Plac Za Żelazną Bramą
The historically significant Plac Za Żelazną Bramą (also: Plac Żelaznej Bramy ; German: Place behind the Iron Gate ) is located in the northwestern part of downtown Warsaw . Its forerunner originated in the 17th century. The name of the square is based on a gate in the Saxon Garden that no longer exists - the Żelazna Brama .
location
Today's place is not identical to the place of the same name before the Second World War . The severe destruction of the existing buildings in the urban area during the war led to an almost complete rebuilding of the district in the post-war period. This also shifted the place. But also in earlier times there had been changes in the size and structure of the square. In the 18th century the square (at that time still under a different name) extended in the east from today's Ulica Marszałkowska to in the west, for example, to today's Aleja Jana Pawła II in the Wola district . It was and is the western extension of the Saxon axis . The square in front of the Lubomirski Palace is now called Plac Żelaznej Bramy , and the connecting road between the two aforementioned arteries at its eastern end that passes through the square in the north bears the same name.
history
In the 17th century (along with other others), two consecutive villages arose on the western city limits of Warsaw: Wielopole and Mirów. Both Jurydyki villages were not subject to Warsaw jurisdiction and were allowed to operate their own markets. The two marketplaces merged into one another. The commonly used name of this common marketplace was Targowica Wielopolska (German: Marktplatz Wielopolska ) or Plac Targowicej Wielopolskiej (German: Square of the Wielopolska market ).
Probably at the beginning of the 18th century, the Radziwiłł family built a palace right on the square. The later expanded and still existing building is now known as the Lubomirski Palace. From the 18th century, the market in Wielopole developed strongly. The first coffee house in Warsaw opened here in 1759. The architecturally significant Gościnny Dwór trading hall was built in 1841.
Under the Saxon King
King August II had the square incorporated into Warsaw in order to then incorporate it into his architectural idea of the “Saxon Axis”. Various older buildings on the square had to be demolished for this purpose. The planned demolition of the Lubomirski Palace, which would disturb the symmetry of the axis, was no longer carried out. At the western end of the market, however, six large barracks were built to accommodate the Royal Mounted Guard. Five of these barracks blocks were demolished at the end of the 19th century under Russian occupation to make room for the construction of the Mirów market halls . On the edge of these halls, a part of the former market square in Mirów that had remained free became Plac Mirowski - a name that can still be found today as the name of the street running there.
Shortly after the park gate was built on the west side of the Saxon Garden, the market square in Wielopole was named after this gate.
Reconstruction after the Second World War
With the exception of the two Mirów halls, the entire district was destroyed in the course of the Second World War - mainly as a result of the fighting over the Warsaw Uprising . During the uprising, executions of Warsaw civilians took place in the square. After the war, the Saxon Garden was shortened at its western end by the ulica Marszałkowska, which runs here today. The Mirow halls were repaired and the Lubomirski Palace rebuilt and later turned to the east. Under Władysław Gomułka , a large housing estate was built in the 1960s, which partly built over the former square and was named: Za Żelazną Bramą .
References and comments
- ↑ In the middle part it is called Ptasia Street, at the western end Plac Mirowski
- ↑ King John II Casimir had given this land to the Warsaw starost Jan Wielopolski . In 1693 the area was granted autonomous status. Wielopolski's widow founded a small town here called Wielopole . Tylman van Gameren may have designed this town
- ↑ 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. 211.
literature
- Ryszard Mączewski, Jarosław Zieliński and Krzysztof Jaszczyński, Co bylo za Żelazną Bramą? , in: Stolica magazine , No. 10 (2199), October 2008, ISSN 0039-1689 , Ekbin Verlag, Warsaw 2008, pp. 6-18 (in Polish)
- Dobrosław Kobielski, Warszawa na fotografiach z XIX wieku , Verlag KAW, RSW Prasa Ksiązka Ruch, Warsaw 1982, p. 174 ff. (In Polish)
Web links
- Information about the square, including a sketch of the buildings in the 18th century (in Polish)
- Historical recordings
Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 22.9 ″ N , 21 ° 0 ′ 10.7 ″ E