A large advertisement has been removed from the facade of the Central Railway Station on the side of Jana Pawła II Avenue. This is the result of the actions of the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments in Warsaw, which led PKP S.A. to terminate the contract with the advertising company. Railway workers proceeded with the removal shortly after the conservation decision was obtained, and PKP S.A. thanked officials for their openness and good cooperation. The removal of the advertising sheet is significant due to the presence of the station building in the register of historical monuments.
For years there has been a dispute over the aesthetics of one of the capital’s most recognisable modernist buildings. Although during the renovations in the second decade of the 21st century the number of advertisements obscuring the body of the building was reduced, until today there were still huge billboards obscuring the characteristic reinforced concrete pylons in places. The PKP argued that revenue from advertising allowed the station to be maintained, but architects, urban planners and residents regularly pointed out that the advertisements were disfiguring an icon of Polish modernism.
The building itself was constructed between 1972 and 1975, designed by Arseniusz Romanowicz in collaboration with Piotr Szymaniak. The work was carried out in a hurry – it was supposed to be finished before Brezhnev’s official visit – which affected the quality of some of the installations, including a leaking roof and leaking water and sewage pipes. Despite the difficulties, construction took three years.
In 2019, the building was entered in the register of monuments of the Mazovia Province, which formally restricts the possibility of making any changes to the façade and interiors without the consent of the conservator. The monument status sealed the architectural value of the ‘Pearl on the Rails’ – as the station was called by the Swiss critic Werner Huber.
The architecture of the Central Station conceals many interesting features. The main hall is 120 metres long, 84 metres wide and reaches 20 metres high. Above it rises a reinforced concrete shelter supported by slender pillars, and underground are the platforms. The designers made it possible for travellers to descend to the platforms via underground tunnels, without having to go through a crowded hall.
Designed to serve 39 million travellers a year, Central Station will welcome more than 24 million by 2024. The removal of advertising allows the harmony of the austere planes, the finesse of the shelters and the lightness of the modernist form to finally be fully appreciated.
The removal of the banner is a symbolic step towards restoring the original elegance of the building, which for years has remained one of the most important monuments of 20th century modernist architecture in Poland.
photos: J. Świsłocki, WUOZ in Warsaw
source: Mazovian Voivodeship Historic Preservation Officer
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We wrote more about the history of Central Station HERE.
