At last! After many years of waiting, the National Museum in Poznań has finally been renovated. The scope of the investment includes conservation work on the facades, the replacement of sections of the roof, the reconstruction of sculptures and the restoration of the fence. The investment will last until 2027, and this year’s stage, valued at more than five million zloty, is entirely financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Scope of conservation work
The first phase of the renovation includes the restoration of the eastern and western elevations of the building. In addition, part of the roofing on the Ludgardy Street side is to be replaced with copper sheeting. The aim is to restore the uniform appearance of the entire building. The sculptural elements crowning the façades from the side of Alej Marcinkowskiego and Ludgardy Street will undergo thorough conservation. They will be cleaned and cavities filled in. In the south-west corner, it is planned to replace the concrete copy of one of the sculptural groups with a new, stone reconstruction. Maintenance will also not miss the historic fence on the Ludgardy Street side, which is badly deteriorated and has damage dating back to the Second World War. In addition to the repair of the stone blocks and the reconstruction of missing cast-iron details, the museum’s façades will receive a new illumination, which will highlight their architectural qualities in the evening.
National Museum in Poznań – history of the building
The museum building was constructed between 1900 and 1903 to a design by Karl Hinckeldeyn, an architect known, among other things, for his design of the University Library in Poznan. The new headquarters of the German museum was a response to the Polish Mielżyński Museum. The opening of the building took place in 1904, and the institution then operated under the name Kaiser Friedrich Museum, which was intended to emphasise its importance in the structure of German museology. In the realisation of the project, Hinckeldeyn collaborated with Hans Koberstein, responsible for the mosaics, sgraffito and wall paintings, and Stephan Walter, the author of the sculptural decorations. Edward Albrecht created the stuccowork, while Reinhold Ahrens made the allegorical busts adorning the main hall. The layout of the building is based on a four-wing plan, with a central, glazed lobby. The elevations were designed in a symbolic manner, each referring to one of the three fields that constituted the scope of the museum’s collections: art, nature and crafts. The whole was subordinated to the idea of promoting Prussian heritage.
Changes after independence
After 1918, the building underwent a process of adaptation to its new role. At that time, German emblems, portraits and symbols were removed and the institution took the name of the Wielkopolska Museum. It is noteworthy that only the main façade on the side of Al. Marcinkowskiego Street was completely stripped of the old portraits of German artists. The façade on the side of Paderewskiego Street still features mosaics depicting lesser-known artists. During the Second World War, the museum did not suffer major damage, although there were serious fires and destruction in its immediate vicinity. The facades of the edifice are still marked by numerous lighter spots – these are traces of the removal of cavities in the stone caused by fighting and explosions. During the occupation, the most valuable museum exhibits were taken to Germany, while some were destroyed or looted, especially during the battles for Poznan. After 1945, the remains of the German decorations disappeared from the tympanum, and in 1950 the institution took the name of the National Museum in Poznan. It was not until the 1970s, on the initiative of Zbigniew Bednarowicz, that mosaic tondos with the names of prominent Polish painters were placed on the main façade. In 2001 a new wing of the Gallery of Painting and Sculpture was opened, the construction of which had already been contemplated in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
View of the museum building from Wolności Square – circa 1910 and 2024. Photo: University Library in Poznań and Old Poznań Then and Now
National Museum in Poznań – heritage and state of preservation
Only two facades have retained their original decoration to this day. The southern one, where portraits of German artists and representations of artistic craftsmanship are still visible, and the eastern one with decorations referring to the natural world. The last major renovation of the building took place in the 1970s. Since then, the stone cladding has turned dark, almost black in places. The current work will restore the aesthetic qualities of the building and preserve its complex and multi-layered heritage.
Source: National Museum in Poznań
Read also: Architecture in Poland | Poznan | Facade | Renovation | Curiosities | whiteMAD on Instagram
