Architecture of Poland


The architecture of Poland includes modern and historical monuments of architectural and historical importance.
Several important works of Western architecture, such as the Wawel Hill, the Książ and Malbork castles, cityscapes of Toruń, Zamość, and Kraków are located in the country. Some of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Now Poland is developing modernist approaches in design with architects like Daniel Libeskind, Karol Żurawski, and Krzysztof Ingarden.

History

Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture

The oldest, Pre-Romanesque buildings were built in Poland after the Christianisation of the country but only few of them still exist today.
The Romanesque architecture was then developed in the 12th and 13th centuries. The most significant buildings are the second cathedral in Kraków, Tum Collegiate Church, Czerwińsk abbey, collegiate churches in Kruszwica and Opatów as well as the churches of St. Andrew in Kraków and of Blessed Lady Mary in Inowrocław. Smaller structures were also popular, like rotundas in Cieszyn and Strzelno.
Late Romanesque architecture is represented by the Cistercian abbeys in Jędrzejów, Koprzywnica, Sulejów and Wąchock as well as the Dominican church in Sandomierz and the ruins of castle chapel">Brzeg Castle">castle chapel.

Gothic architecture

The first Gothic structures in Poland were built in the 13th century in Silesia. The most important churches from this time are the cathedral in Wrocław and the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and St Bartholomew in the same city, as well as the St Hedwig's Chapel in the Cistercian nuns abbey in Trzebnica and the castle chapel in Racibórz. The Gothic architecture in Silesia was further developed in the 14th century in the series of parish churches in the most important cities of the region. The most important secular building of the gothic period in Silesia is the Wrocław Town Hall, initially built in the 13th century and enlarged and rebuilt in later centuries, mainly in the late 15th century.
The 14th century is also the heyday of the Gothic in Lesser Poland, where such structures were built like the gothic Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, the series of basilical churches in the same city and many hall churches outside the capital city. In the same time the Greater Poland's cathedrals in Poznań and Gniezno as well as the Latin Cathedral in Lviv were built.
Many Gothic structures were also built in Royal Prussia before and after the incorporation of the region into the Polish Crown according to the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). The most important sights are the castles of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, Gniew and Radzyń Chełmiński and the town halls and churches of Toruń, Chełmno, Pelplin, Frombork and Gdańsk.
Late Gothic is represented by such buildings like the Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow or the St. Mary's Church in Poznań and the Corpus Christi Church in Biecz. Moreover, in the 1st half of the 16th century diamond vaults were popular, especially in Masovia and in Royal Prussia.
There are also some examples of the post-Gothic architecture from the 17th century, like the choir of the St. Hyacinth's Church in Warsaw or the Bernardine monastery in Przasnysz.
In the modern Poland there are also some examples of Gothic architecture of the former Duchy of Pomerania like the Kamień Pomorski Cathedral, Szczecin Cathedral and the St. Mary's Church in Stargard.

Renaissance

The Renaissance came to Poland as a court fashion thanks to King Sigismund, who became acquainted with this stylistics in Buda, at the court of his Hungarian uncle. Sigismund invited Italian craftsmen from Buda to Kraków, where they created the first Italian Renaissance piece in Poland, the Tomb of John I Albert in the Wawel Cathedral and remodelled in the new manner the Wawel Castle. One of the masterpieces of this time is also the Sigismund's Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral.
Later, the Renaissance architecture was especially popular in the secular architecture and is represented by the cloth hall in Krakow, many town halls, town houses on the market squares and castles.
In religious architecture Renaissance influences are visible in the Zamość Cathedral, in the church of St. Bartholomew and John the Baptist in Kazimierz Dolny, in the Bernardine churches of Lublin and Lviv as well as in many synagogues. Moreover, a specific group of churches, inspired by the Romanesque tradition of the region, was built in Mazovia. Late mannierism from the time of the Counter-Reformation is represented by the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska calvary complex.
The Renaissance architecture in the northern cities developed under the influence of Dutch Mannierism. The most important examples are the Great Armoury, Green Gate and Old Town City Hall in Gdańsk, as well as many town houses in Gdańsk, Toruń and Elbląg.
Within the borders of modern Poland are also some important Renaissance buildings built in the lands of the then Holy Roman Empire like the castle in Szczecin or the castle and the town hall in Brzeg as well as the church in Żórawina.

