Palace of Culture (Warsaw)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pałac Kultury i Nauki
Palace of Culture and Science
Palac Kultury i Nauki
Basic data
Place: Warsaw , Poland
Construction time : 1952-1955
Status : Monument (since 2007)
Architect : Lev Rudnew
Technical specifications
Height : 237 m
Height to the top: 231 m
Height to the roof: 187.8 m
Floors : 44
Usable area : 123,084 sq m
Building material : Steel
concrete
brick
ceramic
stone
wood
Height comparison
Warsaw : 1. ( list )
Poland : 1. ( list )
Europe : 18. ( list )
address
Address: plac Defilad 1
Post Code: 00-110
City: Warsaw
Country: Poland

The Palace of Culture and Science ( pln. Pałac Kultury i Nauki, abbreviated PKiN ) is a 237-meter-high skyscraper in the center of Warsaw built between 1952 and 1955 by order of Josef Stalin in the architectural style of socialist classicism . In the first years of its completion, the 187.68 meter high building, which was then called the “Stalin Palace” , was the second tallest building in Europe after the main building of Lomonosov University in Moscow at 240 meters and is now 237 meters after the antenna was installed in 1994 Meters the highest in Poland .

History and description

The 44-storey Palace of Culture was designed by the Russian architect Lev Rudnew . Rudnew was inspired by the Empire State Building in New York and also collected ideas on a tour of Poland. After visiting cities like Krakow , Zamość and Lublin , he tried to create a synthesis of socialist classicism and traditional Polish architecture. In particular, the Polish Attica from the Renaissance he took over for the lower parts of the building.

Poland was controlled by the Soviet Union at that time and because the building was erected as a "gift to the Polish people" or as a "gift from the Soviet nations to the Polish nation" by order of the Soviet leadership under Josef Stalin , it was originally named after him and called him "Palace of Culture and Science Josef Stalin" ( Pałac Kultury i Nauki imienia Józefa Stalina ), who died on March 5, 1953 during the construction work.

The foundation stone was laid on the emblematic May 1st, Labor Day, 1952, a public holiday in Poland that has been celebrated since 1950, and within three years the palace was occupied by 7,000 or 10,000 workers, of whom 3,500 were Soviet workers, in 24-hour shifts built in Warsaw's city center, which was almost completely affected by World War II : 85% of the city was destroyed. The opening took place on July 21, 1955.

During the time of the People's Republic of Poland , the palace was primarily a place to represent and invite: the best restaurant in the city was there, the Polish elite, the state party Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza , the Polish United Workers' Party and the Warsaw Pact met there.

On April 13, 1967, the Rolling Stones , who were on tour as part of their European tour, were one of the first world-famous rock bands to perform behind the Iron Curtain. The appearance in the congress hall in the palace differed from the previous Rolling Stones concerts: 3,000 of the 5,000 tickets were given free of charge to party officials and their families, and so the Rolling Stones, instead of in front of screaming teenagers, mostly played in front of tie-wearing older men. In front of the palace, there were violent arguments between the police and young people who wanted to go to the concert.

As a symbol of totalitarian oppression, initially unpopular to hated and ridiculed by the Warsaw residents that the most beautiful view of Warsaw from the Palace of Culture, because you don't have to see it from there, the palace is not entirely undisputed (see demand after demolition) but popular with many residents and tourists due to its interior redesign and history and is one of the landmarks of Warsaw. Today the Kulturpalast houses cinemas, four theaters and three museums, a swimming pool and a university of photography in its 3,288 rooms; In addition, there are often fashion shows, trade fairs or concerts in the adjacent congress hall . On the 30th floor there is also a viewing platform and a panorama restaurant at a height of 114 meters. There are also numerous transmitters for VHF and television on the roof . In 1994 an antenna was installed on the roof, increasing the total height to 237 meters. The tower clock was unveiled on New Year 2000, is the second largest clock in Europe and is considered the tallest tower clock in the world. In 2010, LED lighting was installed that enables the building to be illuminated in different colors .

Apart from the arguable artistic value, besides the MDM residential area , the Palace of Culture is the only completely preserved monument of the so-called Socialist Realism of Warsaw, a document of the first period of the reconstruction of the Polish capital. The renovation of the congress hall has been making headlines since 2014. Two companies have already gone bankrupt and jokes are being made about the fact that although you can build a palace in three years, it would take five years or more to renovate a single room. Originally, the renovation was supposed to take two years and cost 45 million zlotys .

Since 2005, the Palace of Culture and Science is under legal protection and since February 2, 2007, listed building . Regardless of this, the Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and several members of the PiS party , which has ruled Poland since 2015 , demanded the demolition of the palace and other buildings from the time of the People's Republic (1944–1989) as well as symbols from this period, such as B. street names or statues to remove.

Initially in white, the building now appears in brown-beige, due to decades of air pollution.

