Plac Bankowy ( en, 'Bank Square', formerly ''Plac Dzierżyńskiego'') is one of
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
's principal squares. Located in the
downtown district, adjacent to the
Saxon Garden
The Saxon Garden ( pl, Ogród Saski) is a 15.5–hectare public garden in central ('' Śródmieście'') Warsaw, Poland, facing Piłsudski Square. It is the oldest public park in the city. Founded in the late 17th century, it was opened to the publ ...
and
Warsaw Arsenal
Warsaw Arsenal ( pl, Arsenał Królewski w Warszawie) is a building of a military arsenal in the Muranów neighbourhood of the borough of Śródmieście in Warsaw, Poland. It is located at Długa street, in the proximity of the Warsaw's Old ...
, it is also a principal public-transport hub, with
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
and
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...
stops and a
Warsaw Metro station.
History
Created in the 19th century, under the
Congress Kingdom
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
, the square was designed to be an elegant area of the country's capital. Notable buildings included the
Palace of the Ministry of Revenues and Treasury (a building reconstructed by
Antonio Corazzi
Antonio Corazzi (born 16 December 1792 in Livorno, died April 27 1877 in Florence) was an Italian architect working in Poland from 1819 to 1847, mainly in Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style.
Biography
Antonio Corazzi was the son o ...
), the
Bank of Poland and the
Warsaw Stock Exchange
The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), pl, Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie, is a stock exchange in Warsaw, Poland. It has a market capitalization of PLN 1.05 trillion (EUR 232 billion; as of December 23, 2020).
The WSE is a member of the ...
(also by Corazzi). The square was originally
triangular
A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC.
In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- collinea ...
-shaped.
Between 1875 and 1878 the
Great Synagogue was built on the eastern side of the square, across from the palace. At the time of its building, it was the largest synagogue in Warsaw and one of the largest in the world. After the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...
in 1943, the Nazi occupiers blew up the building, destroying it.
In the 1944
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
, the remaining buildings on the square were destroyed. After the war, city planners reconstructed only its historic western part, changing it into a
rectangle. The synagogue was not rebuilt and currently in the same location is the
Błękitny Wieżowiec
Błękitny Wieżowiec (eng. Blue Skyscraper) is a building located at Plac Bankowy, Bank Square in Warsaw. The building is located in the location previously occupied by Warsaw's largest synagogue, the Great Synagogue (Warsaw), Great Synagogue, wh ...
office building.
Under the communist
Polish People's Republic
The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...
, the square was renamed ''Plac Dzierżyńskiego'' (Dzierżyński's Square) after
Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish-born communist politician and founder of the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
Cheka political police. In 1951 a monument to Dzierżyński (by Zbigniew Dunajewski) 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
Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...
.
Today
Bank Square's present-day landmarks include ''Błękitny Wieżowiec'' (the Blue Skyscraper), and the former seat of the Ministry of Treasury now serves as Warsaw's
city hall, the seat of the
President of Warsaw
The city mayor of Warsaw, or more literally the ''city president of Warsaw'' (the official title in Polish is ''"prezydent miasta stołecznego Warszawy"'', literal translation ''"president of the capital city of Warsaw"'') is the head of the exe ...
and the provincial office of the
Mazovia province.
In 2001, a monument to
Juliusz Słowacki
Juliusz Słowacki (; french: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the " Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of m ...
, by
Edward Wittig (actually designed in 1932), was erected on the spot previously occupied by the statue of Feliks Dzierżyński.
In front of the Błękitny Wieżowiec is a
statue to
Stefan Starzyński
Stefan Bronisław Starzyński (19 August 1893 – between 21 and 23 December 1939) was a Polish statesman, economist, military officer and Mayor of Warsaw before and during the Siege of 1939.
Early life, studies and career
Stefan Bronis ...
, the pre-World War II President of Warsaw, by Andrzej Renes.
References
Squares in Warsaw
Śródmieście, Warsaw
{{Warsaw-geo-stub