Baroque architecture

The early Baroque in Poland was dominated by the Roman influences. In the second half of the 17th century the influences of the Dutch Baroque architecture were also important thanks to the Tylman van Gameren.
The most important structures of the Polish late Baroque were built in the former Eastern Borderlands, like the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul and St. Johns in Vilnius, the St. George's Cathedral and the Dominican Church in Lviv as well as the Basilian Church and Monastery in Berezwecz and the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk. Other key buildings of this period are the Piarists Church and the Church of the Conversion of St. Paul in Krakow, the Visitationist Church in Warsaw, the Greater Poland's abbeys in Głogówko near Gostyń and in Ląd as well as the Święta Lipka pilgrimage church in Warmia. Moreover, one of the most outstanding examples of Polish Baroque Jewish architecture is the Great Synagogue in Włodawa.
The secular Baroque architecture in Poland is represented by the Ujazdów Castle, Royal Castle and Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, Palace of the [Kraków Bishops in Kielce] as well as Branicki Palace in Białystok. Other important structures are also the palaces in Radzyń Podlaski, Rogalin and Rydzyna. In Royal Prussia the most important example is the Abbot's Palace in Oliwa.
In modern Poland there are also important examples of the Baroque architecture in Silesia, which was then a part of the Habsburg monarchy. They include i.a. the main building of the University of Wrocław, the Protestant Churches of Peace in Świdnica and Jawor, the former Protestant Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church in Jelenia Góra, the Cistercian monasteries in Lubiąż, Krzeszów and Henryków as well as the churches by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer in Legnica and in Legnickie Pole.

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism dominated Polish architecture during the second half of the 18th and first third of the 19th century as a manifestation of Enlightenment rationalism. New stylistics came from France, Italy, and partly from Germany as a reflection of general admiration only for the newly discovered Greco-Roman antiquity. The most important structures from this period are the palaces On the Isle and Królikarnia in Warsaw by Domenico Merlini, the Lutheran Holy Trinity Church in the same city by Szymon Bogumił Zug and the cathedral in Vilnius by Wawrzyniec Gucewicz.
Late neoclassicism, which was chronologically connected with the end of the Napoleonic Wars and capture of the former Duchy of Warsaw by the Russian Empire in 1815, was characterized by significant volumes of construction, large representative buildings, which set a new, large scale of squares and streets of Warsaw like the Saxon Palace. The leading architect of the late neoclassicism in Poland is Italian Antonio Corazzi. His main buildings in Warsaw include Staszic Palace, the buildings on the Bank Square and the Grand Theatre. Other important architects were Piotr Aigner and Jakub Kubicki.
Apart from Congress Poland, worth mentioning are also the Raczyński Library in Poznań and the Wybrzeże Theater in Gdańsk.

Style revivals

The territory of the former Polish state remained divided between Prussia, Russia, and the Austrian Empire and developed unevenly.
The architecture of Kraków and Galicia at that time was oriented towards the Viennese model. The experience of Vienna Ring Road was successfully applied in Kraków where Planty Park was created. Stylistically, it was an eclecticism dominated by Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance. Similar stylistics dominated also in Lviv, Warsaw and Łódź.
In the church architecture, the most important was Neo-Gothic, promoted by architects like Józef Pius Dziekoński, Konstanty Wojciechowski, Jan Sas-Zubrzycki and Teodor Talowski.
Apart from Polish architects, also some important German and Austrian architects were active in the partitioned Poland, e.g. Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Franz Schwechten, Friedrich Hitzig, Theophil Hansen, Heinrich von Ferstel and Fellner & Helmer.
Within the borders of the modern Poland are also important examples built in at the time Prussian Silesia and Prussian Pomerania, like the Chrobry Embankment in Szczecin and the works of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Friedrich August Stüler and Alexis Langer.
In the era of capitalism, many factory owners' villas and palaces are built, as well as numerous workers' housing estates and industrial buildings.

Art Nouveau and Folk Architecture

Art Nouveau emerged as an attempt to abandon stylization and eclecticism, invent a new architectural style that would meet the spirit of the time. The most important centre of this style was Galicia, where many buildings were built under the influence of the Vienna Secession. The most important architects were Franciszek Mączyński in Krakow and Władysław Sadłowski in Lviv. Moreover, in Krakow important are also the interiors designed by Stanisław Wyspiański in the House of the Krakow Medical Society and by Józef Mehoffer in the House Under the Globe.
In Bielsko-Biała some architects direct from Vienna were active, like Leopold Bauer and Max Fabiani. Other important examples in the city include also the so-called Frog House.
In Congress Poland the Art Nouveau is represented by e.g. the Leopold Kindermann's Villa and the Poznanski's Mausoleum in Łódź, the bank building at 47 Sienkiewicza Street in Kielce and the early-modernist Eagles House in Warsaw.
Polish architects from the 1890s were also discovering folk motives. The leading figure of this trend was Stanisław Witkiewicz, the founder of the Zakopane Style. Folk-inspired were also many World War I Eastern Front cemeteries in Galicia, many of them designed by Dušan Jurkovič.

