Staszic Palace

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Staszic Palace, seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in Warsaw. Before it: Bertel Thorvaldsen's statue of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Staszic Palace (Polish: Pałac Staszica) is a palace on Nowy Świat Street 72, Warsaw, Poland. Today it is the main building of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The history of the Staszic Palace dates to 1620, when King of Poland Zygmunt III Vasa ordered the construction of a small Eastern Orthodox chapel, as a proper place of burial for the former tsar Vasili IV of Russia and his brother, Dmitry Shuisky, who died in Polish captivity after having been captured several years earlier during the Polish-Muscovite War (1605-1618).

As the population was mostly Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, there was little need for an Orthodox chapel and in 1668 another Polish king, Jan Kazimierz Waza, transfered the chapel to the Dominican Order, who would be caretakers of the building until 1808.

In 1818 the building was purchased by Stanisław Staszic, one of the leaders of the Polish Enlightenment, who ordered its renovation. The architect in charge was Antonio Corazzi, who designed the palace in the neoclassical architecture style. After the renovation (1820-1823), Staszic transferred the building to the Society of Friends of Science, the first Polish scientific organization. On 11 May 1830 another landmark was added to the palace, as Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz unveiled in front of it a monument to Nicolaus Copernicus, sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Staszic Palace in Russo-Byzantine style (1892-1924).

The Society was delegalised by the Russian government - which controlled Warsaw for most of the time since the partitions of Poland in 1795 - after the November Uprising of 1830-1831. For the next 26 years it was used by the Directorship of the Lottery. From 1857 to 1862 the palace was the home of the Medical-Surgical Academy, the first university reestablished on Polish territory under the Russian partition (since all other universities had been delegalized following the uprising) - but the Academy was soon closed following repressions after yet another failed uprising, the January Uprising of 1863-1864. Until the end of the First World War the building housed a gymnasium. From 1890 it also housed an Orthodox church. In 1892-1893 the palace was renovated by the Russian authorities, as the architect Mikhail Pokrowski transformed it into a Russo-Byzantine style building, as part of the russification of Warsaw. After Poland regained independence in 1918, in the years 1924-1926 it was transformed back into its neoclassical style by architect Marian Lalewicz. During the interwar period it hosted several organizations: the Scientific Society of Warsaw, Mianowski's Bank, the National Meteorological Institute, the French Institute and the Archeological Museum of Warsaw. The palace was damaged during the Siege of Warsaw (1939), and nearly razed during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944; it was rebuilt into its original neoclassical form in 1946-1950.