Scholarly record

THE MAIN BUILDINGS OF TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES IN LVIV, WARSAW, GDANSK AND WROCLAW. NEO-RENAISSANCE „ARCHITECTURE PARLANTE”

J. Szczepanski

Abstract

The article compares the buildings of historical campuses of four technical universities located in areas related to Polish culture. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, several new technical universities were established in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1844, the Technical Academy was opened in Lviv. In 1899, the Russian who were occupying the east and central part of Poland established the Polytechnic Institute in Warsaw. Soon after two technical universities were established in the eastern part of Prussia, currently belonging to Poland; in 1904 in Gda?sk and in 1910 in Wroc?aw. The main building of the Lviv Polytechnic was designed in 1872. Its external form refers to pan-European designs, does not show the local specifics. The most important point of reference was the edifice of Vienna University of Technology, in the capital of the country to which Lviv belonged at the time. In the interior decorations from the end of the 19th century, in the hall and the library references were made to the Polish art. Similarly, in Warszawa, the external architecture of the main Polytechnic building does not refer to local character but to Italian patterns, while literal quotations from the works of the Polish Renaissance were used inside. The main building of the Gda?sk University of Technology was built in the years 1899-1904. Architects applied the northern Renaissance style. Its forms were related to the Baltic region and the architecture of the city from its heyday from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. They were, however, at that time considered as one of the types of German national architecture. Complicated political and national situation in this part of Europe caused that such important objects as the new university buildings had to convey a specific content, important for authors and founders. These contents made two separate groups and were expressed in two ways. One of them was a form and architectural details that, through the appropriate style selection, expressed the object relationship to the region, to the nation, to the state and to Europe. The second method of expressing was the use of symbolism directly depicting the function of buildings through details connected with industry departments, fields of science and outstanding engineers and scientists.

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