The communique resents a pattern book for keepers’ houses, written in 1834 by Andrzej Gołoński (1799-1854). At least two other recurrent projects were applied in the Kingdom of Poland for this type of housing. At the present stage of research they remained unidentified although generally speaking we can assume that about 200 similar objects were raised in the first half of the nineteenth century in the region in question.
The author presents circumstances connected with the reconstruction and erection of brick churches in Korytnica. Findings of a survey conducted in various archives are based on heretofore unknown iconographie material, making it possible to follow the history of the church in Korytnica from the end of the eighteenth century up to the first quarter of the twentieth century. The conducted research assisted the recreation of the original appearance of the building (fig. 1.), burnt down in 1814. The successive phase of the reconstruction which was performed about the middle of the nineteenth century by Andrzej Golohski (1799 -1854) is illustrated in detail (fig. 3-6). This inventory was accomplished in 1912 by Jozef Dziekoński (1844-1927) upon the occasion of a planned expansion. The latter was never realized although the surviving technical documentation constitutes a valuable contribution to the accomplishments of that celebrated architect (fig. 2, 7-9). He was also the author of a project from 1913 which the years 1914- 1925 served as a basis for building the present-day church (fig. 10-16).
Sacral investments in the Kingdom of Poland were co n d u cted u p o n the basis of strictly observed regulations, pertaining above all to the principles of financing church architecture. The fundamental issues concerned the division of costs between the parishioners, the parish priest and the patron. Pertinent laws were issued in the years 1817-1837, w h en a classification o f parish buildings was performed. From 1817 to 1823 buildings located within the range of the church cemetery i.a. the church itself, bell tower, charnel house and sexton’s house, were made distinct, and funds for their construction and renovation were assigned. In 1837 a similar operation was performed as regards the presbytery — both residential an d other buildings. This procedure signified a distinction between the residential buildings provided for the parish priest and the curate, a separate building for the servants, a barn, stable, carriage house and shed. The investment obligations of both the parish priest and secular persons were precisely determined. The same legislation included documents concerning models of sacral architecture. It was announced in a decree issued in 1823, and the following year there appeared the first publication of this kind — Hilary Szpilowski’s Wzory kościołow parafialnych... (Models of Parish Churches...) (1753-1827). The plates presented predominantly Classicistic designs, including that of a Protestant church, as well as examples of a brick and wooden presbytery (fig. 1-2). Soon Chrystian Aigner (1746-1841) issued another publication entitled Budowy kościołow (Church Construction), which he discontinued following the presentation of plans of four Classicistic edifices. The elderly authors proposed a summary of their experiences, depicted in sophisticated forms, but already rather distant from progressive phenomena in European architecture. Since their endeavours were abandoned, the prototypes borrowed from the accomplishments of the two classics — not always faithfully copied — remained exclusive and aspired to the rank of canons. After a lengthy delay there appeared yet another publication of this variety (1849) entitled Plany normalne na zabudowania mieszkalne i ekonomiczne plebańskie w parafii klasy I, II, III (Normal Plans for Residential and Household Presbytery Buildings in Parishes of First, Second and Third Class). The author was Andrzej Gołoński (1799-1854) whose work constitutes the object of a typological and functional analysis conducted in this study. All the projects were intended for parishes in villages and small towns, where the basic source of subsistence was agriculture. Quite possibly, the foremost purpose of this initiative was to encourage brick constructions, especially in the provinces where timber was still readily applied. Nonetheless, it is quite unlikely that these proposals encountered great interest. They had appeared belatedly, and remained the last stage of processes initiated during the constitutional period between 1815 and 1830; moreover, they did not satisfy readers who cherished greater aspirations and who preferred more individualized buildings. Finally, the distance from the somber period which followed the January Uprising of 1863 was too brief. When it was ultimately replaced by a lively trend of sacral architecture, Gołoński’s documentation could be regarded solely as an anachronic testimony of the past (table I-VI).
