All Saints’ Church in a new look. Façade renovation completed

·10 February 2025

All Saints’ Church, located on Grzybowski Square, is one of Warsaw’s most important churches. Since 2017, it has been undergoing a comprehensive renovation, including both the facade and the interior. The most recent stages of work have focused on the renovation of the front façade and the refreshment of the western arcade. After months of intensive construction work, the scaffolding finally disappeared, revealing the effects of the restoration. A bright yellow coat has replaced the previous faded colours, restoring the church to its original appearance, in line with the results of stratigraphic research. The project was partly financed by the City of Warsaw.

Thanks to the support of city subsidies, a number of important works were carried out, including the modernisation of the insulation in the lower church, the restoration of the interior of the presbytery and the conservation of the western nave together with side altars such as the altar of St Anthony and the statue of Christ blessing the world. We wrote about the interior restoration HERE. Each stage of the renovation was aimed at restoring the church to its former glory and protecting the monument from further damage.

The last three years have been devoted to the thorough conservation of the façade. As part of the work, both towers – east and west – and the pediment were restored and strengthened. The bronze statues of angels, destroyed during the Second World War, were placed on the towers again. In addition, the arcaded porticoes on both sides of the church were renovated. In the past, these adjoined the townhouses and were gateways to the church grounds. It is also worth noting the restored statues of saints that adorn the top of the façade. These too were destroyed during the war and were returned to their place after 80 years. The work also included cleaning the walls, restoring the plasterwork, stucco, sculptures and bas-reliefs and protecting them from negative environmental influences. The entire plastered surfaces were painted with silicone lime paints and protected with water repellent treatment, which ensures their durability and protection against moisture and pollution for many years. The main objective of the extensive renovation was to restore the historic appearance of the church.

Kościół Wszystkich Świętych w Warszawie — All Saints’ Church in Warsaw at the end of the 19th century. Photo: Mazovian Digital Library

All Saints’ Church, built between 1861 and 1893 to a design by Henryk Marconi, is one of Warsaw’s most important neoclassical monuments. It was designed on a Latin cross plan and for decades was the largest church in the city, towering over Grzybowski Square and the surrounding area. During World War II, it was located in the Warsaw Ghetto and played a key role in helping the Jewish population, organising, among other things, transfers to the Aryan side. Destroyed as a result of the 1939 bombings and the Warsaw Uprising, it was gradually rebuilt, with the last reconstruction work not completed until the 1970s.

The restoration of All Saints’ Church is one of the largest conservation projects in Warsaw. Although work on the front façade has come to an end, this is not the end of the renovation. In the future, other parts of the church will also regain their lost character.

Source: Warsaw City Hall

Read also: Architecture in Poland | Renovation | Monument | Sacral architecture | Warsaw

Photo Tilman2007, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons and WhiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski