The Słuszko Gazebo or the “Shuiskys’ Fountain”. Epilogue: the Presidium of the Council of Ministers Decree No. 572/53
Małgorzata Omilanowska-Kiljańczyk
momilan@ispan.plInstitute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9766-0424
Abstract
The 17th-century Baroque garden gazebo of the Słuszko family, wrongly thought by many to be the Moscow Chapel, survived as a ruin until 1953. Its reconstruction was designed by Mieczysław Kuzma; yet although funding was available and documentation had been prepared, on 3 November 1953 the building was pulled down, as it had been included on a list of Warsaw ruins marked for demolition. The list was appended to a secret decree of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers (No. 572/53), the passing of which (on 29 July 1953) was a deliberate political act intended not only to put the city in order, but also to symbolically end the process of rebuilding monuments. In practice, the decree provided the legal basis for the destruction of many buildings whose reconstruction would have been feasible, but whose remains were deemed to interfere with the positive reception of the construction ventures implemented in Warsaw during the Socialist Realist era. Decisions on this issue were made in agreement by Bolesław Bierut and Józef Sigalin, and the content of the decree was prepared without consulting any authority in the field of protection and conservation of monuments.
Keywords:
rebuilding Warsaw, monument reconstruction, Słuszko Gazebo, Moscow ChapelReferences
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Authors
Małgorzata Omilanowska-Kiljańczykmomilan@ispan.pl
Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9766-0424
Prof. Małgorzata Omilanowska-Kiljańczyk PhD (habil.) is a historian of art, a profesor at the University of Gdańsk and the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She specialises in issues in 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century architecture, chiefly that of Warsaw, Gdańsk and the Baltic coast, as well as the history of monument protection and the artistic life of the modern era. She is a member of science councils at many scholarly and cultural institutions, including the Programmatic Council at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk and the councils of the National Museum in Gdańsku and the Museum of Gdańsk. Her recently published books are Architekt-urzędnik w służbie rosyjskiej. Antoni Jabłoński Jasieńczyk [An Architect and an Official in the Russian Empire Service. Antoni Jabłoński-Jasieńczyk] (2022), Pałac Staszica [The Staszic Palace] (2022) and Marian Lalewicz (1876–1944). Architekt petersbursko-warszawski [Marian Lalewicz (1876–1944). Architect of Petersburg and Warsaw] (2023).
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