Together with the neighbouring palace of the Ministry of Treasure and the building of the Bank of Poland, it forms a harmonious architectural whole.

History

The palace of the Governmental Commission of Income and Treasury was built in place of the former 17th-century palace of Jan Leszczyński, the Great Chancellor of the Crown. The feature was already altered for the Potocki family around 1730.

From 1818 the palace was leased to the abovementioned Commission, the most important ministry in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1825 it was redesigned according to the design of Antonio Corazzi. A comprehensive alteration of the feature gave it the appearance of an “entre cour et jardin” residence with a semi-closed front courtyard. While preserving the previous Baroque plan of the building, the architect gave it a new, Classicist form.

The following persons were related to the bank at that time: minister of treasury Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, member of State Council Stanisław Staszic or applicant Juliusz Słowacki, later to become a poet.

Already before the mid-19th century two buttressed corner extensions were added on the corners of the garden façade. In the years 1919-1921 the Palace of the Governmental Commission of Income and Treasury was renovated by Marian Lalewicz, with an intention to serve as a seat of the Ministry of Treasury of reborn Poland.

In 1939 the palace was burned down and ultimately destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. It was reconstructed in the years 1950-1954 under the supervision of Piotr Biegański.

Description

The palace is one of the three banking and administrative buildings of the western frontage of the Bankowy Square.

The edifice was designed in the Late Classicist style, on a horseshoe floor plan. The main building, receded towards the courtyard and one floor taller than the others, is decorated with a portico of the height equal to that of the entire building. The portico is arcaded on the ground floor and colonnaded on the first and second floor. In a tympanum resting on eight Corinthian columns there are allegorical reliefs authored by Paweł Maliński, presenting Minerva and Mercury, personifications of wisdom and trade, argonaut Jason and allegories of Vistula and Bug rivers.

The courtyard is circumscribed from the north and south by two side wings with four-column Ionic porticos situated halfway along their length. From the Bankowy Square, the wings additionally terminate in two-storey pavilions with porticos resting on eleven Ionic columns. Modest parapets of the pavilions are crowned with groups of sculptures representing the glories surrounding the coats of arms of the Kingdom of Poland.

A relief frieze vertically partitioning the façades of the corps de logis and the wings was probably performed by Mikołaj Vincenti. It presents marching cupids with garlands and ribbons.

Currently, the building hosts the seat of the President of the Capital City of Warsaw as well as the Warsaw City Hall and the Mazovieckie Voivodeship Office. Offices of the President of the City and the Voivode of Mazovia are located on the first floor of the corps de logis of the edifice. It is linked to the neighbouring palace of the Ministry of Treasure and both buildings share the same address. Moreover, in the hall on the ground floor there are plaques informing that the city of Warsaw, for its heroism during World War II, was awarded the following honours: the Virtuti Militari Cross, the Cross of Grunwald, the honorary Peace Defenders’ badge, Order of the Builders of People’s Poland, the Warsaw Insurgent Cross of 1944 and the Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. On the landing of the main staircase there is a bust of Juliusz Słowacki and the plaque hung below recalls that the poet worked in this building in the years 1829-1831.

The building can be viewed from the outside.

Author of the note Bartłomiej Modrzewski, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Branch in Warsaw 9 May 2018

Bibliography

• Encyklopedia Warszawy, ed. B. Petrozolin-Skowrońska, Warsaw 1994.
• Kwiatkowska M.I., Kwiatkowski M., Historia Warszawy XVI-XX wieku. Zabytki mówią, Warsaw 1998.
• Mórawski K., Głębocki W., Bedeker warszawski. W 400-lecie stołeczności Warszawy, Warsaw 1996.
• Mordyński K., Architektoniczne walory i urbanistyczne niedostatki dzieła Corazziego, “Spotkania z Zabytkami” 2016, no. 11-12, p. 20-27.
• Zieliński J., Atlas dawnej architektury ulic i placów Warszawy. Śródmieście historyczne, vol. I, Agrykola – Burmistrzowska, Warsaw 1995.