The emotional heartbeat of the city

The rebuilding of the Saxon Palace [Pałac Saski] is a project that has been tabled and dropped many times. After the war, Stalin envisioned Warsaw as a new city devoid of capitalist architecture and populated by resettled people forcibly detached from their 19th-century roots. The communist authorities were against reconstructing a building that during the twenty-year interwar period had played such a central role in the formation of Polish national identity. After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the Saxon Palace was home to the General Staff of the Polish National Army. It was here that Jan Kowalewski cracked the Bolshevik codes in 1920 and Polish mathematicians did the same for the German Enigma code in the run-up to World War II. During the interwar period, enthusiastic celebrations took place on pl. Piłsudskiego following the restoration of national sovereignty. This was the beating heart of the city. But the reconstruction of buildings so steeped in Polish patriotism had no place in Stalinist ideology, even though just after the war Polish architects were convinced that these buildings would eventually be reconstructed. In the 1946 photo depicting the reconstruction of the Grave of the Unknown Soldier the words ‘provisional reconstruction until the rebuilding of the colonnade’ can be read. But this “temporary monument” remains to up to now the only extant remains of the Saxon Palace’s classical frontage.

Restoring the past

The decision to rebuild the buildings that made up the pre-war frontage of ul. Królewska. including the Saxon Palace, Brühla Palace and three historic townhouses, was only taken in 2018. On August 15th 2018, a bye-law was passed making the reconstruction possible by ensuring funding and setting up a specialist executive body. A special purpose vehicle, Pałac Saski Sp. z o.o., was later set up based on legislation passed in November 2021. The plan to reconstruct these historic buildings is set to transform the entire frontage of pl. Piłsudskiego and ul. Fredry as well as that of Ogród Saski park [Saxon Gardens] and (partially) the frontages of ul. Wierzbowa and ul. Królewska. All in all, this includes the reconstruction of two palaces and three townhouses with a total useable area of over 37,000 sqm. The intention is to recreate the buildings to how they appeared in September 1939. Pałac Saski’s architects have prepared an outline of all the buildings that are to be rebuilt based on the documents and architectural plans that still exist. This is to be used as the starting point for any future development. A total of 15 architectural studios, including five from abroad, entered the architectural competition, which was won by WXCA of Warsaw. On the studio’swebsite it reads: “The intention behind rebuilding the Saxon and Brühla Palaces as well as the townhouses on ul. Królewska is to restore the pre-war frontage of Warsaw that lives on in the public’s imagination but was brutally taken away from the city.”

Senate, authorities, cultural institutions

According to Marta Sękulska-Wrońska, one of the architects responsible for the winning project, this attempt to rebuild the palace finally has a chance of success because for the first time a coherent plan has been drawn up for how to use this space. “The competition was well prepared because, finally, the usage of the proposed development well thought through. In my opinion, the previous attempts to rebuild them were unsuccessful because no one came up with a decent idea for how the buildings were to be used.” The development is to have three functions. The national Senate is to be based there as well as the district government office and the Institute of Culture. The Senate is to move into the entire Brühla Palace and half of the Saxon Palace. Senators currently have their offices scattered across many buildings along ul. Wiejska, but they are now to be housed under one roof. The other wing of Saski Palace is to be occupied by the district government office while the townhouses on ul. Królewska are to be turned into a cultural hub with exhibition space, multi-use rooms and information points for Warsaw’s most important cultural institutions. The townhouses on pl. Małachowski will house the branches of the Zachęta gallery, the National Museum, the Museum of Polish History, the Chopin Museum, the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The architects of the winning design have suggested that after its restoration the historic cellars could be opened to the public as the Saxon Palace Museum or as a branch of the Museum of the History of Warsaw. No commercial use is envisioned for the building. However, two cafés and a restaurant are planned for the inner courtyards.

Why so many emotions?

