The rectors of six art schools have declared their cooperation in restoring the sculptural decorations of the Saxon and Brühl Palaces, as well as the townhouses on Królewska Street in Warsaw. Specialists will ensure that the ornaments of those historic buildings will be reproduced with the utmost care and fidelity.

The historic heart of Warsaw will beat anew thanks to the restoration of the Saxon Palace, the Brühl Palace and the townhouses at 6, 8 and 10/12 Królewska Street – an investment carried out under the Act of 11 August 2021. According to its provisions, the buildings will be rebuilt according to the external architectural shape they had on the day before the outbreak of World War II.

To maintain the utmost fidelity to the reconstructed decorations, the rectors of six art academies and representatives of the company Pałac Saski signed letters of intent to cooperate. The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw formally declared its support back in June. Now further universities have joined: the Academies of Fine Arts in Krakow, Katowice, Łódź and Wrocław and the University of Arts in Poznań.

The sculptural decoration of the Brühl Palace originally presented the highest artistic level and gave it a baroque character. The façades of the Brühl Palace were decorated with ground-floor sculptures of Roman deities by the eminent French sculptor Pierre Coudray, and the palace gate was ornamented with sculptures allegorising the “Artes Liberales” by Jan Chryzostom Redler.

In the late 1930s, on the initiative of Bohdan Pniewski, the façade was enriched with four busts designed by Franciszek Strynkiewicz. The whole was complemented by muscular reliefs, a monumental tympanum and details decorating the windows and niches. No less important elements of the pre-war sculptural programme included the relief plafonds on the walls of the Saxon Palace flanking the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, designed by Stanisław Kazimierz Ostrowski.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński