Lorentz, Stanisław; Rottermund, Andrzej: Neoclassicism in Poland (Warsaw, 1986)

Raszyn, draft design of an inn, S.B. Zug, c. 1784-90

most important role in sculpture. The directions which the further development of the royal
trend in Polish neoclassical art would have taken are indicated by what was designed and built
at Łazienki in 1788-1795, when there were no futher major undertakings at the Royal Castle.
The New Architectural Landscape
In the middle seventies the great changes that occurred in economic and intellectual life began
to be reflected in architecture. Individual expression was gained by the beginnings of the
capitalist system, by attempts at reforms of the state and economy, by tendencies towards
a strengthening of the defensive power of the country, by intellectual life, science, education
and culture.
An extremely telling, and at the same time one of the earliest, example of the reverberation of
these phenomena in architecture was the house of the banker Piotr Fergusson Tepper, also
called a pałace, in Miodowa Street in Warsaw, which was built to a design of Szreger’s from
1774. This house had distinctly defined functions: its purpose was to be at the same time
a banker’s and a commercial house and also a modern tenement house. Thus, it can be
considered as a symbol of the changes which it augured. Emphasis is due not only to the
thematic programme, but also to the conception of functional value, which accountedfor the
purpose of the edifice and the variety of functions which it was supposed to fulfill. This
deserves particular attention, sińce the problem of architectural theme and utilitarian
functions of buildings was, in terms of the architecture of the Age of Enlightenment, an issue
of major significance and also found expression in the shaping of architecture and decoration.
This was also the case with bank and commercial houses, including, for example, the Tepper
house mentioned above and the large, modern commercial house of Roeslers and Hurtig built
in 1784 in Krakowskie Przedmieście Street; the latter house was designed by Zug. It was the
case with public buildings, such as town halls, barracks, theatres, buildings for education and

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