Presidential Palace (Warsaw)

Presidential palace
	From the Krakow suburbs
Creation time :	1643
Castle type :	palace
Conservation status:	Reconstructed
Place:	Warsaw
Geographical location	52 ° 14 '34 " N , 21 ° 0' 57" E Coordinates: 52 ° 14 '34 " N , 21 ° 0' 57" E

The presidential palace with the main courtyard

Column hall inside

The Warsaw Presidential Palace (in Polish : Pałac Prezydencki ; historically Pałac Koniecpolskich , Pałac Lubomirskich , Pałac Radziwiłłów or Pałac Namiestnikowski ) is a 17th-century city palace in the Kraków suburb on the Royal Route in Warsaw .

history

Until 1818

The palace was built from 1643 to 1645 by Constantino Tencalla for the hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski and his family. From 1661 it belonged to the Lubomirski magnate family , who in turn sold it in 1685 to the Radziwiłł magnate family , in whose hands it remained until 1817. They had the palace rebuilt from 1694 to 1705 by Augustyn Wincenty Locci , Karol Ceroni and Andrzej Jeziornicki.

From 1720 to 1722 Carlo Antonio Bay carried out fundamental changes to the palace. Jan Zygmunt Deybel added the side wings from 1755 to 1762 and created a theater in the main building. In 1818 the palace was rebuilt by Chrystian Piotr Aigner in the classicism style and the side wings were extended. Aigner gave the main facade a classical appearance and the garden front a neo-renaissance form.

Governor's Palace

In 1818, three years after the Congress of Vienna , the palace passed into the possession of the Kingdom of Poland and became the seat of the Russian governors , which gave it the derogatory nickname "Governor's Palace". The first Namiestnik was General Józef Zajączek . In 1821 Camillo Laudino created the palace square with the famous lions. A monumental monument to Ivan Paskewitsch , Namiestnik between 1831 and 1856, erected in 1870 , was removed in 1918 after Polish independence was regained.

In 1852, many of the interiors burned out. Alfons Kropiwnicki carried out the reconstruction.

Interwar period

In the interwar period, the palace was the official seat of the Polish Prime Minister and the government, and the offices of the Council of Ministers were housed in the side wings.

From 1918 to 1921 the interior of the palace was reconstructed by Marian Lalewicz . In 1924 it was connected to the neo-renaissance house by Józef Dietrich from 1870.

German occupation

During the Second World War , the palace served as the "German House", a center for Germans in Warsaw, which resulted in some major renovations, including the elevation of the lions' pedestals at the courtyard entrance, which have remained unchanged to this day.

The palace was only slightly damaged in the Warsaw Uprising , so that it was restored from 1947 to 1952 by Teodor Bursche, Antoni Jawornicki and Borys Zinserling and again became the seat of the Council of Ministers.

post war period

After the war, the monument by Józef Poniatowski by the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen was placed on the palace square. Previously it was on Piłsudski Square in front of the Saxon Palace .

In 1955 the Warsaw Pact was signed in the Palace and in 1970 the Warsaw Treaty was signed by Józef Cyrankiewicz and Willy Brandt . The round table between the representatives of the communist government and the opposition Solidarność also took place here in early 1989.

Since 1995 the palace has been the seat of the Polish President . Until now Lech Wałęsa , Aleksander Kwaśniewski , Lech Kaczyński , Bronisław Komorowski and Andrzej Duda have resided here.