the city itself, and later of the whole country. It should be noted that the Old Town, i.e. the area delimited by the defensive walls, as well as the city section of most interest from the historical and urban planning perspective (hence its UNESCO world heritage site status), was destroyed completely during World War II and rebuilt meticulously in the post-war period. One striking fact about Warsaw’s Old Town is that it differs quite significantly from its counterparts e.g. in Kraków or Toruń. For one thing, it clearly differs in size. This can be explained by the fact that, in its early period, when Warsaw was being founded, i.e. in the Middle Ages, it was ‘merely’ a duke’s town which only later started to aspire to become the capital of the Duchy, and later of Poland. Its accelerating development caused the town to ‘spill over’ beyond the defensive walls, the earliest clear signs of which were the creation of New Warsaw at the turn of the 15th century, and the mushrooming, around Medieval Warsaw, of the a succession of noblemen’s and church settlements from the 16th century onwards. Given its small original character and size in the Middle Ages, Warsaw was unable to become the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a multinational state of huge proportions, against the background of Europe at the time. It would be difficult for me to describe the rich history of Warsaw’s Old Town in detail so I will focus on several crucial – as I see them – events, which have not only determined the character of the city itself, but have been pivotal in the history of Poland as a whole. In the second half of the 16th century, Sigismund III Vasa moved the Royal Court from Cracow to Warsaw. It was in memory of his merits that his son Ladislaus IV erected the Sigismund Column, which is considered to be the oldest secular monument in Poland. The early 17th century was the zenith of the power and glory of the Commonwealth, followed by several decades of struggle with Poland’s enemies: the Turks, Tatars, Cossacks, Russians, and Swedes. The most dramatic events included a series of wars and occupations during the Swedish invasion in the mid-17th century, also referred to as the ‘Deluge,’ as well as royal elections and noblemen’s rebellions against the king, which were an expression of the nobility’s freedoms. Here again the Old Town was at the heart of events. From the 18th century onwards, Warsaw and Poland were going through some of the most momentous and difficult moments in its history – including the Constitution of 3 May 1791, enacted at the Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1791, the Kościuszko Uprising against Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, fights against Russian troops under the command of an Old Town shoemaker, Colonel Jan Kiliński, the storming of the Russian Embassy at Miodowa Street. Throughout the period of the Partitions in the 18th century, Warsaw’s Old Town or its immediate surroundings, such as the nearby Arsenal during the 1830 November Uprising, was often at the centre of events. It was here that clashes and demonstrations were staged against the Russian partitioner. It was here that, on the eve of the January Uprising, Cossack Cavalry charged against demonstrating Poles, and it was here that people were banned from going to church. Thus we come to November 1918, when Poland regained its independence, and the Polish flag again fluttered on the tower of the Royal Castle. During the Polish- Soviet War in 1920, before crossing the former Kierbiedzia Bridge on the Vistula and rushing on across Praga to the outskirts of Warsaw to stop the Bolshevik onslaught, the regiments of volunteers were passing the Sigismund Column. Unfortunately, soon after this, on 17 September 1939, the Old Town witnessed one more tragic event – the fire of the Royal Castle, followed by the long, grim years of the German Nazi occupation, the Warsaw Uprising, and the systematic destruction of the Old Town by the Germans in its aftermath. House by house, the entire Old Town was torched and demolished, the annihilation culminating with the blowing up of the ruins of the Royal Castle. Fortunately, the history of Warsaw’s Old Town does not only consist of tragic events, but also moments of victory and hope, like the abovementioned year 1918, the post-war reconstruction of the Old Town, or youths welcoming Pope John Paul II in the Zamkowy Square and in front of St. Ann Church during his 1979 pastoral visit to Poland. It is worth elaborating a bit on the post-war reconstruction effort. The Old Town, a symbol dear to all Poles, was raised from the ruins thanks to the huge commitment, not only of the surviving residents of Warsaw and leading Polish urban planners, architects and historians, but also – and I am saying this with no exaggeration – of the entire nation. It was the restoration project, compliant with strict restoration standards that prompted UNESCO to list the Old Town as a World Heritage Site. Another reason was the fact that the Old Town is a living residential quarter, unique on account of its local community. Anyone who becomes tied in any way with the Old Town tends to identify with it very strongly and ‘settle into’ it emotionally. This was also the case in the post-war period. The newcomers, who moved in here after the war and started to live next to the few local survivors, came from all over Poland and represented different ages, educational backgrounds and professions. The mix included people active in culture and scientists, but also the builders themselves with their families. The affection for the place was manifested most strongly after Poland regained its freedom in 1989. At the time, the Old Town community teamed up and decided to establish a Residents’ Association. It was one of the earliest such initiatives in Warsaw and across the country. Initially, the people’s attention was focused on several crucial matters from the perspective of the Old Town, with some of them remaining relevant until the present day. For over 25 years, the community has been demonstrating strong commitment and unrelenting efforts. We have co-participated in addressing all the major issues relevant to the Old Town, such as its renewal and renovation, heritage and greenery conservation, transport and healthcare issues, security and urban planning, or the purchase of leasehold properties. The above, together with many other activities, brings our community together and make us ever active. The scale of the phenomenon is reflected by the fact that out of the several thousand residents of the Old Town, around 700 persons have been active in our Association at some point in its history, which translates into 10 per cent of the community. The level of public activity and enthusiasm has no match in any other place in the capital city. Finally, I would like to point out another essential issue for our community – Old Town Remembrance Day, which is our district’s annual holiday. We have been celebrating it on 13 August for over 25 years to commemorate the victims of the booby-trapped German tank, and all those fallen in the Old Town during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising – both civilians, and insurgents. Out of so many dates, the people of the Old Town chose 13 August as the day most strongly raising our awareness and testifying to our love of freedom, Poland, our City, and its heart. The heart which, as I strongly believe, is still beating in the Old Town in Warsaw.

