The Saxon Palace
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The Saxon Palace (Polish: Pałac Saski) was one of the most distinctive buildings in prewar Warsaw, Poland.
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[edit] History
[edit] To World War I
The Saxon Palace had originally been a private palace of the Morsztyn family (Pałac Morsztynów), then had been purchased and enlarged by the first of Poland's two Saxon kings, August II (reigned in Poland 1697-1706 and 1709-1733).
In the early 19th century, the Saxon Palace housed a school in which Frederick Chopin's father taught French, living with his family on the palace grounds.
The Palace was remodeled in 1842.
[edit] Interbellum
After World War I, the Saxon Palace served as the seat of the Polish General Staff. In 1925, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was established within the colonnade-topped arcade that joined the Palace's two symmetric wings.
The Palace continued to be sandwiched between the Saxon Garden, to its rear, and the Saxon Square in front (which would be renamed Piłsudski Square after the Marshal's death in 1935).
It was in this building that the German Enigma machine cipher was first broken in December 1932 and then read for several years prior to the General Staff Cipher Bureau German section's 1937 move to new, specially designed quarters near Pyry in the Kabaty Woods south of Warsaw.
During World War II, the Saxon Palace was destroyed except for the central part of the arcade, housing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
[edit] Since World War II
The Saxon Palace is slated to be rebuilt.
[edit] References
- Władysław Kozaczuk, Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek, Frederick, MD, University Publications of America, 1984, ISBN 0-89093-547-5.
[edit] See also
- Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw
- Cipher Bureau (Polish: Biuro Szyfrów).
- Saxon Garden
- Saxon Axis
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