Todays use

In addition to offices and event rooms, the Palace of Culture and Science has several educational institutions, including the private college Collegium Civitas , the multiplex cinema Kinoteka with eight halls, various restaurants, cafés and bars, a post office of the Polish Post , a shopping center and the following facilities, among others :

theatre

Museums

Broadcast programs

The Palace of Culture and its surroundings
The top of the Palace of Culture
The Kulturpalast in the evening
Miniature of the Palace of Culture

Radio

program frequency Transmission power (ERP)
Radio Maryja 89.0 MHz 1.00 kW
Radio WAWA 89.8 MHz 0.50 kW
Polskie radio 92.0 MHz 0.20 kW
Temporary radio 92.0 MHz 0.20 kW
Radio VOX FM Warszawa 93.3 MHz 1.00 kW
Antyradio 94 FM 94.0 MHz 1.00 kW
Radio RMF Maxxx 95.8 MHz 0.50 kW
Radio Plus Józef 96.5 fm 96.5 MHz 10.00 kW
Akademickie Radio Kampus 97.1 MHz 0.10 kW
Radio TOK FM RTCN Warszawa 97.7 MHz 0.10 kW
Radio RMF Classic 98.3 MHz 0.10 kW
Radio Złote Przeboje 100.1 MHz 1.00 kW
RDC - Radio Dla Ciebie 101.0 MHz 10.00 kW
Planeta FM 101.5 MHz 0.20 kW
Radio PiN 102 FM 102.0 MHz 0.50 kW
Radio Kolor 103 FM 103.0 MHz 1.00 kW
Radio 103.7 Roxy FM 103.7 MHz 0.20 kW
Radio Eska Rock Warszawa 104.4 MHz 0.50 kW
Polskie Radio Program 2 104.9 MHz 2.50 kW
Radio Eska Warszawa 105.6 MHz 3.20 kW
Radio Warszawa 106.2 MHz 1.00 kW
Radio Zet 107.5 MHz 10.00 kW

watch TV

program frequency Channel number Transmission power (ERP)
TVP1 215.25 MHz R11 000000000000075.000000000075 kW
Temporal 471.25 MHz 21st 000000000000003.00000000003 kW
TVP2 519.25 MHz 27 000000000000110.0000000000110 kW
TVN 567.25 MHz 33 000000000000010.000000000010 kW
Polsat 583.25 MHz 35 000000000000100.0000000000100 kW
DVB-T (Warsaw) 690.00 MHz 48 000000000000001.35000000001.35 kW
TVP 3 711.25 MHz 51 000000000000100.0000000000100 kW
DVB-T POT 746.00 MHz 55 000000000000001.30000000001.3 kW
TV 4 767.25 MHz 58 000000000000003.00000000003 kW

References

See also

literature

  • Birk Engmann: Building for Eternity: Monumental architecture of the twentieth century and urban planning in Leipzig in the fifties. Sax Publishing House. Beucha. 2006. ISBN 3-934544-81-9
  • Bolesław Bierut; Stanisław Jankowski: The Six Year Plan for the Reconstruction of Warsaw . Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. 1951.
  • Magdalena Zaborowska: The Height of (Architectural) Seduction: Reading “Changes” through Stalin's Palace in Warsaw, Poland , in: Journal of Architectural Education 54 (2001), No. 4, pp. 205–217.

Web links

Commons : Palace of Culture in Warsaw  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Pałac Kultury i Nauki w Warszawie. Retrieved July 20, 2019 (Polish).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Ann Babe: The Movement to Destroy Warsaw's Tallest Building. In: Next City. February 26, 2018, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Sarah Nowotny and Ivana Pribakovic: “Rendez-vous” with the world: Warsaw's Palace of Culture. Swiss Radio and Television SRF, July 10, 2019, accessed on July 20, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
  4. ↑ a b c The Movement to Destroy Warsaw's Tallest Building. In: Nextcity. February 26, 2018, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  5. ^ How the Rolling Stones Rocked the Iron Curtain. In: Culture.pl. May 19, 2016, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b c Palac Kultury i Nauki (PKiN): Landmark of the city . In: Warsaw.info . Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  7. ↑ Świąteczne oświetlenie Pałacu Kultury i Nauki w Warszawie ( Polish ) In: RMF . December 23, 2010. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  8. ↑ Warsaw: Sala Kongresowa znika z mapy stołecznych atrakcji. In: Polskie Radio. July 13, 2017, Retrieved July 20, 2019 (Polish).
  9. ↑ a b Wykaz zabytków nieruchomych wpisanych do rejestru zabytków. (PDF) Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa [Polish Heritage Institute], accessed on July 20, 2019 (Polish).
  10. ↑ Maciek Bernatt: The Movement to Destroy Warsaw's Tallest Building. In: BBC. November 17, 2009, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Florian Kellermann: Warsaw Palace of Culture is threatened with demolition . In: Deutschlandfunk . November 16, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  12. ↑ Współpraca ( Polish ) Kinoteka. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  13. ^ In the Palace ( English ) Pałac Kultury i Nauki. Retrieved January 10, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 54 ″  N , 21 ° 0 ′ 23 ″  E