So, why is this project so contentious? Certainly, the cost of the undertaking has raised the temperature of the discussion. The project is estimated to cost PLN 2.5 bln – admittedly, a huge sum, but we are talking about state funding with the payments to be spread out over several years. The value of the land itself comes to several million złoty. The payments are to be made in tranches and Pałac Saski has to apply for further financing every several years. The investment can also be looked at from another point of view. Artur Bartoszewicz of the Warsaw School of Economics has analysed the cost of the repeated failure to rebuild the site. According to his calculations, Warsaw has actually lost PLN 30 bln over the years from not rebuilding the palace.

The reconstruction of the palatial complex is also the subject of heated debate due to the politicisation of the project. The political polarisation of Polish society has made it difficult to achieve a consensus when it comes to justifying such a costly undertaking. And, as Marta Sękulska-Wrońska points out, a project of this scale cannot be completed during one government’s single term in office. “This can’t be carried out in just a few years, but the plan to reconstruct the palace stems not only from the decisions of the previous government and meeting the needs of one political side – it is an urban development that will exist for many, many years. It will bring back to life an area destroyed in the last war as well as achieving the final crowning of the ambition to reconstruct the city.” Historically, this site witnessed many events of profound importance for the entire nation, so it’s all of us and provokes people’s interest. At the moment, pl. Piłsudskiego remains an empty square. Three times a year national ceremonies take place, but otherwise it has no life of its own. “Personally, the emptiness of pl. Piłsudskiego makes me very emotional as it reminds me of the pain and suffering of war, but maybe in time the memory of our glory days will be restored to it. Some people are not even aware today that the Saxon Palace used to stand here and that it was eventually blown up. It’s important to me to remember that this is where the king had his apartments, that some of Chopin’s earliest compositions were penned here, and that this is where Polish mathematicians first broke the Enigma code after Poland regained its independence in the 1920s and 30s. The British have their own narrative for this latter episode and many are unaware that we even played a part in it, but once the rebuilt palace is rebuilt and given its patina in a few years’ time, no one will be able to imagine that the square was any other way, in the same way that we can’t imagine Warsaw without the old town or the Royal Castle,” adds Marta Sękulska-Wrońska.

The past in a modern context

The fact that not everyone believes that such a redevelopment is justified also results from the system in which architects have been educated for many years. Many are convinced that rebuilding monuments is not worthwhile work for Polish architects who should be able to express their creativity and the soul of modernity in every one of their commissions. “The architectural courses at Polish colleges have for many years been based on the Venice Charter of 1964, which assumes the only correct approach to architecture is to express modernity. The international consensus today is different. The Warsaw Recommendation of 2018 agreed at an international forum and accepted by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee accepts that cities need to create their identities by reconstructing important buildings destroyed in cataclysms,” explains Małgorzata Dembowska of WXCA.

The resurrection of the palace has been long in the waiting, but paradoxically such a reconstruction so late in the day could have many advantages.The eighty-year wait might turn out to have been worthwhile as the project can now be rebuilt along more sensible and sustainable lines. A modern reconstructed building will not only stand as a commemoration of the past, but in urban management terms it will also raise the standing of the square and will be built to modern environmental standards. The work, which is to be strictly supervised by the historic monument conservation department, will involve faithfully remodelling the neoclassical façade that existed in 1939, while the courtyard and the internal layout will be given a modern design to meet contemporary needs. Marta Sękalska-Wrońska emphasises that: “The fact that the building will have a classical rather than a glass façade means that it will be energy efficient, which when combined with the use of low carbon footprint materials, renewable energy sources and water retention systems we allow us to maintain the sacred memory of this place while thinking ahead to the future.”

The design work is currently still in preparation, but the construction is due to start in 2025. In 2030, the two palaces and three townhouses should be ready to be handed back to the people of Warsaw. This may not seem like a lot of time for such a huge project, but the companies involved insist that everything is on schedule.

The palace down the years

The palace, which was originally built in the mid-18th century, was commissioned by poet and politician Jan Andrzej Morsztyn. In 1713, the Morsztyn residence was purchased by King August II, and from that time was called the Saxon Palace [Pałac Saski]. The palace was the central point of the Saxon Axis, an urban plan that it still evident today in Warsaw’s street layout. After the 1830 November Uprising, it was rebuilt in the classical style according to a design by Adam Idźkowski.