Jan Zachwatowicz

Jan Zachwatowicz's grave monument

Jan Zachwatowicz (born March 4, 1900 in Gatchina ; † August 18, 1983 in Warsaw ) was a Polish architect , art historian and monument conservator.

Life

Zachwatowicz studied industrial construction at the Petersburg Polytechnic and received his architectural diploma from the Technical University of Warsaw in 1930. In 1939 he became director of the architecture department of this university, but during the Nazi occupation he had to keep his courses secret at great personal risk. In 1945 he was appointed general curator and professor for Polish architecture. Zachwatowicz became the internationally recognized representative of the “Polish School of Monument Preservation” (a term that he did not appreciate very much). As an employee of the Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy (BOS) he headed the reconstruction of Warsaw's old town and, with Stanisław Lorentz (1899–1991) that of the royal palace (in the place of which the Communist Party regime initially wanted to build a modern building in order to preserve the “feudal legacy “Forget to make). Among the BOS architects, he was a committed advocate for the preservation and reconstruction of old buildings. In 1964 he was one of the signatories of the Venice Charter .

The principles developed by Zachwatowicz and his team have also been applied to reconstruction projects in Gdańsk , Poznań and Wrocław .

Maria Zachwatowicz was his wife and Krystyna Zachwatowicz was one of two daughters.

Awards and honors

Order of Polonia Restituta , Commander in Chief
Order of Polonia Restituta, Commander with a star

Publications (selection)

Ochrona Zabytków w Polsce (The Preservation of Monuments in Poland, 1965)
Architektura polska (Polish architecture, 1966)
Sztuka polska przedromańska i romańska do schyłku XIII wieku (Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque Polish art up to the end of the 13th century, 1971; joint work)
Zamek Królewski w Warszawie (The Royal Castle in Warsaw, 1979)

Web links

Roman Hillmann on Zachwatowicz's 100th birthday (PDF file; 210 kB)
Biographical article in Die Welt

Individual evidence

↑ according to Exhibition catalog: Catalog Wystawy Budujemy nowy dom. Odbudowa Warszawy w latach 1945-1952 prezentowanej od 7. lipca do 15. listopada 2011 w siedzibie DSH, Dom Spotkań z Historią, ISBN 978-83-62020-33-1 , Warszawa 2011, p. 3.
↑ Postanowienie o odznaczeniu z dnia 29 października 1947 r. za zasługi położone przy zabezpieczeniu arcydzieł culture polskiej. In: prawo.sejm.gov.pl. October 29, 1947, accessed November 2, 2019 (Polish).

personal data
SURNAME	Zachwatowicz, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Polish architect, art historian and monument conservator
DATE OF BIRTH	March 4, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH	Gatchina
DATE OF DEATH	August 18, 1983
Place of death	Warsaw

[1] rding to Exhibition catalog: Catalog Wystawy Budujemy nowy dom. Odbudowa Warszawy w latach 1945-1952 prezentowanej od 7. lipca do 15. listopada 2011 w siedzibie DSH, Dom Spotkań z Historią, ISBN 978-83-62020-33-1 , Warszawa 2011, p. 3.

[2] Postanowienie o odznaczeniu z dnia 29 października 1947 r. za zasługi położone przy zabezpieczeniu arcydzieł culture polskiej. In: prawo.sejm.gov.pl. October 29, 1947, accessed November 2, 2019 (Polish).