The old Poznań Główny railway station is to be demolished. For many, this news may come as a shock, after all, for ten years there had been information about advanced plans to rebuild and reopen the old station building. Now those promises are becoming obsolete. In connection with the construction of the CPK, the railways need space for new tracks and platforms. These are to be built on the site of the old station, on the square in front of it and even on Dworcowa Street, which today serves as the main access route to Poznań Główny station.
Interestingly, both the mayor of Poznań, Jacek Jaskowiak, and some PiS politicians, who usually criticise him, agree on this. As recently as five years ago, the Minister of Infrastructure was announcing a decision to bring the old station building back to life and restore its pre-war brick façade. At the time, the city of Poznań and PKP SA developed a joint concept for the comprehensive development of the railway station area and the adjacent Dworcowy Square. The presented project took into account three important conditions: the central location of these objects in the transport structure of the city, usability and functionality for visitors and residents, as well as the historical and cultural aspect of the place
The building today. Source: Bärbel Miemietz , CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In the new complex, an area dedicated to serving travellers has been designed, along with circulation routes and a pedestrian bridge connection to Glogowska Street in the vicinity of the Western Railway Station. Two architectural designs were also proposed for the method of reconstructing the front elevation of the old station building. The first one assumed preserving and revalorising the existing façade in a shape resembling the historical one and hiding it behind a wall of glass, the second one – demolishing the existing one and rebuilding the historical one with a protruding brick portico. Nothing has changed since those promises. The building stands virtually completely abandoned and closed, and its condition and immediate surroundings leave much to be desired. Is this the final end of this distinctive and well-known site?
The station building in 1940 and 2023 (Kunsthandlung des Ostens L.Denecke Publishers, Posen) via Public Domain
The station was built in the 1870s. It consisted of a northern front wing with a central hall and a set of adjoining wings to the south grouped by two inner courtyards. The elevations were clad in red facing brick. After the war damage, it was already rebuilt in a different, classicising form. Between 1961 and 1976, it was rebuilt again, this time in the spirit of modernism. In 2012, the new Poznań City Centre building next door was completed, with the station functions moved to it. Shortly afterwards, the old building was closed for ticketing services
Source: transport-publiczny.pl, wtk.pl
Read also: Architecture | Facade | Railway station | Urban planning | History | Poznan | Interesting facts
