BUILDING OF CADET BARRACKS IN WARSAW – WORK OF THE ARCHITECT STANISLAW ZAWADZKI
RYSZARD MĄCZYŃSKI
The article presents research findings regarding one of the building forming the complex of Cadet Barracks, which were the headquarters of the Knightly School established by king Stanisław August Poniatowski in 1765. This building, erected at the rectangular projection, one-storey, eleven axis, covered with a high roof, was recorded in the picture painted circa 1785 by Zygmunt Vogel, aquarellist. Until that time, this building – which did not survive until today – did not attract the attention of researchers and was only mentioned. However, it seems important to restore the architectural image of Warsaw of the send half of 18th century and the entire output of one of the most creative architects of that époque. The archived sources discovered allowed it to be proven that the building was founded by the king, erected in 1781 and designed by the architect of the Polish army – Stanisław Zawadzki, alumnus and member of the Roman St. Lucas Academy. The building – as demonstrated by quoted memoirs of eyewitnesses – fulfilled two functions; it was partly dedicate for the education of cadets (however, this role was mostly performed by the nearby and much bigger Kazimierzowski Palace), and it was also a residence used by the deputy commandant of the Knightly School – Fryderyk Józef Moszyński. The dual purpose of the building is reflected in the layout of rooms, characteristic in this case by the application of two separate staircases. The building facade, recorded by the measurement conducted in 1827 by Jan Tafiłowski which has been kept, demonstrated refined austerity. It clearly corresponded in this aspect with other buildings created at this time by Zawadzki, which – regardless of their character and purpose – were characteristic for very ascetic forms. At the same time, they were one of the most avant-garde buildings erected by the Polish architect in the Enlightenment époque. The building of the Cadet Barracks in the form recorded by Vogel existed until 1841, when it was rebuilt by the architect Antoni Sulimowski, who gave it a Neo-renaissance form. This style was retained until it was burnt down during the German bombing of Warsaw in 1939. After the war the ruins were dismantled in order to erect in this place, in 1953, the newly designed, pseudo-classicism university building.