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Water reservoir - Zabytek.pl

Water reservoir


industrial architecture 1852-1854 Warszawa

Address
Warszawa

Location
woj. mazowieckie, pow. Warszawa, gm. Warszawa

The water reservoir, imitating the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli with its form, is an example of historicising architecture from the mid-19th century, with its appearance taking inspiration from the Antique era.

It was picturesquely incorporated into the landscape of the park deriving from a part of the 18th-century palace and urban complex of the Saska Axis. At the same time, the building is a material witness of the first modern waterworks of Warsaw, designed by an Italian architect and engineer, Henryk Marconi.

History

The building was constructed in the years 1852-1854 in the Saski Garden, converted from a Baroque complex into a landscape park. Its designer, Henryk Marconi, the leading architect of Warsaw, designed multiple buildings in the Garden and around it. In 1836 he created his first designs of the water supply network for the city. In 1851 he was entrusted with the construction of the waterworks, whose important element was the water reservoir. The date of 16 November 1852, when a cornerstone was laid under the reservoir, was recognised as the date initiating the entire undertaking. The waterworks began functioning on 4 June 1855, when a fountain located on the axis of the Saski Palace was put into operation. The water reservoir building is located on an elevation artificially heaped from materials obtained from digging out a neighbouring pond. The architect planned erecting a gate in the form of a triumphal arch from Niecała street, exposing the water reservoir standing on its axis. The feature in a costume of an antique temple functioned both as a water tower and a water reservoir. It was fed by steam machines through pipes from the Vistula river. The water intake was built at the intersection of Dobra and Karowa streets, below the outlets of sewer pipes and a butchery in Solec street, which influenced the quality of water drawn. It was taken directly from the river and treated by mechanical filters and sedimentation tanks. Water was distributed gravitationally from the reservoir housing two tanks (a lower one with a capacity of 707.5 m3 and the upper one with the capacity of 193 m3). At first, the network was approx. 3.5 km long, extending to approx. 12 km including branches. It fed three edifices (the City Hall, the Mostowski Palace and the Europejski Hotel under construction at that time), 16 drinking fountains, 32 fire hydrants and 4 fountains (in the Saski Garden, on the Teatralny Square at the Sigismund Column and in the Old Town Market). Two mains stemmed from the water reservoir and converged in Świętojerska Street. The first one ran under Senatorska Street to the Old Town, while the other under Żabia, Rymarska and Przejazd streets, no longer existing today. Gradually, the length of the waterworks was extended and ever more governmental and private buildings were connected to the network. When the network was closed in 1889, its length amounted to approx. 43 km and it fed 50 drinking fountains, 120 hydrants, 7 fountains and 1250 buildings. Its role was taken over by Lindley’s waterworks put into operation in 1886. In the 1880s stairs were added to the reservoir building, but were quickly removed before 1893. As a result of the fights during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and methodological destruction of the urban development after its collapse, the majority of the nearby buildings ceased to exist. The water reservoir survived, although considerably damaged. Around 1948 the building was reconstructed without distinctive sculpted decorations over the entablature. It remained a relic of the old appearance of the Saski Garden, which was redesigned in the years 1948-1950 according to the design by Romuald Gutt and Alina Scholtz. In 1957 the feature was taken over by the Grand Theatre of Warsaw, which used it a technical facility. The feature was renovated multiple times, but due to an open nature of the park, its façade is continually subject to acts of vandalism.

Description

The building is located in the north-western part of the Saski Garden, on the axis of Niecała street. It is picturesquely surrounded by the park greenery and located on a small elevation, at the foot of which a pond stretches to the east. It has a form of monopteros, i.e. a round ancient building surrounded by a colonnade supporting the roof. This type of building was popular in the ecclesiastical Roman architecture and in the early modern times it was often used as garden pavilions. Therefore, it is a small temple in a Classicist style, made of bricks and plastered, resting on a tall podium, erected on a round floor plan and surrounded by Corinthian columns. A cylindrical body is covered with a cupola clad in sheet metal and topped with a cast iron cone. The columns are located on the edge of the podium, decorated at the top with a profiled surround and a stone plinth at the bottom. They are lower than the main body, made of brick, with grooved cores and cast iron bases. They support the entablature with a frieze decorated with shells and medallions with an image of the Warsaw Siren, joint by plant garlands. Initially, antefixes in the form of masks were placed on the cornice, thus decorating the edge of the shed roof below the cupola tholobate. On the east side, on the façade of the rotunda embellished with panelled rustication, there is a door portal framed by a profiled surround and crowned with a section of entablature. Inside, in the part of the podium and below the ground level a tall underground storey is located.

The structure can be viewed from the outside.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Warsaw. 19-06-2017

Bibliography

  • Record sheet, Wodozbiór „Świątynia Vesty” w Ogrodzie Saskim. Warszawa, compiled by Zielińska I., 2001, Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage.

    Record sheet, Wodozbiór. Warszawa, compiled by Kaczyńska, B., 1959, Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage.

    Charazińska E., Ogród Saski, Warsaw 1979;

    Dla dobra publicznego 120 lat Wodociągów Warszawskich 1886-2006, Stankiewicz P. (ed.), Warsaw 2006

    Gajewski M., Warszawskie wodociągi Henryka Marconiego i praskie Alfonsa Grotowskiego, [in:] Warszawa XIX w., vol. 2, Studia Warszawskie, issue IX, Warsaw 1971, p. 95-132

    Gajewski M., Urządzenia komunalne Warszawy zarys historyczny, Warsaw 1979

    Gajewski M., Warszawskie wodociągi do 1939 roku: projekty i realizacje, “Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki”, 1972, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 25-44

    Ilustrowany przewodnik po Warszawie wraz z treściwym opisem okolic miasta, Warsaw 1893

    Łoza S., Architekci i budowniczowie w Polsce, Warsaw 1954;

    Marcinkowski R. Ilustrowany atlas dawnej Warszawy, Warsaw 2003

    Leśniakowska M., Architektura w Warszawie, Warsaw 1998

    Tyszkiewicz A., Ogród Saski w projektach Henryka Marconiego, “Spotkania z Zabytkami”, 2012, no. 11-12, p. 24-31

 

Objects data updated by Jarosław Bochyński (JB).

Category: industrial architecture

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_14_BL.48579, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_14_BL.5977