Arsenal (Warsaw)

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Arsenal in spring 2010 from Długa Street (south)

The Arsenal in Warsaw ( Arsenał Królewski w Warszawie ) was built as a military arsenal building. It is located on Warsaw's Długa Street, not far from the historic Old Town . The building has been used for a variety of purposes in its 370-year history and has been rebuilt several times. It currently houses the Archaeological Museum as well as a restaurant.

history

The square building with an inner courtyard was built between 1638 and 1643 on the instructions of King Władysław IV. Wasa as an arsenal. The required property was acquired on May 19, 1638. The construction of the building, presumably also designed by him, was initially supervised by the commander of the Polish field artillery , General Paweł Grodzicki , and later by the artillery officer and engineer Krzysztof Arciszewski . The building was named "Arsenal" in the second half of the 18th century. Until then it was called "Cekhauz" - based on the German term " Zeughaus ". In its early days, the arsenal was equipped with 95 cannons and 14 mortars .

The building is a four-wing, almost square-shaped structure with an inner courtyard. The gatehouse is in the south. The wings faced the inner courtyard with arcades and galleries for the cannons housed there. These arcades are now walled up. The roofs were and are covered with red tiles. Originally, the plant was with one of the now-defunct Nalewka -fed water-carrying ditch and to Długa street with a picket fence protected. The outer walls were reinforced to withstand direct attacks.

The building was later redesigned several times: from 1752 to 1757 by Joachim Daniel von Jauch and Johann Sigmund Deybel von Hammerau , from 1779 to 1782 by Simon Gottlieb Zug and Stanisław Zawadzki . From 1935 to 1938, Bruno Zborowski and Andrzej Węgrzecki restored the building to its early Baroque form. The restoration plans were used again for the reconstruction after the Second World War.

During the Warsaw fighting as part of the Kościuszko uprising , the arsenal was the scene of bitter fighting between Russian occupation forces and Polish freedom fighters. It was badly damaged during these battles and rebuilt in 1817 under Wilhelm Heinrich Minter .

In the November uprising the building was contested again and in 1835 it was rededicated as a prison for the Russian occupiers. After the Warsaw Citadel took over the accommodation of political prisoners, only criminals were detained in the arsenal. Even after Poland regained its independence in 1918, the arsenal remained a police facility. In 1934 the building was converted into the city archive.

The arsenal survived the capture of Warsaw by the German troops in 1939 largely undamaged. It was still used as an archive under German occupation . On March 26, 1943, Polish partisans freed Jan Bytnar , an underground fighter arrested by the Gestapo , in front of the building . The liberation operation carried out by units of the " Gray Ranks " was called " Operation Arsenal ". During the fighting of the Warsaw Uprising , the arsenal was a base of units of the insurgent Home Army and accordingly fought over. After the uprising was put down, it was completely destroyed by German troops.

In 1948 it was decided to rebuild the arsenal in its original 17th century form. The work, which was completed in 1950, was carried out under the direction of Bruno Zborowski. The Archaeological Museum has been located here since 1959.

  • Seen from the old town on a Canaletto painting from 1775. In the foreground the no longer existing Brygidki Church

  • Stormed during the Warsaw November Uprising in 1830

  • At the beginning of the Second World War

  • The courtyard in 2010 to the south

References and comments

  1. ↑ It is also possible to convert a building that already exists on the same site, a veteran accommodation built by King Stefan Batory in the middle of the 15th century .
  2. ↑ Jan Bytnar, aliases: "Rudy", "Czarny", "Janek", "Krokodyl", "Jan Rudy" (1921–1943) was a leader of the Polish scouts and in the Polish Home Army

literature

  • Arsenal in Warsaw , 12-page brochure on the building in English, translated by Danuta Romanowska, Wojciech Piotrowski and Jan Sieklicki, printed by WZKart, undated
  • Arsenał Władysławowski w Warszawie, Państwowe Muzeum Archeologiczne w Warszawie , wydano z okazji 214 rocznicy Konstitucji 3 Maja, Marek Boruta and Wojciech Brzeziński, ISBN 83-60099-40-5 , Warszawa 2005
  • Państwowe Muzeum Archeologiczne - Informator , Wojciech Brzeziński and Wojciech Borkowski, ISBN 978-83-60099-22-3 , Wydawnictwo Naukowe - Instytut Technologii Eksploatacji - PIB, Warsaw 2009.
  • Poland. Baedeker Allianz Travel Guide , Verlag Karl Baedeker, ISBN 3-87504-542-4 , Ostfildern 1993, p. 405
  • Reinhold Vetter, Between Wisła / Vistula, Bug and Karpaty / Carpathian Mountains , in: Poland. History, art and landscape of an old European cultural nation , DuMont Art Travel Guide, 3rd edition, ISBN 3-7701-2023-X , DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1991, p. 155

Web links

Commons : Arsenal Warsaw  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 45.1 ″  N , 21 ° 0 ′ 8.7 ″  E