3

Skład zapraw w murach obronnych Starego Miasta w Warszawie

75%

Jarmontowicz A., Krzywobłocka-Laurów R.

Ochrona Zabytków

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1996

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issue 4

359-364

EN

The authors examined the composition o f twelve samples o f mortar from the defensive binding o f brick walls in the Old Town in Warsaw. The researchers applied the X-ray method, thermal analysis and observations with an optical and scanning microscope. The composition o f the hardened mortar made it possible to determine the original composition. Two groups: lime and cement-lime were distinguished from the point o f view o f the composition o f the mortar in question. A characteristic feature o f the cement-lime mortar was the differentiated contents o f the binder. The relation between the binding and sand in this case oscillated from 1:1,8 to 1:6,2.

4

Warszawskie Stare Miasto z perspektywy urzędnika

75%

JANIAK J. M.

Ochrona Zabytków

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2017

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issue Dodatek Specjalny. Dziedzictwo w Polsce.

161-164

EN

The Old and New Towns in Warsaw, and Mariensztat, especially the Old Town Square and the New Town Square, are one of Europe’s unique urban ensembles, rebuilt after the World War II with the support of the entire population of Poland. Although not fully reconstructed in its pre-war form, their unique cultural, material and historical values, which are cherished by the whole Polish State and Nation, cannot be overestimated. The Old Town and the New Town in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, combine to form an exceptional ensemble, which deserves special attention, protection, and interest from the local authorities. Warsaw’s Old Town was entered in the Register of Monuments in July 1965, initially as an urban plan. Over time, the individual spatial arrangements of its streets and squares, as well as over 200 individual architectural monuments, started to be registered as monuments under separate official decisions. In 1980, the area of the Old Town, now a residential district, was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a unique example of comprehensive reconstruction of an urban ensemble that had been intentionally destroyed in the physical sense. Following this, the Old Town was declared a Monument of History under an Order of the President of Poland of 8 September 1994. Certainly, the fact that the Old Town is covered by such strict protection by the conservator has an effect on the lives of its residents in a number of ways. Admittedly, although the old town community is not very numerous (several thousand residents) and most of its members are adult and elderly citizens, their daily life amidst such a unique group of monuments, which, according to annual statistics is visited by more than two million tourists from Poland and abroad each year, is different from life in other parts of the city. Therefore, the city authorities see the need to pursue a particularly coherent and far-reaching policy which is reflected in the activities of the Śródmieście District Office of Warsaw City Council, which has appointed an independent Coordinator for the Old and New Towns and Mariensztat. The Coordinator, who is employed in the Organisational Department of the Śródmieście District Office, is mainly responsible for working together with the associations, organisations and institutions active in the Old Town and New Town, especially as regards any vital matters concerning the area and its residents. Day-to-day and ongoing contacts are maintained with associations of Warsaw residents, enthusiasts of Warsaw, artists representing various fields of culture and art, war veterans and entrepreneurs, the last group including a large number of restaurateurs. The cooperation referred to above includes liaising with a number of cultural institutions, such as museums, archives and libraries, including the Museum of Warsaw (together with the Heritage Interpretation Centre), the Museum of Literature, the Royal Castle, the State Archive in Warsaw, the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, and the Old Town Branch of the Public Library in the Śródmieście District. The cooperation results in regular and occasional events, including exhibitions and anniversary celebrations. The Coordinator is also responsible for working together with the Old Town Community Council, representatives of the various city administrations, especially as regards a broad range of real estate-related matters, and with the services responsible for maintaining safety and order. Crucial importance is attached to coordinating and streamlining the way information is communicated to residents and ensuring that they can easily contact the individual departments of the District Office to handle their affairs. Efforts are also made to improve the flow of information to the citizens and housing communities, and ensure seamless cooperation with the Plenipotentiary of the City Mayor for the Management of the UNESCO World Heritage. The key postulate of the Old Town inhabitants is to preserve the residential character of their quarter, while taking into account its touristic, artistic, educational and awareness-raising functions. Another key issue they stress is the availability of stores and service providers, and the need for more parking space as well as limiting the number of two-wheeled vehicles, including bicycles, in the narrow streets of the Old Town. The local community show great care for the environment in which they live, including such elements and aspects as street furniture, green areas, lighting, and cleanliness in the streets and squares. By inscribing the Old Town in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and thus confirming its global uniqueness, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee obliged the manager to comply with the requirements resulting from the ratification of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, which includes the preparation of a site management plan. The management plan for the Historic Centre of Warsaw provides inter alia for the establishment of the post of Coordinator/Plenipotentiary for the Old and New Towns and Mariensztat, along with the associated tasks, as laid down in the Organisational Regulations of the Śródmieście District Office of the Capital City of Warsaw. Of particular note is the invaluable contribution made to the management of the area by its residents, as well as tenants’ and other associations, and other activists and organisations who build lasting and meaningful relationships ensuring the continuity and permanence of the Old Town and its surrounding areas, as well as their preservation in unchanged form. However, the Old Town is also facing major challenges, including those associated with its location. Lying partly on the Vistula Slope, the Old Town has posed a great challenge to the city as a whole and to the district itself because of the geology of the area, the urban structure, and the density of the buildings within its historic core, including the underground installations used by the residents and users on a daily basis. However, this has been addressed by the activities carried out over many years to ensure the safety and harmony of the Old Town, and to preserve the beauty of the extraordinary UNESCO-listed urban townscape of the rebuilt area for future generations.

5

Nieopisana kolonia artystów

75%

LEC T.

Ochrona Zabytków

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2017

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issue Dodatek Specjalny. Dziedzictwo w Polsce.