Modern architecture

Interwar period

Poland's regaining of independence marked a new era in art, where modern architecture developed on a large scale, in the beginning often combining achievements of functionalism with elements of classicism. The most important architects of this period are Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, Marian Lalewicz, Bohdan Pniewski and Wacław Krzyżanowski. Other important examples include also the buildings of the Polish Parliament in Warsaw and the Silesian Parliament in Katowice.
Important were also influences of the Polish folk art and the Expressionist architecture, clearly visible in the works of Jan Koszczyc Witkiewicz, in the Polish pavilion at International Exhibition in Paris or in the St. Roch's Church in Białystok, as well as in the inspired by the Chilehaus house at 6 Inwalidów Square in Kraków.
Examples of Polish constructivism and international style include numerous housing complexes and modern residential houses built by architects Barbara Brukalska and Stanisław Brukalski, Bohdan Lachert, Józef Szanajca, Helena and Szymon Syrkus or Juliusz Żórawski.
Construction investments took place on a larger scale in modern cities like seaport Gdynia, Katowice, and Stalowa Wola. The most important examples include in Gdynia the BGK housing complex as well as the buildings of the ZUS and the Department of Nautical Science of the Gdynia Maritime University and in Katowice the buildings of the former Silesian Parliament and the Silesian Museum as well as the so-called Skyscraper. Other early skyscrapers include the Prudential House in Warsaw.

German modernism

Famous examples in modern Poland also include the works of German architects in Silesia, like Hans Poelzig, Max Berg, Dominikus Böhm, Erich Mendelsohn or Hans Scharoun.
In the former Free City of Danzig Brick expressionist architecture gained popularity, represented by such works like the building of the health insurance company in the 27 Wałowa Street.
There are also some buildings built in the Nazi Germany or during the German occupation of Poland in the General Government like the Regierungspräsidium in Wrocław or the Przegorzały Castle in Kraków.

After 1945

Reconstruction of cities and monuments after the war had a diverse character. Valuable examples of cultural restitution can be reconstructions of the old towns in Warsaw and Gdańsk. However, reconstruction of buildings in the Recovered Territories was strongly influenced by political aims of eradicating architecture perceived as German, and Prussian in particular.
After the Second World War, the avant-garde architecture was initially developed, but in the years 1949-1956 it was interrupted by the socialist realist period. The best examples of the so-called Stalinist neoclassicism are the Palace of Culture and Science by Lev Rudnev and the Marszałkowska Dzielnica Mieszkaniowa housing estate in Warsaw as well as the planned city of Nowa Huta.
After the period of the socialist realism the architects could again develop the international style. The most important sights include the Biprocemwap Building, the Kijów Cinema and the Cracovia Hotel in Kraków, in Warsaw, railway stations in Warsaw, Spodek in Katowice and the in Kalisz.
The brutalist architecture is represented by the Plac Grunwaldzki housing estate in Wrocław, the Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Arka Pana Church and the former Hotel Forum in Kraków, the "hammer" building at 8 Smolna Street in Warsaw, the complex of sanatoriums in Ustroń as well as being inspired by Unité d'habitation residential unit Superjednostka and the railway station in Katowice.
A growing demand for housing in the communist era led also to the construction of numerous housing estates. The most notable are Nowa Huta in Kraków and the Plac Grunwaldzki in Wrocław, also e.g. the Koło II in Warsaw by Helena and Szymon Syrkus, the in Warsaw, the Falowiec in Gdańsk, the Osiedle Tysiąclecia in Katowice as well as the housing estates, by Oskar Nikolai Hansen and Zofia Garlińska-Hansen, and a different in architectural style from the housing estates of that era Kokociniec in Katowice by Ryszard Jurkowski. The Church of the Ascension of Christ, completed in Ursynów in 1989, combines traditional contours with modern minimalism.

After 1989

Among the most important contemporary Polish architects are Ryszard Jurkowski, Stanisław Niemczyk, the post-modernists Marek Budzyński, Romuald Loegler, and Dariusz Kozłowski, as well as the neo-modernists like Stefan Kuryłowicz, JEMS, Krzysztof Ingarden, and Zbigniew Maćków. In recent years, a significant increase in construction of cultural buildings has also been observed — including Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Taduesz Kantor Museum in Kraków, Museum of the Solidarity and Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, National Forum of Music in Wrocław, and Szczecin Philharmonic.
Since the creation of the Third Polish Republic, some prominent international architects have completed high-profile projects in Poland, among them Arata Isozaki, Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind and Helmut Jahn. There are also other international architects who have contributed to the development of Polish architecture, among them Larry Oltmanns/SOM with Rondo 1, Jürgen Mayer with Hotel Park Inn in Kraków, Rainer Mahlamäki with Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Renato Rizzi with Shakespearian Theatre in Gdańsk, Riegler Riewe Architekten with Silesian Museum, MVRDV with Bałtyk in Poznań, and Estudio Barozzi Veig with Szczecin Philharmonic, which in 2015 was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture of Poland includes many wooden Roman Catholic churches and tserkvas in the southeastern Carpathians, some of them dating from the 14th and 15th century. Other examples include wooden synagogues of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, however most of them were destroyed during the World War II.

Literature and sources

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  • Tadeusz Dobrowolski, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Historia sztuki polskiej vol. I-III, Kraków 1965.
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