The communiqué presents problems concerning signs applied for communication routes in the first half of the nineteenth cenutry in the Kingdom of Poland,
In the memory ofJozef Pius Dziekoński (1844-1927) upon the 150th Anniversary of His Birth The first church in nineteenth-century Warsaw was raised in order to commemorate the enthronement of Alexander I (1777-1825), the Emperor of Russia who at the Congress of Vienna established the Kingdom of Poland and restored a vestige of Polish independence, lost in 1795. The designer of the building was Christian Peter Aigner (1756-1841). Commonly-held opinion claimed that the artist patterned himself on the Roman Pantheon. A significant departure from the original was the reduction of the span of the copula in relation to the diameter of the corps, and the location of the former on a tambour which provided additional light to the interior. The Warsaw rotunda was erected in the years 1818-1826 (fig. 1 — design; fig. 2-5 — inventories from 1883). In 1883 a competition was announced for the extension of the edifice. The first prize was granted to Jozef Dziekoński (1844-1927) who was capable of attaining a satisfactory compromise in the relations between the spatial and utilitarian program albeit at the price of distinct compositional shortcomings (fig. 7-8 — competition project). The work, inititated in 1886, was divided into two stages: the hall corps preceding the rotunda was completed up to 1889, and the whole undertaking was finished in 1894. Extant fragments of the original rotunda included parts of the walls and the old vault, discernible only in the interior. The overall appearance of the transformed building brought to mind certain similarities with the Venetian Santa Maria del Carigniano and the del Redentore. The copula, added above the rotunda, inevitably recalled the Venetian basilica. Unfortunately, it was merely a wooden imitation, covered with slate, and with ribs profiled out of copper sheet (fig. 6; 9-15 — realization project). In 1944 the St. Alexander church became the target of air raids which left behind fragments of walls and the remains of one of the towers. The general outline of the rotunda reappeared following reconstruction, but not a single trace of Dziekohski’s project was retained.
Injection is a technique consisting in the forcing into the inside of the brick wall of special pastes or mortars (injects) which join delaminated surfaces and bond them permanently with the old brick and mortar. This technique may, in particular, be employed to repair craks and to fill up emply spaces in the wall. Tn comparison with re-erections traditionally used in such cases, injection is a more economic technique with regard to material and labour consumption. All problems connected with the strengthening of a building should be first worked out in technical documentation based on an examination of the wall structure and building consumption. Research works should establish causes of destruction and give a full description of structural changes in the wall. The drawing of a technical layout comes to the solution of the following problems: a) mode and order of introducing an inject, b) components, durability and consistence of the inject, c) pressure of the inject introduced, d) technique of cleansing scratches and filling up the outside face of cracks. A classification of injection techniques is based on the mode of introducing the paste and is divided into a) gravitional incjection, to) vacuum incjection, and c) pressure injection. A technique of pressure injection is most universal, and its most important advantages are: a) a possibility to have an unrestricted control of pressure, b) filling up of craks irrespective of the direction of their course and width, c) introduction of the inject both in the surface layers of the wall and inside its cross-section. From a technological point of view the work done in this way can be divided into the fallowing stages: a) preparation of pockets for injectors, b) cleansing of cracks, c) sealing of cracks on the facing surface of the wall, d) introduction of the inject.
The presented review of works by one of the most celebrated Polish architects brings up to date the state of research which has been considerably modified after investigations conducted in the Russian Central Historical Archive. These findings made it possible to recreate almost entirely Dziekoński’s impressive accomplishments in the domain of sacral architecture. The scale of these achievements offers a more general orientation as regards the formal and typological method of sacral architecture designs at the turn of the nineteenth century.
The church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary in Mokotow (a district of Warsaw) is an interasting example of spatial transformations of sacral objects conducted at the turn of the nineteeenth century. The specificity of these processes consited of their sui generis arbitrariness which, to a certain extent, was the outcome of political conditions; in Polish history, they influenced not only church constructions. Problems of a purely theoretical nature appear to have been decisive. In an analysis of the consecutive stages of the alterations in the church in Mokotow, one can easily notice a very slight impact of conservation doctrine not solely in the last century but also in the inter-war period. True, a single example does not create foundations for generalizations but the presented methods exemplify operations applied by the majority of architects dealing with the rebuilding of Catholic churches in the Kingdom of Poland.
The author discusses the first neo-Romanesque church in Warsaw, erected in the years 1859-1860 upon the basis o f a project by Jozef Ostrowski (1819-1880). In the Kingdom o f Poland this architect was the precursor of rohbau –type buildings in the neo-Romanesque style.
On the margin of critical remarks about methods applied for registering historical monuments the author outlines initial premises entailing computer technology,
The author presents a typical project for elementary (parish) schools. This is probably the first Polish model of its sort which was applied at least up to 1820 and which served the construction of numerous school buildings.
This review of the works of one of the most outstanding Polish architects concerns undertakings which the contemporary comprehension of the term does not always classify as conservation. The concept itself conceals different varieties of intervention into historical substance whose intention was not so much conservation as the restoration or complete transformation of the object. The letter usually was the outcome of the need for extensive expansion which frequently caused irreversible destruction of the original building. The least harmful and traditionally sanctioned was the addition of assorted annexes or chapels to the solid of the existing church. Each of those modes occurs in the projects by Dziekoński which offer a general acquaintanceship with the workshop and methodological approach to sacral architecture at turn of the nineteenth century.
The beginnings of the Powsin parish date back to the end of the fourteenth century. This was also the period of the original church. The letter was a wooden edifice to which a brick presbytery was/added with time. There are no dates which would make it possible to attempt a reconstruction of the history of the church prior to the eighteenth century. In the years 1726-1728 Elżbieta Sieniawska founded a brick church whose design was probably made by Jozef Fontana ( ca. 1670-1740). Sieniawska's foundation was an example of provincial Baroque characterised by mediocre artistic merits. The illusion of opulence was created by a much pilastered facade which concealed a considerably narrower two- span corps. The proportions of the nave, more Gothic than Baroque, did not quite harmonize with the front elevation. True disharmony was introduced by the low solid of the overly elongated galilee which upset the spatial composition of the whole. Possibly, this was a remnant of the old presbytery, which, in accordance with the medieval canon, closed the wooden nave from the east. The church survived unaltered until the of the nineteenth century, and was subjected to several renovations which did not undermine its spatial structure. The first attempt at a radical reconstruction was undertaken in 1887, upon the basis of a plan made by Stanisław Adamczewski (1830-1916). Once the construction work was initiated, tne original designer was replaced by Jozef Huss (18461904). In contrast to Adamczewski, whose plans are an example of a model-like expansion of a sacral building, Huss's design was distinctly unsuccessful. True, he resolved his task in accordance with the general plan of his rival, but he resigned from those components which were decisive for the aesthetic values of the earlier project. The delicate contrast between the facade and the Classicistic decoration of the side naves was supplanted by the impact of the Baroque, the letter begin the outcome of an „archeologically” comprehended doctrine about the unity of style. Creative ambitions were overcome by a tendency to leave one's own mark, that falsified the true age of the object. This inclination was particularly visible on the front wall of the vestibule with an added imitation of a portal, aggresively displayed against the background of the tower elevations, embellished with niches containing statues of the saints. In addition, the squat towers, placed next to the galilee, completely deformed the building. It is easier to notice the mystification in a side view of the church, which makes it obvious that we are dealing with an alien addition to a church which, albeit not overly magnificent, possessed a certain unassuming and individualised charm. The glaring mistakes were put right by Joxef Dziekoński who was entrusted with a successive reconstruction, performed in the years 1921 -1924. This renowned architect and specialist dealing with church architecture, endowed the parish church in Powsin with a truly original appearance. The merits of local tradition, discernible up to this very day, effectively compensate double as regards the method or nature of introduced changes. Their range allowed the structure of the church to regain, some two hundred years after Sieniawska's foundation, features enabling to regard it as a complete product of architectonic art. Once again, in establishing criteria of appraisal, one should refer more to the domain of emotions than to pass objective judgements concerning historicism, whose aesthetics became outdated before the decision about the expansion was even made.
Roof paper type products had been used in the Kingdom of Poland since 1857. It seems that the technology of producing bituminous coverings was transferred from Germany. In the initial phase three types of roof paper were produced: - asphalt paper on the base of roofing felt (Asphalt Filtz) - tar sandy paper on cardboard base (Stein Pappe) - asphalt paper covered with talc (Talkthur).
The communique present a model, obligatory up to 1836, which served the creation of nurseries and plantations that provided trees and shrubbery for the road services in the Kingdom of Poland. The author also discusses legislation connected with planting along macadam roads in the first half of the nineteenth century when road works were conducted in a part of former Poland on an unprecedented scale.
The author supplements a communique published in the previous issue of „Ochrona Zabytkow" by citing the first information found in Polish writings concerning bituminous tar-board which appeared in 1819. In 1823 the production of tar-board on a paper base whose main component was straw, was established near Warsaw. Tar become very popular during the 1830s and 1840s, especially for the purposes of insulation. Tar-board on a cardboard base was used from about the middle of the century and included three varieties: Asphalt Filtz, Stein Pappe and Kalkthur.
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