150-155

EN

It was in the Old Town in Warsaw where I took my first conscious steps. Those were the times when children were raised in backyards. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, entering the Old Town from neighbouring streets required some courage and cautiousness from a child. At that time, I lived in the New Town Market Square and I and my friends used to walk along Stara St. down to the moat, so that we could climb the bailey from the side of the newly reconstructed defensive walls, from where one could sneak through a “freshly designed” alleyway in the medieval constructions straight to the Market Square in the Old Town. The Old Town district was rebuilt as a housing estate, and although it had a number of cultural institutions, it was dominated by shops and services. A stamp dealer in the Market Square itself, where stamps from the now non-existent world of the Austrian Empire were also sold, was particularly interesting. Opposite, in a surviving Gothic gate that led to the Pod Krokodylem restaurant and café, there was also the entrance to a small cake shop, one that it was really hard to find in the city which was dominated by private cake shops deprived of the proper ingredients and with cobbled together equipment. Every stylistic detail was taken care of here, and so were the cold cabinets, and the prices were not loaded with the café margin. They mostly sold cakes for two zlotys each, with only the so-called W-Z cakes being more expensive. Their name was a direct reference to a new east-west route dug under the adjacent Castle Square, the so-called W-Z. The Old Town had a few grocery shops, a specialist fishmonger with a porcelain tile tank for live fish, a traditional butcher’s, a Gallux clothes shop, a flower shop and a perfectly-designed shop selling folk crafts as well as a porcelain and crystal shop for the few foreign tourists of that time – strangely enough, the district did not have its own kindergarten or school. So the Old Town kids went to a range of different schools nearby, built an integrated team in their backyards, and were regarded as dangerous in the battles that children get into. The children came from different families, and only an experiment in real society could have produced such a mixture. Flat allocations in the Old and New Town areas were carried out by ministries. Particular storeys in a single staircase were inhabited by employees of the ministries of Education, Agriculture, Culture, Foreign Affairs, etc., but the key to this puzzle was the allocation of flats for the workers from the Ministry of Public Security, who occupied the premises in a double role, as they also monitored their neighbours. It was completely untrue that the workers, the builders of the Old Town, were given flats there. Maybe there was someone there as an example; anyhow, I do not remember any child saying they are from a working class family. I walked down the route from the New Town Market Square to the Castle Square with my father, in safety and many times over. It was in 1958-1966. On most occasions, the first person we met was Artur Nacht, who lived one floor below. He was a professor in the Academy of Fine Arts, a painter and a member of the so-called Paris Committee, who survived the Holocaust thanks to documents in the name of Stefan Samborski. There were times when Nacht was just returning from his “night outings” when we were leaving home. His Portrait of a Jew in a Hat, a work painted in Jankiel Adler’s studio in Berlin in 1925 under the influence of Modigliani, is still with me in my study in the Old Town. We had the closest relations with the Lengren family who lived nearby. Before they were allocated a study and a flat in Brzozowa Street, in a granary that partly survived the war and was adapted for housing purposes in the final stage of the rebuilding (as late as the 1960s), they and their two children were cramped in a room with a kitchen in the narrow part of Freta Street. Zbigniew Lengren was a young and promising illustrator who became well-known thanks to his strange adventures of peculiar-looking Professor Filutek, published for several decades in the popular weekly “Przekrój”. In the broad part of Freta Street, in the zone under by the current UNESCO World Heritage List inscription, there was a milk bar which back then actually produced only meat-free food, but that was often covered with pork greaves. A catering facility with a beamed wooden ceiling and walls covered with Dutch style tiles, white and blue, was arranged on the ground floor of a building that was burnt down during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Despite being painted over the enamel, the hundreds of tiles presented the Polish fauna in a perfect way. In these surroundings, at tables made of Carrara marble, local people used to eat pancakes with cottage cheese – the speciality of the house until this day. Until recently, I used to see the same aluminium pans at the back of the bar that I had seen when the place was established. The bar was particularly popular on days when the district had no gas supply, which happened very often in those days. On ordinary days, the place was visited by disabled soldiers from the New and Old Town (the bar was wheelchair- accessible), as well