Belweder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Belvedere.
Belweder (/bɛlvɛdɛr/; Polish: Pałac Belwederski, Belweder Palace, from the Italian bello and vedere — "beautiful" and "to see") is a palace in Warsaw, a few kilometers south of the Royal Castle. The present building is the latest of several that have stood on the site since 1659. Belweder once belonged to Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, who used it as a porcelain-manufacturing plant.
From 1818 it was the residence of Russian Grand Duke Constantine, who fled it at the beginning of the November 1830 Uprising.
After the re-establishment of Poland's independence following World War I, it was (with a hiatus, 1922-26) the residence of Józef Piłsudski first Chief of State (1918–1922) and dictator (1926–1935) of Poland, who died there in 1935. (During the May 1926 coup d'etat, President Stanisław Wojciechowski had abandoned it ahead of Piłsudski's advancing forces.)
During World War II, the building was extensively remodeled for Hans Frank, Governor-General of the German-occupied "General Government" of Poland.
In 1945-52 it was the residence of Bolesław Bierut, and later of the president of the Council of State. From 1989 till July 1994, it was the official residence of Poland's president, but proved to be too small for that purpose. Protection of the Belweder by "Government Protection Bureau" (Biuro Ochrony Rządu, BOR) also was difficult as the palace was located on a hill shared a fence with a very large Łazienki Park located below, a popular tourist attraction. For security reasons the park had to partially closed during visits by some foreign heads of state to the Belweder, because of the size of the park that task proved to be difficult and time consuming, the Polish press mocked the BOR agents who checked bushes and bothered the park's peacocks. Currently Belweder is used for ceremonial purposes by the President's Bureau, while the president resides at the "Governor's Palace" in the city center. Currently there are plans to set up a Józef Piłsudski museum in the Belweder palace.
