It bears witness of the old urban arrangement of this part of the city, which was completely redesigned after World War II, and constitutes one of the two architectural housings of old wells that have survived in Warsaw.

History

“Gruba Kaśka” [Fat Katie], as the Varsovians named it, was erected in the years 1783-1787, in the centre of a square belonging to a banker, Karol Schultz. In 1779 he began purchasing the plots representing a part of Leszno jurisdiction, located within old embankments of Warsaw from the 17th century, with an intention to build a profitable and modern urban complex. The area, situated between Bielańska and Leszno streets, formerly belonged to Eustachy Potocki, then to Jerzy Potocki, followed by starosts of Tłomackie jurisdiction, from which its name derives. Schultz planned to erect his own palace and a commercial and residential complex around the square, consisting of a luxurious hotel, a complex of stables and carriage houses, buildings for lease and shops. The banker commissioned Efraim Schroeger with the preparation of a design and, following Schroeger’s death in 1783, he hired Szymon Bogumił Zug, who created a number of concepts of the complex. Zug planned to erect a multi-storey, prominent water reservoir in the middle of the square. Instead, only a modest building of a cylindrical shape was built, so that it would not eclipse the surrounding developments, usually of a single-storey type. Nevertheless, with its scale and raw, antique-style form adding monumentalism to it, the building outshined every other well in the city. The pavilion was supposed to constitute a central accentuation of the square composition, to which access streets with gates, asymmetrical of one another, were leading to its shorter sides, and to close the viewing axis from Leszno street. The collapse of Schultz’s bank in 1793 interrupted the construction of the complex, out of which a well, partially cobbled square enclosed by gates, stables, carriage houses, tenement houses and a hotel were built. In the 19th century the complex was divided between numerous owners. New buildings were erected and the former ones were transformed into multi-storey tenement houses, eagerly inhabited by wealthy Jewish population. In 1807 the gates separating the square from the city were removed, around 1841 the entrance from Bielańska street was modified and in 1878 the construction of the Great Synagogue in place of a wooden manor house from the 17th century was completed. An arrangement of roads and greenery, together with the well belonging to owners of the nearby estates, also observed modifications. As recently as in the interwar period the well still served the purpose of watering coach horses - a worker pumped water for a charge. The square survived in its general outline until World War II. On 16 May 1943 the Germans blew up the synagogue and as a result of the fights during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 the majority of the buildings were destroyed. The well survived, although with considerably damaged walls. In 1947 it was reconstructed by Prof. Bruno Zborowski, who introduced certain modifications compared to the previous form. Two small windows and some openings that constituted remnants of former water-drawing machinery were walled up and the entrance door was made narrower. However, it was the building’s spatial context that underwent the most extensive modifications. The East-West route built in the years 1947-1949 completely erased the previous arrangement of this part of the city. The historic well found itself between the roadways of Świerczewskiego Avenue, currently Solidarności Avenue. The building was subject to conservation activities several times. In 2004 the building, in poor technical condition at that time, was subject to comprehensive renovation. In the course of works unfortunate modifications introduced during the postwar reconstruction were removed.

Description

The well pavilion currently stands on the axis of Solidarności Avenue, on the east side of the intersection with Andersa Street. It is situated on a western edge of an elongated island created between the roadways, with tram tracks bypassing the Przebendowski Palace located in the middle thereof. A group of bus and tram stops is situated at the level of the well, since 2011 shielded by modern glazed shelters closing the space around the historic feature on the sides. The structure was erected on a round floor plan around the well casing, is made of bricks and has plastered walls. It has a cylindrical shape crowned with an overhanging, stepped roof clad in sheet metal and topped with a grooved cone with a gold-plated sphere on the finial. The façades above the smooth stone plinth are decorated with panelled rustication and are crowned with a stylised triglyph and metope frieze adorned with flat circles. Above it, there is a cornice with wooden supports. On the north side, a rectangular portal with a two-wing door, preceded by a tall step, leads to the interior. Above it, in one of the rustication strips, four small rectangular windows with grillwork were placed along the perimeter. At the west and east end, the wall includes stone parapets, above which there are small openings remaining after water outlets. They are framed on the sides by narrow vertical crevices that most probably originally hosted pump levers. Inside, there are wooden ceilings and the roof truss.

The structure can be viewed from the outside.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Warsaw. 12.06.2017

Bibliography

• Record Sheet, Wodozbiór-studnia „Gruba Kaśka”, Warsaw, compiled by Zielińska I., 2001, Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw;
• Encyklopedia Warszawy, Warsaw 1994
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