as lonely writers and artists. People who are forgotten today such as Alfred Degal, the author of the Konkwistadorzy z Bonifraterskiej (Conquistadors from Bonifraterska Street) report, or Włodzimierz Boruński, who benefited from the fame of his cousin Julian Tuwim (poet) and who suddenly became recognisable thanks to a role in Zaduszki, a 1961 Tadeusz Konwicki movie. Few people remember that a similar bar also operated for a short while in Piwna Street. It had the same forged sign with a tilted jug. Like in the other parts of the city, life in the Old Town started at dawn with the milkmen. Of course, no backyards or staircases were locked. Attempts at locking staircases and installing Bakelite doorbell buttons with tenants’ names failed. So the milkmen had free access to the customers’ doors. Milk was not pasteurised and needed to be boiled quickly to prevent it from turning sour. In the first stage of the reconstruction, the kitchens were equipped with stoves in which the right half was filled with refractory bricks and was suitable for coal firing, while the left one had two or four gas burners to be used in the future. The stoves were so heavy that they can still be found in many cellars, or perhaps one was not allowed to take them away due to strategic security? In his 1955 watercolour panorama, the painter Jerzy Pawłowski preserved a unique moment when the entire Old Town is covered in smoke from the chimneys as everyone cooks dinner, with the Palace of Culture looming in the distance. In the same year, homes started to be equipped with light four-burner gas stoves based on Bauhaus designs which were produced by the Sanar company in Dessau. The characteristic and larger attic flats were in fact studies designed for painters, but the ways of their allocation were quite contorted – I knew an attic flat in Nowomiejska Street which was occupied by translator and limerick writer Tadeusz Polanowski with his wife and two daughters. I remember a study in the attic which was occupied by painter Barbara Jonscher, then the most famous Polish artist in the West, and the study of Andrzej Strumiłło (still in use), both in the area of Kamienne Schodki Street. The Artymowskis lived in Piwna Street. Roman Artymowski, a painter and an Academy of Fine Arts professor, was a visionary abstractionist, whereas his wife Zofia made a great contribution to the reconstruction of the Old and in particular the New Town as the creator of a number of mosaics and frescoes on the façades of the buildings. She used to send my father anonymous postcards with witty comments. The last one, sent from the place where the Euphrates meets the Tigris (where the Biblical paradise was placed, as tradition has it), on the day my father died, had the wrong address, with Nowy Świat Square instead of New Town Square (because she also used to send her postcards to Nowy Świat Street, to the editors of the “Świat” weekly). Thanks to working in Iraq, the Artymowskis became the owners of a green Jaguar – it was a sensation in the Old Town as it was the first car of its kind in Warsaw. No data protection law was in force at that time, so artists’ addresses were quoted in catalogues of collective exhibitions. It is surprising how many of them lived in the Old Town. From Władysław Popielarczyk, a forgotten painter but still honoured with a commemorative plaque in the Old Town, to Alina Szapocznikow, who used to live on the Market Square itself and is today probably the most famous Polish artist in the world. Taking into account writers, actors, dancers and composers, it was a huge colony of artists, unrecognised and undescribed. I have mentioned only some of them here, those that I knew best. And what a constellation it was when one takes into account the whole company that gathered in the café of the Polish Writers’ Union in the northern “headland” of the UNESCO World Heritage List zone, already situated in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. Jan Knothe, an architect, co-designer of the W-Z Route and an excellent graphic artist, lived just one house away. His valuable drawing advice helped me to pass the entrance exam to the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology. I am not old enough to remember Stalinism, but I do remember a wave of artists’ departures after the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 or the lingering smell of tear gas thrown against students in the Barbican arch during martial law. The Polish Writers’ Union café was closed down. In the times of capitalism, following 1989, the community living in the Old Town changed, and many 40-square-metre flats were bought and transformed into hotel apartments. The small homeowners association in Piekarska Street at the corner of Piwna Street, where my study is currently located, has increasing numbers of plaques commemorating deceased neighbours: Michalina Wisłocka, the authoress of Sztuka kochania, Tadeusz Łomnicki, a legendary Polish actor, and Bronisław Geremek. Certainly, there would not be enough walls to honour everyone. In December 2016, as I am writing these words, those still holding their posts and working include the 101-year-old actress Danuta Szaflarska and 92-year-old sculptor Zbigniew Maleszewski*. Oh yes, and me, 61-year-old Tomasz Lec.

