Warsaw. Who built the Saxon Palace? Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska stated that the Russians
Deputy Speaker of the Sejm, Małgorzata Kidawa Błońska (KO) stated that the Saski Palace “was built in Warsaw by the Russians as our invaders”. Her words sparked a wave of criticism and opposition on social media. Because the building in the 17th century was commissioned by a Polish lachiecki. Only later it was repeated several times. The form of the return from the pre-war actually has to do with the Russian one. However, our compatriot was responsible for the reconstruction project.
During meetings with the inhabitants of Przemyśl, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska spoke about the reconstruction of the Saski Palace. Among other things, she stated that the investment is being implemented without any analysis with the Warsaw authorities and it is not known what its purpose will be. – Is it supposed to rebuild Polish culture? They built it to Russia in Warsaw as our invaders. It never was – Kidawa-Błońska never creates.
Recordings of this speech dedicated to social media. It was heavily criticized. The deputy marshal was accused of a lack of historical knowledge. Some media quoted these words, writing about the “shocking thesis” and “compromising slip-up”.
Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, meeting with over a dozen sympathizers in Przemyśl.
About the reconstruction of the Saski Palace. pic.twitter.com/7rm4NRU4FY
– Bambo (@observing) October 16, 2022
“They want to rebuild Russian architecture”
It is not for the first time, however, when in the context of the Saski Palace, Russian threads in the history of the building are mentioned. At the end of 2018, the former mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, said in “Fakty po Faktach” on TVN24 that Saski in the pre-war version, which is to be played, is to make a tenement house built by a Russian buyer. – This is how PiS loves Russia? – asked Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. I added: – On the one hand, he says that you need souvenirs of what the Germans did, and on the other hand, he wants to build it in the city center, which is a witness of the Second World War, a witness to the demolition of this “unfortunate palace, Russian architecture”.
The Saski Palace, which we know from the photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, may actually take place with the organized person of the merchant Jan Skwarcowa, who purchased the passage after the November Uprising and commissioned its reconstruction in the classicist style according to the design of Adam Idźkowski. It goes on to the period when Warsaw Warma Empire was influenced. The history of the legendary city dates back to the 17th century and its appearance and destiny were to be seen more than once.
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From a noble palace to a royal residence
In 1661, the poet Jan Andrzej Morsztyn was given to the poet, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, on which the palace will soon be located. From the end of the 1750s, he performed functions at the royal court, he was, inter alia, the Grand Treasurer of the Crown. The building is considered to be one of the most impressive in Warsaw. On the website of the Saski Palace company we read that Giovanni Battista Gisleni, a Vasa architect, was responsible for the design, but for years the work was attributed to Tylman of Gameren. The initial building had a part and a floor, while at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries Morsztyn expanded to go to the second floor.
The Morsztyn family got rid of the palace in 1713. It was bought by August II the Strong, the first Polish elected king from the Saxon Wettin dynasty. He decided to rebuild to go into a royal residence, modeled on Versailles and its extensive gardens. For this purpose, he also purchased plots of land. To be flowering to be completed with other estates that were transferred to the Palace years later. In this case, the Saski Palace turned out to be in the center of the urban development of the Osią Saska estate, which stretched from Krakowskie Przedmieście to the Iron Gate business day.
The expansion of the palace was not interrupted by the king in 1733, the son and heir to the throne, Augustus III of the Saxon, died. He added more wings and reworked the interior in the Rococo style. The period of his reign is considered to be the years of the palace’s sanctity. After his death in 1763, the residence passed into the hands of the electors of Saxony, but lost its royal status and the charter fell into decline.
Fryderyk Chopin spent his childhood there
At the turn of the century, the palace rooms were rented for offices and flats. At the beginning of the 19th century, some of them were taken over by the Warsaw Lyceum, following the curriculum imposed by the Prussian invader. Fryderyk Chopin’s father – Mikołaj – taught there. The family settled in 1810 at the other end of the right wing of the palace. The future composer was then a tiny child. He lived there until 1817, that is until the end of the school’s activity in this place.
