Socialist Realism in Poland - Local Characteristics

Local Characteristics

Since the style of the Renaissance was generally regarded as the most revered in old Polish architecture, it was to become Poland's socialist national format. However, in the course of incorporating these principles into new ideology, major changes were also introduced. One of these was to more closely reflect Soviet architecture, which resulted in the majority of new buildings blending into one another. The all-encompassing Stalinist vision propagated by the Soviet Union was best exemplified by the new Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury i Nauki imienia Józefa Stalina) constructed in Warsaw between 1952 and 1955. Its design was based on similar skyscrapers built in the USSR at that time. The 3,500 builders were brought in directly from the Soviet Union with their own blueprints, and housed in a suburban shantytown.

The monumental form disseminated by the Communist Government reached its apogee with the construction of an entire new town near Kraków along with a steel mill soon to become the biggest in Poland. Nowa Huta was centrally planned as a major new centre of heavy industry, against substantial resistance from middle-class Cracovians. Its Main Square (Plac Centralny) was surrounded by huge blocks of flats populated by a new class of industrial workers employed at the Lenin Steelworks. Notably, the socrealist centre of Nowa Huta is currently considered a monument of architecture. Other prominent examples of urban design included Marszałkowska Housing Estate (MDM) in Warsaw, Kościuszkowska Housing Estate (KDM) in Wrocław, Main Station Gdynia Główna, a housing estate in Kowary, and the Palace of Coal-Basin Culture in Dąbrowa Górnicza.