6

Wzmocnienie konstrukcji wychylonego odcinka murów obronnych Starego Miasta w Warszawie

63%

Maszewski K.

Ochrona Zabytków

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2000

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issue 3

267-280

EN

The defensive walls of the Old Town in Warsaw are preserved to the north-west and south-west. This section was most developed, since flat terrain did not offer any protection against possible attacks. The state of the preservation of the walls is extremely differentiated; the largest amount of the original substance is extant in the outer walls, but, as a rule, it is the lower parts which are faced in successive conservation preparations. The whole length (together with the crenelation) preserved a fragment of the inner circuit of the walls, immediately next to the House by the Butchers’ Gate; to the north, it closes Szeroki Dunaj Street. This fragment attracts our attention due to a considerable deflection towards the space between the walls. Technical research performed for many years demonstrated that the stability of the walls was preserved, assuming the uniform structure of the walls and a safe transference of the load by the foundations and the ground in the spot of the greatest deflection. The last phase of research distinguished two missing elements: the uniform structure and the regularity of the cooperation of the foundations. The former was examined by means of the radar method (emission of electromagnetic waves) and the isotope method (emission of y radiation). Apparently, the wall structure is not uniform, and stratifications divide the shaft along planes parallel to the face. The foundations, formed of granite rocks and with a destroyed levelling stratum, comprising the basis for the brick wall, were not suitable support for the deflected wall. The project of construction protection thus contained two trends of solution: the monolithisation of the shaft (diagonal clamping and an injection of mortar and cement paste) and the reinforcement of the foundation (shaping stable support with attention paid to the eccentricity of load of the walls). Conservation work was realised in 1990-1991 by the Ateliers for the Conservation of Historical Monuments — the Department of Conservation and Studies. The article contains a discussion of the research, project and realisation problems of the construction-conservation protection of the deflected section of the defensive walls of the Old Town in Warsaw.

7

Historyczne centrum Warszawy (1980)

63%

POPŁAWSKA-BUKAŁO E.

Ochrona Zabytków

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2017

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issue Dodatek Specjalny. Dziedzictwo w Polsce.

