DOI article:
Martyn, Peter: The brave new-old capital city: Questions relating to the rebuilding and remodelling of Warsaw’s architectural profile from the late-1940s until 1956
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23901#0216
Peter Martyn
completely „restituted" magnatial residence.
Its burnt-out ruins had already been partly
demolished by the Nazis, while what could
still be put to use was destroyed in the Warsaw
Uprising. Only the main portico had been
left, and, under the guidance of B. Zinserling,
this was successfully and effectively incorpo-
rated into the reconstituted corpus.
Bellotto's view of Miodowa Street — from
what would appear to have been the terrace
over the single-storey forecourt buildings of
the „Star" Manor House (Dwor Pod Gwiazdq)
- clearly depicted sculptural work surmount-
ing the palace's elevations on the Miodowa
Street side. In recreating" the sculptures,
Zinserling consulted a specialist, Dr. J.
Glinke, in the political activities and artistic
patronage of J. K. Branicki. Was the architect
unaware of the fact that the sculptures had
never existed, or was he consciously creating
an image which „should have" existed, even
though it never did? If the latter interpretation
is nearer the truth, Zinserling was making
improvements on the past (fig. 7)30.
The Cracow Bishops' Palace, also just
around the corner from the „houses on the
slab", is a more incongruous example of how
the apparent dependence on Bellotto-
Canaletto's pictures resulted in what archi-
tectural historians have begun to call „pseudo
historic monuments" (pseudo zabytki).
Suffice it to compare the present-day contrast
in cornice line between the palace and neigh-
bouring house on what is now 4 Senatorska
Street with how it looked on a pre-1939 pho-
tograph (figs 8a-d). Again, two contrasting
explanations come to the fore: although
Bellotto evidently exaggerated the height of
the upper level in relation to the groundfloor,
the architect-engineer, Wtadystaw Borawski,
who supervised its reconstruction from the
foundations, was simultaneously designing
headquarters for the „Delta" Union of
Aircraft and Aerial Motors Industry {siedziba
Zjednoczenia Przemystu Lotniczego
i Silnikowego „Delta"). Consequently, he had
his reasons for ignoring the fact that the orig-
inally 2-storey palace had had its upper floor
adapted to accommodate a mezzanine; his
instructions were to build, on the basis of the
Bellotto-Canaletto view, a three-storey office
building (1948-51). A Stolica article of 2nd
July 1950 could not have summed up the
true circumstances behind the actual course
of events more poignantly:
„The ruins of Senatorska Street are giving
way to rebuilt stylistic houses and palaces
reconstructed in accordance with the models
available".
There hardly seems any point in polemi-
cising on the way in which the elevational pro-
portions, fenestration, crowning cornice and
architectural details were executed in the
reconstructing of what, in order to avoid men-
tioning the bishops of Cracow, was referred to
in the 1950s as Sohyk's Palace31. In its
30 Sculpture work adorning the palace's crowning cornice had existed until the late-19th century not on the side of
Miodowa Street but facing the courtyard, entered from Podwale Street. See A. BARTCZAKOWA, I. MALI-
NOWSKA, Palac Branickich, Warszawa 1974. Compare with Zinserling's reconstruction of the Morsztyn family
residence next door but one, M. KWIATKOWSKI, Pake Morsztynow, Warszawa 1971. See also the polemic by
R. MA.CZYNSKI, Czy Canaletto (sic!) fantazjowat? Zagadka dekoracji rzezbiarskiej warszawskiego patacu
Branickich, Kronika Zamkowa 2/34/1996, with an English summary ('Did Canaletto make it up?"). The author
has yet to confirm his hypothesis that the sculptures facing Miodowa Street not only in fact existed but were actu-
ally painted by Bellotto from real life.
31 The palace was originally raised for Sigismund III Vasa's wife, Constance around 1619 on the site of a previous
manor house, and the incomplete building was offered by King Vladislas IV as a gift to the Cracow chapter and
Bishop, Jakub Zadzik, who apparently ensured the building's completion, although the architect responsible for its
original design has not been established. It was one of the first and for a long time about the only palace of any par-
ticular prestige that had been raised to create a street frontage, without a forecourt, suggesting a special urban aes-
thetic for Miodowa Street that was never more than partially realised before the demise of the multi-cultural Polish
Respublica s golden era (a possible precursor heralding a wider, more public-urban version of a Strada Nuova for
Warsaw subsequently arising in a predominantly neo-Classical form during the 18th and early-19th centuries). The
palace's history following its completion around 1641 reflects that of Warsaw as a whole over the ensuing three or
212
completely „restituted" magnatial residence.
