Presidential Palace - history
Since 1818 the Palace was rebuilt in classicistic style by Chrystian Piotr Aigner (1756-1841). He extended the Palace (its lower wings reached the line of buildings in the Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street), placed a new representative staircase between the main body of the building and its northern wing, remodelled the facades of the Palace and redecorated the rooms on the first and second floors of the main body of the building. Because of the massive vaulting, the ground floor remained unchanged. Aigner had two associates: Camillo Landini, a sculptor and author of the four stone lions guarding the Palaces yard from the Krakowskie Przedmiescie side, and Mikolaj Monti, an Italian painter. The main body of the building was changed according to the architecture of the Corinthian Order, and was ornamented with columns, pilasters, balustrade and stone statues.
Aigner is inseparably associated with the Namiestnikowski (Viceroys) Palace as the author of its classicistic external decoration which was preserved unchanged until today. Duke General Jozef Zajaczek of Wrzaca died in this Palace in 1826 and was buried in Opatowek. The person who aroused the greatest interest, though, was the Generals wife, Aleksandra Zajaczek nee Pernet. She fought an efficient battle with the passing time and at the age of 65 she looked like a 20-year-old maiden. She preserved her body with the cold. She would:
- never taste a hot dish,
- eat only vegetables, fruits and drink milk,
- sleep in an unheated room, and would not light candles in order to preserve beautiful complexion,
- have pots with ice put under her bed to reduce the ambient temperature,
- take a morning bath in a freezingly cold water,
- sew herself up in roe-deers leather for the night,
- would take a half-mile walk at daybreak every day.
She died at the age of 94. The year 1852 brought a disaster to the Palace. A fire consumed the main body of the building nearly to the ground. Only walls blackened with smoke remained. The reconstruction was entrusted to Alfons Kropiwnicki (1803-1881). In the reconstructed Palace, gatherings of the Agricultural Society were held and balls were organised on the occasions the tsars visits to Poland. In 1870, a statue of Ivan Paskevitch Erivanski was unveiled. In 1879, in the Colonnade Hall of the Palace, the inhabitants of Warsaw could for the first time see the "Battle of Grunwald", a historical painting by Jan Matejko. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Tarnowski Palace on the right side was pulled down, and a luxurious "Bristol" Hotel built in its place in the years 1899-1901, designed by Wladyslaw Marconi. Ignacy Paderewski was one of the shareholders of the consortium which build the hotel. In 1918, the building was taken over by the Polish authorities, and renovation of the Palace was entrusted to Marian Lalewicz.
From then on, the building was to be the official seat of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (the Prime Minister) and the Council of Ministers itself. The side wings housed the offices of the Council of Ministers Chancellery. Restored by Lalewicz, the building enjoyed the appreciation of the inhabitants of Warsaw and its visitors. It was extremely appreciated by Herman Goering who, during his short visit to Warsaw in February 1937, called on the then Prime Minister General Felicjan Slawoj-Skladkowski and was so much interested in the Palace that he arrived well late for his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jozef Beck. In 1939, the Palace suffered minimum damage. Its radical reconstruction into a Deutsches Haus, carried out in the years 1941-1942 by two Polish architects: Janusz Nagorski and Jan Lukasik, harmed it much more.
The Rococo ornaments in the rooms overlooking the garden were renovated with great care. A couple of en grisalle paintings were uncovered on the staircase with eagle and weapon motifs. Germans wanted to remove the eagles but were explained that they were Napoleonic eagles, a favourite motif of the Empire period. Thus they were preserved. On the ground floor of the right wing a restaurant was located with a wooden beam ceiling and a spacious cloakroom. The Palace survived the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising undamaged. After the liberation, the Palace underwent a general overhaul and reconstruction conducted by Antoni Brusche and Antoni Jawornicki. In 1965, the statue of Duke Jozef Poniatowski was placed in front of the Palace. After the war, it served again as the seat of the Council of Ministers until it moved to a building in the Aleje Jerozolimske Avenue. Since July 1994 it has been the official seat of the President of the Republic of Poland.