88-94

EN

The Historic Centre of Warsaw is a unique example of a urban complex reconstruction of a deliberately destroyed in 1944 by German Nazi occupier. The physical rebuilding of the destroyed city was only possible thanks to the determination and great strength of spirit of the whole nation which led to the reconstruction of national heritage on a scale unprecedented in the history of the world. Besides, the case of Warsaw also had its impact on the principles and practice of monument protection. The reconstruction project included the functional requirements of a present-day residential settlement with public functions. The project itself was based, in its turn, on the assumption that any extant, undamaged structures built between the 14th and 18th centuries, together with the late-medieval network of streets, squares, and the main market square, as well as the city walls should be used in the process. It included a complex reconstruction of the urban layout, together with the main market square of the Old Town, burghers’ tenement houses, important ecclesiastical buildings, defensive walls, and later also the Royal Castle. The Archive of the Warsaw Reconstruction Office, comprising documentation of both the post-war damage and the reconstruction projects, was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2011. Criteria: (ii), (vi) The reconstruction of the Old Town in Warsaw The Old Town in Warsaw, which had been totally destroyed during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, was reconstructed in 1945-1963 following a decision by the state authorities and became a symbol of the capital city rising from the rubble. The reconstruction has been accompanied by discussions on the form and method of operation which have lasted until this day and that have aroused emotions ranging from positive to extremely negative. Current views on conservation that are critical of falsifying history, alongside economic and ideological reasons, provided the main arguments against the reconstruction of the historic housing. The intention to maintain the identity of the location and the historical continuity of the city formed the basis for the decision made by architects who favoured the reconstruction process and worked at a purposefully named institution – the Monumental Architecture Department of the Warsaw Reconstruction Office. Professor Jan Zachwatowicz, then General Monuments Inspector and the creator of the programme and principles of historical heritage reconstruction and conservation in Poland, claimed that the decision on the reconstruction of the historical centre of the city was “the only possible way forward”. He stressed: “The sense of responsibility before future generations calls for the reconstruction of what was destroyed, a complete reconstruction that is aware of the tragedy of the conservation falsification thus committed [...] our concern must be the best implementation of postulates, the greatest reverence for the monuments, the best reconstruction of forms”. The above theses were accepted by the general public, although numerous representatives of the Polish and European conservation community did not try to conceal their critical stance. Answers to the question of Warsaw’s future appearance had been sought since the first air raids on the capital city in 1939. Urban planning and architecture studies of the whole city were carried out by a number of specialist teams, with reconstruction plans being prepared not only in Poland but also abroad. They reflected a different and customised approach to the issue with an ideological foundation. Opinions promoting the vision of a modernist metropolis erected “anew” on the basis of pre-war and occupation-time blueprints appeared in the urban planning community. Differences of opinion also appeared in the communities of architects, art historians and intellectuals. The reconstruction effort had its supporters, but also strong opponents who wanted to preserve the destroyed historical heritage of the old town in the form of a permanent ruin, or preferred to reconstruct only selected elements of the historic architecture, adequately integrated in the new developments. In theory, the scale of the destruction made it possible to choose any option. The finally approved plan for the reconstruction of the oldest part of the city in its historical form assumed that a housing estate would be built within the historic complex. Two government decrees – on the reconstruction of the Capital City of Warsaw and on the communalisation of land