Its burnt-out ruins had already been partly
demolished by the Nazis, while what could
still be put to use was destroyed in the Warsaw
Uprising. Only the main portico had been
left, and, under the guidance of B. Zinserling,
this was successfully and effectively incorpo-
rated into the reconstituted corpus.
Bellotto's view of Miodowa Street — from
what would appear to have been the terrace
over the single-storey forecourt buildings of
the „Star" Manor House (Dwor Pod Gwiazdq)
- clearly depicted sculptural work surmount-
ing the palace's elevations on the Miodowa
Street side. In recreating" the sculptures,
Zinserling consulted a specialist, Dr. J.
Glinke, in the political activities and artistic
patronage of J. K. Branicki. Was the architect
unaware of the fact that the sculptures had
never existed, or was he consciously creating
an image which „should have" existed, even
though it never did? If the latter interpretation
is nearer the truth, Zinserling was making
improvements on the past (fig. 7)30.
The Cracow Bishops' Palace, also just
around the corner from the „houses on the
slab", is a more incongruous example of how
the apparent dependence on Bellotto-
Canaletto's pictures resulted in what archi-
tectural historians have begun to call „pseudo
historic monuments" (pseudo zabytki).
Suffice it to compare the present-day contrast
in cornice line between the palace and neigh-
bouring house on what is now 4 Senatorska
Street with how it looked on a pre-1939 pho-
tograph (figs 8a-d). Again, two contrasting
explanations come to the fore: although
Bellotto evidently exaggerated the height of
the upper level in relation to the groundfloor,
the architect-engineer, Wtadystaw Borawski,
who supervised its reconstruction from the
foundations, was simultaneously designing
headquarters for the „Delta" Union of
Aircraft and Aerial Motors Industry {siedziba
Zjednoczenia Przemystu Lotniczego
i Silnikowego „Delta"). Consequently, he had
his reasons for ignoring the fact that the orig-
inally 2-storey palace had had its upper floor
adapted to accommodate a mezzanine; his
instructions were to build, on the basis of the
Bellotto-Canaletto view, a three-storey office
building (1948-51). A Stolica article of 2nd
July 1950 could not have summed up the
true circumstances behind the actual course
of events more poignantly:
„The ruins of Senatorska Street are giving
way to rebuilt stylistic houses and palaces
reconstructed in accordance with the models
available".
There hardly seems any point in polemi-
cising on the way in which the elevational pro-
portions, fenestration, crowning cornice and
architectural details were executed in the
reconstructing of what, in order to avoid men-
tioning the bishops of Cracow, was referred to
in the 1950s as Sohyk's Palace31. In its
30 Sculpture work adorning the palace's crowning cornice had existed until the late-19th century not on the side of
Miodowa Street but facing the courtyard, entered from Podwale Street. See A. BARTCZAKOWA, I. MALI-
NOWSKA, Palac Branickich, Warszawa 1974. Compare with Zinserling's reconstruction of the Morsztyn family
residence next door but one, M. KWIATKOWSKI, Pake Morsztynow, Warszawa 1971. See also the polemic by
R. MA.CZYNSKI, Czy Canaletto (sic!) fantazjowat? Zagadka dekoracji rzezbiarskiej warszawskiego patacu
Branickich, Kronika Zamkowa 2/34/1996, with an English summary ('Did Canaletto make it up?"). The author
has yet to confirm his hypothesis that the sculptures facing Miodowa Street not only in fact existed but were actu-
ally painted by Bellotto from real life.
31 The palace was originally raised for Sigismund III Vasa's wife, Constance around 1619 on the site of a previous
manor house, and the incomplete building was offered by King Vladislas IV as a gift to the Cracow chapter and
Bishop, Jakub Zadzik, who apparently ensured the building's completion, although the architect responsible for its
original design has not been established. It was one of the first and for a long time about the only palace of any par-
ticular prestige that had been raised to create a street frontage, without a forecourt, suggesting a special urban aes-
thetic for Miodowa Street that was never more than partially realised before the demise of the multi-cultural Polish
Respublica s golden era (a possible precursor heralding a wider, more public-urban version of a Strada Nuova for
Warsaw subsequently arising in a predominantly neo-Classical form during the 18th and early-19th centuries). The
palace's history following its completion around 1641 reflects that of Warsaw as a whole over the ensuing three or
212