Miziołek, Jerzy; Kowalski, Hubert: Chopin among artists and scholars (Warsaw, 2010)

CHOPIN AMONG ARTISTS AND SCHOLARS

Fig. 42. Leonard Schmidtner, Measurements of the
Fagade of the Church of St. Anne with its Cloister in
Warsaw, ca. 1824, watercolour, MHW.

Not far from Pac Palace once stood the Warsaw Conservatory, where J6-
zef Eisner used to give practical courses in vocal and instrumental music to
University students, among them Frederick Chopin. It was attached to the
complex of buildings of the Bernardines, which included the church, the
bell-tower and the cloister (fig. 42-43). The Conservatory, installed in a for-
mer church and cloister, was liquidated ca. 1840 and whatever is known of
it now comes mostly from a few paintings and engravings (fig. 44). Luckily,
the beautiful complex of the church of St. Anne, designed by Chrystian
Piotr Aigner in collaboration with Stanistaw Kostka Potocki and a witness
of Frederick's youth in Warsaw, has been preserved to this day, despite the
partial destruction during the World War II95. The church fagade and the
belltower date from the 1780s, while the fagade of the cloister was built
ca. 1820. The architectural concept of the church was influenced by the
fagades of the San Giorgio Maggiore and II Redentore churches in Venice
designed by Andrea Palladio, while the fagade of the cloister is borrowed
from the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome.

ANNO REffTAVKATAESALVTIS MDCCLXXXVH
STANISLAO AVCVSTO RECE
RELIGIONIS STVDIO
IOSLPHVS KWIEC1NSILI
A.DEM HANC iACEtAM EXTRVtTAM
SVO AERE ERONTE ORNAVIT

Fig. 43. Detail of the Fagade of the church of St.
Anne, photo 2010.

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