In the meantime, the owners of the palace changed. Until 1816, they were left by the rulers of Saxony. At the congress, Frederick Augustus I was declared to be renouncing his royal title. During the congress, it was divided and the Kingdom of Poland. Warsaw was then in the influence, and the palace in the past, the right of ownership and you have the right of exhibitors, others in Swedish. At the same time in 1817 the listed companies there was the Merchant Exchange, the first stock exchange.
After the November Uprising of the Palace, the hands of a Russian merchant
The following years brought the November Uprising, when the Saski Palace was built. In 1837, Jan Skwarcow, a Russian merchant, came into its possession. He commissioned a thorough reconstruction of the building in the classicist style. The Polish engineer and builder Adam Idźkowski was responsible for the project. The main body of the building was dismantled, and its user placed the colonnade in the order of corins in the collector’s place, thanks to which it was connected with the Saski Garden. The side wings have also changed – there will be two independent steps with handles and wings. In his work, it survived until the moment of the Second World War.
In the 1860s, the Saski Palace was taken over by the Russian military authorities from the heirs of Skwarców. The tsarist army in the year 15 and until the 19th It housed the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District Board. Yes, until Poland regained independence in 1918, Prussian military officers resided there.
At the end of the 19th century, the Russians decided to build the cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in the then Saski Square and the 70-meter high belfry, located on the side of Królewska Street. the temple was seized over Polish territory. It was dismantled in the 20th century, that is after Poland’s forays onto the world map.
Here they deciphered the Enigma, then the building was taken over by the Wehrmacht
Poles also decided to allocate the Saxon Palace to the army. Życie Polskie was the seat of the General Staff, and then, from 1928, of the General Staff of the Army. During this period, the monument to Prince Józef Poniatowski was made available before the period, the place of Saski was appointed the place of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. In 1925, the Tomb of the Soldier was established under the colonnade.
In the 1930s the Cipher Bureau was located in the military building. He collaborated with mathematicians: Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski. It was in this building that the code of the German Enigma machine gun was broken.
Periodic square in the interwar period, the place where state and church agencies are filled.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Nazis took over. The Wehrmacht made its home there, while the Brühl Palace (before the war, which housed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) was the governor of Ludwik Fischer’s Warsaw District. The name of the square was changed to Adolf-Hitler-Platz. The German military organized military parades there.
The end of the building came after the Warsaw Uprising. During the fighting in the removal and in 1944, the insurgents did not manage to achieve it. It was blown up in connection with the air by the Germans between 7 and 29 December 1944. The explosives did not destroy only the central part of the palace colonnade, which housed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Deputy Prime Minister: the building to be rebuilt with authentic, materials
Reconstruction of the Saski Palace – as President Andrzej Duda said on July 7, during the ceremony, during the ceremony he corrects the bill on this matter to the Marshal of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek – “a huge work with a symbolic name and an investment beyond divisions”. The provisions of the act say that the building will be reconstructed as of August 31, 1939, as will the Brühl Palace and the tenement houses at Królewska Street.
On Tuesday, Tuesday, the Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński at the site of the country and the location of “Remembrance Crumbs”, which will soon be prepared for archaeological works. During the press conference, he recalled that attractiveness is only in style, but also with exclusive, meeting materials.
– Possible way of the program – especially because they say that one of the elements of their non-existent is not to continue this reconstruction – that we invite everyone here to learn about the process from the Saski Palace, and once again – we talked about guaranteeing it, that we want to plan that we are doing at the moment, if we want him to plan that we are doing, we are making a plan that is only executing for those who want to plan. So, the Brühl Palace to, above all, the Polish Senate. As for the Saxon Palace, he said the representative spaces of the Marshal’s Office – said the Deputy Prime Minister.
He added that the rest would be “for culture and institute.” – We want it to be a branch of the Polish History Museum, Zachęta, which is on the other side of the street, for it to be open to non-governmental organizations, for Varsovians, a common place for Varsovians and Poles. So, first of all, cultural institutions, institutions of historical memory, because this is where Chopin lived and there was the Cipher Bureau. This is a place where, in addition to stories about Chopin or Polish opponents, we will also tell stories about lower figures in history, for example about Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Recently, I had an idea (…) to be able to repeat this for a small bookstore – said the head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
At the beginning of the design of the year, it is planned to announce a competition for the architectural creation of the reconstruction of Saski.
Photo Source: National Digital Archives