within its area, both issued in 1945 – paved the way for architectural and urban-planning work under this overall framework. The reconstruction was carried out in several stages. The design stage used comprehensive scientific-historical and architectural-archaeological research as well as preserved resource materials, e.g. the invaluable measurement documentation from the collections of the Department of Polish Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology, prepared before the war by architecture students. Historical iconographic materials, including panoramas of the city and landscapes by Bernard Bellotto, also called Canaletto, also proved invaluable. Inventorytaking work carried out after clearing rubble from the area played an important role in the reconstruction process. They revealed a number of surviving authentic fragments of buildings, their details and elements of interior decoration from various historical periods. Most of them were subsequently preserved and displayed. The reconstruction restored the Old Town’s appearance from its glory days of the mid-18th century, based on the well-preserved medieval layout. The buildings regained their 15th to 18th century arrangements and architectural appearance. The restorers followed the principle of returning to their oldest documented versions. The surviving vaulted ground floor layouts were left unchanged, while the characteristic staircases with a roof lantern were restored. The interiors were adapted to modern housing standards. At the same time, 19th century annexes to houses on the market square and by the city walls were removed, which opened up large courtyards. The reconstruction of the old City Hall, which used to be situated in the market square, was abandoned in the course of the works. One of Warsaw’s most beautiful churches – the completely destroyed St. John’s Metropolitan Cathedral, where kings were crowned and the 3rd May Constitution was sworn in – was reconstructed in a different architectural shape than before the war. The medieval defensive walls with the moat in the bailey and the Barbican were uncovered and reconstructed, and former streets running next to the walls were restored. Many houses – whose architecture did not draw on their past forms but was only generally adapted to the entire built-up area – were constructed on the outskirts in the final stage of the reconstruction. The whole work was crowned by bringing the Royal Castle back into the panorama of Old Warsaw. Its reconstruction in the forms preceding the wartime destruction was started soon after the liberation of the city but for various reasons was not completed. Grass grew on the castle’s secured cellars for years. The castle was finally reconstructed in 1971-1984. The reconstruction of the Old Town in Warsaw was a huge undertaking that brought together an interdisciplinary team of experts: architects, conservators, constructors, historians and art historians, artists and craftsmen. Warsaw residents, who removed rubble from this district as part of a community initiative, made a huge contribution to the reconstruction effort. The funds for the reconstruction came from various sources, including contributions made by the Polish society and people from abroad. Today, the Old Town historical complex performs housing, commercial, cultural and tourist functions. Among other institutions, it is home to the Museum of Warsaw, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature and the Heritage Interpretation Centre, which is located in authentic late-Gothic interiors and is part of the so-called Cultural Trail of the Old Town Cellars. The complex also includes churches and monasteries which, in a similar manner to other reconstructed buildings, are a symbol of Polish culture and national identity.

8

Osiągnięcia pierwszego roku planu 6-letniego w zakresie ochrony zabytków

63%

P. K.

Ochrona Zabytków

|

1951

|

issue 1-2

3-8

9

Prace konserwatorskie w Warszawie (1963-1972)

51%

Januszkiewicz B.

Ochrona Zabytków

|

1976

|

issue 2

128-136

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Fragmenty gotyckie na Starym Mieście

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Skład zapraw w murach obronnych Starego Miasta w Warszawie

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Wzmocnienie konstrukcji wychylonego odcinka murów obronnych Starego Miasta w Warszawie

Historyczne centrum Warszawy (1980)

Osiągnięcia pierwszego roku planu 6-letniego w zakresie ochrony zabytków

Prace konserwatorskie w Warszawie (1963-1972)