Saxon Palace

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Building information
Saxon Palace
The Saxon Palace in about 1890.
Town	Warsaw
Country	Poland
Architect	Adam Idźkowski (1838)
Construction start date	1666^[1]
Date demolished	1944
Style	Neoclassical (1838)

Saxon Palace in 18th century, view from the Saxon Garden.

Saxon Palace, seen from Saxon Square. Before the arcade housing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw stands Bertel Thorvaldsen's equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski (after World War II, relocated to its present site on Krakowskie Przedmieście, before the Presidential Palace in Warsaw).

The Saxon Palace (Polish: Pałac Saski) was one of the most distinctive buildings in prewar Warsaw, Poland.

1 History
2 References
3 Gallery
4 See also
5 External links

[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 (it was blown up by the Germans after the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944^[2]^[3]) except for the central part of the arcade, that somehow managed to survive, housing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.^[4]

[edit] Since World War II

The reconstruction of the lock should follow from 2007 to 2009 and should cost about 75 million Euro. 2006 were carried out archeological works in the exposed cellars of the palace. At the same time about 19 thousands were found objects historic among other things coins and china. Most foundations are dismantled and are replaced by new. [1].^[5]

[edit] References

^ Oś Saska. Pałac Saski (Saxon Axis. Saxon Palace), State Archive of the Capital City of Warsaw [1]
^ A. Franta, O Placu Piłsudskiego, tożsamości i ładzie [2]
^ Urban revitalization. Breathing New Live into Historic Sites, www.e-warsaw.pl
^ Oś Saska. Druga Wojna Światowa (Saxon Axis. Second World War), State Archive of the Capital City of Warsaw [3]
^ The City Voice, As good as new. The official website of the City of Warsaw [4].

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.