fot. WUOZ w Warszawie

Warsaw: tenements on Jerozolimskie Avenue become a monument

·5 September 2025

The historic tenement houses standing at 28, 30 and 32 Jerozolimskie Avenue and at 16 Bracka Street in Warsaw have been officially entered in the register of monuments. The decision was announced by the Mazovian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments, placing the complex, erected between 1951 and 1955 on the basis of the surviving fragments of tenement houses from the late 19th century, destroyed during World War II, under protection.

Warsaw’s architecture combining eras

In the justification for entering the tenements in the register, the conservator emphasised the unique character of the complex, which is an example of a post-war attempt to combine the legacy of modernism and the aesthetics of socialist realism with pre-war metropolitan buildings. The project, designed under the direction of Zbigniew Stępiński and Lech Tomaszewski, foreshadowed the urban planning solutions that were later fully developed in MDM and Muranów. The artistic value of the complex lies in the composition of the blocks connected by a common, classicising façade, the uniform layout of the storeys and the subtle and elegant details. The complex’s artistic value lies in the composition of its masses connected by a common classicist façade, the uniform layout of its storeys and the subtle and elegant details, including strip rustications, geometric friezes, various stuccowork and the busts of Adam Mickiewicz and Aleksander Pushkin restored after the war by Andrzej Pruszyński.

Tenement houses on Jerozolimskie Avenue – 19th century beginnings

The history of the development quarter covered by the entry dates back to the 1880s. At that time, at what is now 16 Bracka Street, a magnificent August Störl tenement house designed by Teofil Tytus was built. Its façade was decorated in Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque aesthetics, and the striking corner was accentuated with a cupola. In the same period, neighbouring townhouses were built for the Russian merchant Vsevolod Istomin. In one of them, at 32 Jerozolimskie Avenue, busts of Mickiewicz and Pushkin were placed.

Reconstruction and unification of the façade

The elegant and metropolitan frontage was severely damaged during World War II, mainly in the Warsaw Uprising. The individual buildings were rebuilt in the 1950s. Shortly after the war, a project for a common façade was approved for the tenements at 28, 30 and 32 Jerozolimskie Avenue, which envisaged their superstructure and a uniform solution for the ground floor with a row of shop windows. During the implementation of the new vision, some elements of the old buildings were retained. It was this integration of old and new that became one of the main reasons for the complex’s inclusion in the register of monuments.

The reconstruction of the townhouses in the 1950s and the buildings today. Source: “Warsaw, September 1947”, by Henry N Cobb and WhiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski

Tenement houses on Jerozolimskie Avenue and their further fate

In the following decades, after the tenements were rebuilt, only ad hoc renovations were carried out, the woodwork was changed (often to an unfortunate design), and in the 21st century the original materials used to finish the façade were partially obscured. Today it is disfigured by dozens of air-conditioning units, the bricks have become very dirty and the ground floor is drowned in scribbles. A characteristic element of the corner of Bracka Street and Jerozolimskie Avenue is a globe. It is a remnant of the Orbis headquarters operating in the building. A conservation study of the building was carried out this year, which allowed the exact state of preservation of the building to be determined.

Contemporary functions of the historic building

Today, public institutions operate in the historic complex. The Board of Education is located at 32 Jerozolimskie Avenue, and the building at number 28 is the seat of the Mazovian Voivodeship Office and the Warsaw City Hall. Entry in the register of monuments provides them with additional protection and gives hope for the restoration of the long-lost aesthetics of this important part of the city centre.

Sources: warszawa.wyborcza.pl, horecanet.pl