DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38678#0051
related exclusively to Warsaw and Poland. It is sufficient to mention Bankowy Sąuare,
Teatralny Sąuare and the last part of Krakowskie Przedmieście Street at the Nowy Świat
Street end, all of which were shaped by Corazzi, to realize how many important elements the
planning of Warsaw owes to him. In providing plans for the construction of large public
edifices, he created monumental architecture, produced excellent basie shapes of buildings,
ingeniously articulated but compact; with harmony he connected wali surfaces with great
colonnades, complementing the whole with restrained decoration. His architecture showed
both the taste of tradition and the breath of new times. The neoclassical architecture which he
designed in Warsaw was then among the greatest achievements in Europę.
State patronage enabled him to create a large number of public edifices. It is sufficient to
mention the edifices built in the twenties of the 19th century: the Government Commission on
the Interior, rebuilt from the old pałace of the Mostowski family, the Government
Commission on Revenue and Treasury, the Directors’ Pałace (actually bełonging to the
minister Lubecki), and the imposing Polish Bank - the last three edifices constituting a truły
exceptional neoclassical complex. If we add the house of the Supreme Board of Supervision at
the corner of Nowy Świat Street and Jerozolimskie Avenue, the house of the Government
Commission of the Warsaw District in Nowolipki, the edifice of the Government Commission
in Radom and schools in Warsaw, Siedlce, Suwałki, Radzymin and Płock, we can declare that
the work of Corazzi reflected perfectly the great trends in State policy , which worked towards
the modernization of administration, providing foundations for the development of financial
possibilities for industrialization in the country and also towards an acceleration in the great
task of the spreading of education. In various districts of Warsaw, Corazzi built some twenty
private houses, among which particular attention is due to the house of the archbishop
Hołowczyc in Nowy Świat Street and two houses in Ujazdowskie Avenue. It can besaid with
complete certainty that Corazzi’s contribution to neoclassical architecture in Warsaw was
enormous. As his greatest achievement it is necessary to mention the Grand Theatre, one of
the most beautiful theatre edifices in the world.
A few years after Corazzi, in 1822, Enrico (Henryk) Marconi, also 26 years old, came to
Poland following a commission from General Ludwik Pac to build a neo-gothic pałace at
Dowspuda and to rebuild the pałace in Miodowa Street, bought by Pac from Michał
Radziwiłł; this reconstruction was carried out in 1824-1828. Only the latter pałace, with its
neoclassical front gate, can be included among the neoclassical buildings in Warsaw, sińce the
whole rich work of Marconi belonąed to a later period and was historicist.
At the threshold of the epoch in ąuestion, it is necessary to mention the little-known architect
Fryderyk Albert Lessel, the author of the reconstruction of the Blue Pałace in Warsaw in
1812-1819. If he is mentioned here after those architects who contributed most to the shaping
of Warsaw neoclassicism, it is because he represented a very peculiar version of Polish
architecture, which derived from the functional, purist French architecture of the early 19th
century, most evident in the school of Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. This movement had less
backing in Poland. Concluding this description of Warsaw neoclassicism in the 19th century,
it seems necessary to mention the large colonnade of the Saxon Pałace when it was rebuilt by
Idźkowski in 1839-1842. There were still here echoes of the architecture of 1760-1831, as itis
usually dated, but they had passed onto the sidelines.
A significant feature of 19th-century architecture, particularly its first thirty years, was the
fact that even at the end of the 18th century sculpture and relief began to play an increasingly
major role in architectural decoration. This sculpture was already neoclassically bereft of
baroąue reminiscences. The greatly inereased need for sculpture could not be fulfilled by
local artists*, and therefore a large number of purchases or orders were madę abroad and
foreign artists brought to Poland. Paweł Maliński from Bohemia, who was brought to Warsaw
46
Teatralny Sąuare and the last part of Krakowskie Przedmieście Street at the Nowy Świat
Street end, all of which were shaped by Corazzi, to realize how many important elements the
planning of Warsaw owes to him. In providing plans for the construction of large public
edifices, he created monumental architecture, produced excellent basie shapes of buildings,
ingeniously articulated but compact; with harmony he connected wali surfaces with great
colonnades, complementing the whole with restrained decoration. His architecture showed
both the taste of tradition and the breath of new times. The neoclassical architecture which he
designed in Warsaw was then among the greatest achievements in Europę.
State patronage enabled him to create a large number of public edifices. It is sufficient to
mention the edifices built in the twenties of the 19th century: the Government Commission on
the Interior, rebuilt from the old pałace of the Mostowski family, the Government
Commission on Revenue and Treasury, the Directors’ Pałace (actually bełonging to the
minister Lubecki), and the imposing Polish Bank - the last three edifices constituting a truły
exceptional neoclassical complex. If we add the house of the Supreme Board of Supervision at
the corner of Nowy Świat Street and Jerozolimskie Avenue, the house of the Government
Commission of the Warsaw District in Nowolipki, the edifice of the Government Commission
in Radom and schools in Warsaw, Siedlce, Suwałki, Radzymin and Płock, we can declare that
the work of Corazzi reflected perfectly the great trends in State policy , which worked towards
the modernization of administration, providing foundations for the development of financial
possibilities for industrialization in the country and also towards an acceleration in the great
task of the spreading of education. In various districts of Warsaw, Corazzi built some twenty
private houses, among which particular attention is due to the house of the archbishop
Hołowczyc in Nowy Świat Street and two houses in Ujazdowskie Avenue. It can besaid with
complete certainty that Corazzi’s contribution to neoclassical architecture in Warsaw was
enormous. As his greatest achievement it is necessary to mention the Grand Theatre, one of
the most beautiful theatre edifices in the world.
A few years after Corazzi, in 1822, Enrico (Henryk) Marconi, also 26 years old, came to
Poland following a commission from General Ludwik Pac to build a neo-gothic pałace at
Dowspuda and to rebuild the pałace in Miodowa Street, bought by Pac from Michał
Radziwiłł; this reconstruction was carried out in 1824-1828. Only the latter pałace, with its
neoclassical front gate, can be included among the neoclassical buildings in Warsaw, sińce the
whole rich work of Marconi belonąed to a later period and was historicist.
At the threshold of the epoch in ąuestion, it is necessary to mention the little-known architect
Fryderyk Albert Lessel, the author of the reconstruction of the Blue Pałace in Warsaw in
1812-1819. If he is mentioned here after those architects who contributed most to the shaping
of Warsaw neoclassicism, it is because he represented a very peculiar version of Polish
architecture, which derived from the functional, purist French architecture of the early 19th
century, most evident in the school of Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. This movement had less
backing in Poland. Concluding this description of Warsaw neoclassicism in the 19th century,
it seems necessary to mention the large colonnade of the Saxon Pałace when it was rebuilt by
Idźkowski in 1839-1842. There were still here echoes of the architecture of 1760-1831, as itis
usually dated, but they had passed onto the sidelines.
A significant feature of 19th-century architecture, particularly its first thirty years, was the
fact that even at the end of the 18th century sculpture and relief began to play an increasingly
major role in architectural decoration. This sculpture was already neoclassically bereft of
baroąue reminiscences. The greatly inereased need for sculpture could not be fulfilled by
local artists*, and therefore a large number of purchases or orders were madę abroad and
foreign artists brought to Poland. Paweł Maliński from Bohemia, who was brought to Warsaw
46