Architektoniczno-konserwatorskie problemy restytucji Zamku Królewskiego : koncepcje architektoniczno-konserwatorskie

• Authors: Oborska Irena

Title variants

EN

ARCHITECTONIC AND CONSERVATION PROBLEMS OF THE RESTITUTION OF THE ROYAL CASTLE

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

Afte r drawing by the Conservation and Architectonic Commission of "The Main Architectonic, Conservation and Technical Guidelines of the Reconstruction o f the Royal Castle” it was agreed to strictly preserve the b u ild in g ’s former outline, former ord'imate o f foundations and the inclusion of all preserved elements 'into a newly-built mass. The design office referred to as "th e Castle” commenced drawing the plans. The Royal Castle was assigned the function of the museum to be known as "the Royal Castle in Warsaw — the Monument of History and Culture of the Polish Natio n ” . With the preservation of the historic mass of the entire building, historic outlay as well as outside and inside decor, the structure was adopted to performing its new function. A p a rt from the museum, the building had been designed to house exhibition halls, representation and gir&st de p artments. Concerts, inte rn a tio n a l conferences and celebrations are also to be held there. Also, fo r (big meetings such as a cocktail fo r 2,000—3,000 people, banquets fo r 70 as well as providing food fo r castle employees a few catering c e n tres have been arranged. The introduction of such a rich programme into the Castle has limited, due to the lack of the space, the number of storerooms and household facilities. According to the earlier decisions these functions 'were to be taken over by the neighbouring buildings. The to ta l cubage of the Royal Castle amounts to 144,580 m3 and its to ta l usable area comes to 21,606 m2. A t the present moment the Royal Castle is one o f few museums in the world th a t iis housed in a historic building with most sophisticated technical equipment. That was a very d iffic u lt task fo r the designers. It was necessary to install a ir-conditioning equipment, ventilating fans, nearly 50 d iffe rent electric, power and tele-communication systems. All this varied technical equipment had to be installed in a specific historic mass of the Castle in an indiscernible way. • The mass of the Royal Castle was subjected to numerous alterations and reconstructions. The designers had to face a d iffic u lt decision: which solutions should be chosen? On the basis of comprehensive studies including rich source mate ria l they adopted the principle of preserving historic strata in elevations and different parts o f the building. The 17th-century Waza deviations were reconstructed according, as a rule, to the pre-war conditions; still, some amendments were made on the basis of period plans, drawings, photos and with respect to the results of the most recent archaeological and architectonic studies. Cornet turrets, lucarnes and chimneys were reconstructed on the fro n t elevation. The basis fo r this work was provided by the iconography, the so-called Hondius’ engraving from 1646, depicting the setting of the Sigismund’s Column. One of the most d iffic u lt problems in the restitution of the Castle’s mass was the mode of crowning the Grodzka Tower. The concept fo r the form of th e 14th century tower underwent various design stages and the fin a l solution was ba sed on Ch. Melich’s painting from 1625. Studies on all cu polas and crowning were carried out on models. The finest 18th-century Saxon elevation from the Vistula's side was rebuilt according to its pre-war appearance with some corrections made a fter 18th-century designs of Chiaveri and p aintings by Canaletto. The main difference co n sisted in the removal of the balcony from the 1st flo o r of the middle projection and introduction of high windows into the Assembly Room. According to the conservation guidelines castle interiors got divided into three groups. The firs t group covers rooms in the first floor, Stanislavus room, gothic underground rooms, Jagiellonian and Waza rooms in the ground floor. The most splendid interiors with many preserved elements include: rooms of King Stanislavus August, Canaletto Room, Stanislavus Chapel, the former Audience Room, the Royal Sleeping Room, the Throne Room, Conference Cabinet, the Kinghts’ Room and the Great Assembly Hall. ‘ A special group is made of the rooms which in the 19th and 20th centuries lost their 18th-century decor and a t present regain their original appearance on the basis of the preserved archival sources. Thev include the Senator’s Room where the 3rd May Constitution was proclaimed, the M a rble Cabinet and Deputies' Room. Special oare should be extended to reconstruct and build into historic places the preserved details of the architectonic decor such as stone elements of sculpture and sectional details, chimneys, wainscoting, doors, stucco columns, carved frontons, decorative fixtures. The second group comprises groundfloor rooms and cellars that perform the function of halls and museum cloarkrooms as well as the Treasury in the 2nd floor. The rooms included into the third group are, in the first place, to serve u tility purposes and they have been designed in a way th a t harmonizes with other interiors. In 1971 the State Ateliers fo r the Conservation o f Cultural Property in itiated, almost simultaneously, documentation and execution work. This was a serious impediment fo r the team of designers and executors, just as i t was necessary to coordinate a ll designs and at the same time to undertake executional decisions. The Royal Castle has been reconstructed in accordance with historic records, well-known in the seventies. For the last 15 years the knowledge on the history of the Castle has been enriched with newly-discovered source materials. In this context, decisions made during the reconstruction have to be reconsidered once again.

Keywords

PL

koncepcje architektoniczno-konserwatorskie restytucji Zamku; Zamek Królewski w Warszawie; odbudowa Zamku; projekt adaptacji Zamku; restytucja Zamku Królewskiego; rekonstrukcja wnętrz; przebieg odbudowy

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1987
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 55-70

Dates

published

1987

Contributors

author

Oborska Irena

• mgr inż. arch., PP PKZ - Oddział w Warszawie Pracownia Projektowa „Zamek"

Identifiers

ISSN

0029-8247