Pole Mokotowskie Racecourse

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Horse races on the Warsaw “Pole Mokotowskie” in the 19th century
Social rendezvous in front of the old main grandstand of the hippodrome on Pole Mokotowskie on a racing day towards the end of the 19th century

The racecourse on Pole Mokotowskie ( Hipodrome Mokotowskie or Tor Wyscigów Konnych ) existed from 1841 to 1939. It was located south of downtown Warsaw and is no longer preserved.

history

Horse races have been taking place in Warsaw since 1777 along the centrally located Marszałkowska Street . At a later date, a place behind the Łazienki Park was used as a racing track. After founding the association "Towarzystwa Wyścigów Konnych i Wystawy Zwierząt Gospodarskich w Królestwie Polskim" ( sponsoring association for horse races and pet exhibitions in the Kingdom of Poland , later the Polish Jockey Club ) in the first half of the 19th century, the association set up the first horse racing track in 1841 Warsaw “ Pole Mokotowskie ” ( Mokotowski Field ). The field was an area of ​​around 200 hectares south of the city at that time, on which the first Warsaw airport ( Mokotów airport ) was later also located. The oval racecourse was in the northeastern part of the field, bounded in the east by Polna Street, which still exists today, and separated from the airport in the west by a no longer existing rail or tram line. The Aleja Armii Ludowe, built in 1920, now cuts through the former racetrack in the northern third. The first races took place on June 20 and 21, 1841.

The importance of the racing facility grew steadily up to the First World War, so that there were even two racing seasons (spring and summer) up to 1914. When the Russian crew withdrew in 1915, they took with them a large part of the horse population and racetrack personnel who were used on the racetracks in St. Petersburg , Moscow and Odessa in the following years .

Under these circumstances, the representative of the Polish Jockey Club , Fryderyk Jurjewicz, had to host the great Warsaw derby "Wielka Warszawska" and other important races at the Warsaw Pole Mokotowskie facility in Odessa in 1917 and 1918 . Only on September 9, 1919, after the end of the war, did the first Warsaw race take place again in Warsaw. It was largely thanks to Fryderyk Jurjewicz that around 250 trotting horses, mainly from Lemberg and Bessarabia , came to Warsaw. The races took place "on the Polna" until 1938. They were among the most important sporting events in the country. By 1938, the number of races and prize money increased significantly.

After the facility on Pole Mokotowskie had become too small and expansion was not possible because of the city that now surrounds it, the Jockey Club had already acquired a large piece of land outside the city in 1925, on which the Służewiec racecourse, one of the most modern racetracks at the time Europe, was built. In 1938 the last derby took place on the old facility. After almost a hundred years of operation, the facility on Polna Street was shut down in 1939 and soon demolished.

The Mokotowski racecourse initially had two single-storey and a simple two-storey main grandstand made of wood in the middle. The main stand was later significantly expanded and received two towers. Access from Polna Street was provided with a gate with two lantern towers.

References and comments

  1. ^ Horse racing on Pole Mokotowskie in Warsaw, oil painting by January Suchodolski from 1849, today: Warsaw Historical Museum
  2. ^ Photo by K. Brandel, photo from the end of the 19th century, in: Dobrosław Kobielski, Warszawa na Fotografiach z XIX Wieku , Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1982, p. 193
  3. ↑ according to Janusz Durko, album Warszawski / Warsaw album. The image of the city according to the collections in the Historical Museum of the capital Warsaw , German-Polish edition, Agencja Reklamowo-Wydawnicza A. Grzegorczyk, ISBN 83-86902-73-6 , Warsaw 2000, p. 197. According to this source, the first races on Marszałkowska only from 1818 onwards
  4. ↑ according to Wyscigi Konne na Polu Mokotowskim - czyli arystokracja i duże pieniądze at Naszastolica.blox.pl on June 17, 2009 (in Polish)
  5. ↑ according to Stolica magazine , issue no. 7 (2184), September 2007 ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hipodrom.home.pl archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Hipodrome.home.pl (in Polish)
  6. ↑ according to Zenon Lipowicz, Information Wyścigi Konne, SOS dla Służewca ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / zmdom.com.pl archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Zmdom.com.pl (in Polish)

See also

literature

  • Karol Mórawski (editor), Bomba w Górę! 166 lat wyścigów konnych w Warszawie , ISBN 978-83-88477-58-4 , Muzeum Woli oddział Muzeum Historycznego m. st. Warszawy and Polski Klub Wyścigów Konnych (eds.), Warsaw 2007

Web links

Commons : Pole Mokotowskie Racecourse  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 13 ′ 0 ″  N , 21 ° 0 ′ 41.5 ″  E