It belongs to a group of similar buildings erected in place of railway facilities destroyed during World War I. The feature is distinctive for its functionality, while its historicising form and decoration particularly reminiscent of Classicism and Baroque expressed the quest and attempts at shaping the national style of then.

History

The currently functioning railway station in Pruszków was one of the similar features erected in the years 1918-1924 as part of the plan for the renovation of railway infrastructure after damages of World War I. A small railway station in this town was built in the years 1845-1846 on the northern side of the tracks of the first railway line on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, the so-called Warsaw-Vienna Railway, under construction at that time. A larger, brick station was erected in 1888 on the southern side of the tracks; it was destroyed in 1914 as a result of acts of war. The current building, completed around 1924, was probably built by use of foundations or walls of the previous structure, as in many similar cases. Auxiliary buildings such as a water tower, forge, storage cells and warehouses were located nearby. In the 1930s a platform shelter over the entrance to the underpass was added to the station building in the north. The station survived World War II, but the water tower and auxiliary buildings suffered partial damage. The surviving buildings were renovated after 1945. The station building has survived to our times only with slight alterations of the interior. Initially, the plaster of station façades was of a yellow ochre colour.

Description

The railway station is located in the centre of the town at the Warsaw - Łódź railway line. A representational station building is located on the southern part of the tracks. To the west, we can see remnants of the former auxiliary buildings - a brick, one-storey utility building with tall stepped gables and a gable roof. A five-storey water tower crowned with a four-sloped roof is located on the other side of the tracks. We do know the exact construction date of these buildings. The brick station building has a symmetric plan of an elongated rectangle with side avant-corps in the north façade. A one-storey middle part is crowned with a gable, mansard roof, the so-called Polish roof, clad with roof tiles and housing a usable attic. It is illuminated by eyelid windows in the south and dormers in the north. A lower part is flanked by two-storey side parts of avant-corps, also including an attic under a four-sloped roof. They are distinctive for tall, ornamental gables positioned on three sides. Lavish decoration of the building consists of historicising elements juxtaposed in an innovative way. The stylistics of railway stations built at that time was supposed to be “a visible sign of Polish spirit.” Lower parts of walls were clad with a stone cover and corners were highlighted by pronounced buttresses. Rectangular window and door openings in the parterre were located in arcaded panels. Storeys are partitioned by profiled cornices, whereas windows of the second storey and the attic are accentuated by decorative surrounds. Two-partite gables over side parts of the building with volutes, decorated with lesenes, cornices, ornamental plinths and spheres are most distinctive. The building represents a pass-through railway station type. The main entrance is preceded by stairs and is located along the axis of the southern façade. Inside the building, there is a centrally located hall with a waiting room, ticket offices and former office rooms on the ground floor. An original wooden beamed ceiling draws attention here, which is almost identical as the one applied in the station in Modlin in the same period.

The feature is open to visitors.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 10-08-2014.

Bibliography

• Karta Ewidencyjna, Dworzec kolejowy, oprac. Maciej Warchoł, Pruszków 2005 r., Archiwum Narodowego Instytutu Dziedzictwa.
• Dudkowski M., Odbudowa dworców Kolei Warszawsko-Wiedeńskiej i linii Warszawsko-Kaliskiej po I wojnie światowej: Pruszków - Grodzisk Mazowiecki - Żyrardów - Radziwiłłów oraz Teresin/Szymanów, „Ochrona Zabytków”, 2015, nr 1, s. 77-93.
• Paszke A., Dworce kolejowe Drogi Żelaznej Warszawsko-Wiedeńskiej (I dystansu) w latach 1845-1912, [w:] Stawarz A. (red.) Gdy do Grodziska ruszył „parochód”… Grodzisk Mazowiecki 1990.