Bank Square, Warsaw

Plac Bankowy (in English: Bank Square) in Warsaw is one of that city's principal squares. Located downtown, adjacent to the Saxon Garden and Warsaw Arsenal, it is also a principal public-transport hub, with bus and streetcar stops and a Warsaw Metro station.

History

Created in the 19th century, under the Congress Kingdom, the square was designed to be one of the elegant areas of the country's capital. Notable buildings there included the Ministry of Revenues and Treasury (a building reconstructed by Antonio Corazzi) and the Bank of Poland and the Warsaw Stock Exchange (also by Corazzi). The square was originally triangular-shaped.[1]

In the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the buildings on the square were destroyed and the square ceased to exist. After the war, city planners reconstructed only its historic western part, reconfiguring it into a rectangle.[1]

Under the communist Polish People's Republic, the square was renamed Plac Dzierżyńskiego (Dzierżyński's Square) after Feliks Dzierżyński, Polish-born communist politician and founder of the communist Russian Cheka political police. In 1951 a monument to Dzierżyński was erected in the southern part of the square. Four decades later, in 1989, The statue's toppling helped mark the fall of communism in Poland.

Today

The Bank Square's present-day landmarks include Błękitny Wieżowiec (the Blue Skyscraper), a large structure built on the site of the Great Synagogue that was destroyed during World War II by the Germans.

Currently the former seat of the Ministry of Treasury serves as Warsaw's city hall and the seat of the President of Warsaw. In 2001 a monument to Juliusz Słowacki, by Edward Wittig, was erected on the spot previously occupied by the statue of Feliks Dzierżyński. The monument to Juliusz Słowacki is close to earlier non existing Dzierżyński's statue's pedestal.

References

  1. ^ a b Plac Bankowy at the official website of Śródmieście district