Karol Podczaszyński
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Karol Podczaszyński (1790 – 1860) was a Polish architect, a representative of the neoclassical architecture and a professor of University of Vilna, as well as one of the pioneers of industrial design.
He was born November 7, 1790, in Żyrmuny near Lida, in what is now the Hrodna Voblast of Belarus. He graduated from the prestigious Krzemieniec College and then the Imperial University of Vilna. Between 1814 and 1816 he continued his studies on architecture in St. Petersburg, where he became the first Pole on the local university. Between 1817 and 1819 he also travelled to Western European countries, visiting Koenigsberg, Danzig, Berlin, Paris, Naples, Venice and Vienna before returning to Cracow. Upon his return to Vilna he was offered a chair of architecture, which he accepted.
Among his most notable architectural works are the refurbishment of the interior of the Vilna University (1802-1804), the construction of Aula, Evangelical Protestant Church (1829-1835) and the neoclassical Jan Śniadecki's manor in Jaszuny (modern Jašiūnai, Lithuania; reconstructed between 1824 and 1828). Yet another of his major works was the neo-Palladian[citation needed] Tusculanum manor (in modern Žirmūnai, Vilnius) in 1825. The entire Žirmūnai microdistrict in modern Vilnius was named after his native village of Żyrmuny (Lithuanian: Žirmūnai), a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time of his birth.
As a noted architect, Podczaszyński also supervised a number of other projects, among them the reconstruction of the Palace of Governors in Vilna, carried out by Vasily Stasov. In modern times the palace serves as the seat of the President of Lithuania. Podczaszyński has also reconstructed the Orthodox Cathedral of the Theotokos to the Anatomicum of his alma mater (1822). Finally, between 1836 and 1838 he designed the interior design of three chapels of the St. Władysław and Stanisław Cathedral of Vilna.
As a theoretician, Podczaszyński authored numerous works on architecture and industrial design. Among the best-known of them is the 1843 dictionary of Polish carpentry terms (Polish: Nomenklatura architektoniczna, czyli słowomiennik cieśliczych polskich wyrazów), the two monographs on industrial design: On the beauty of works of industry (Polish: O piękności w robotach przemysłu; 1821) and Application of general principles of excellence of industrial designs in paintings, sculptures and garden design (Polish: Zastosowanie ogólnych zasad doskonałosci w tworach przemysłu do obrazów i posągów, tudzież do urządzenia ogrodów rozkosznych, czyli ogrojców; 1838). He was also the author of two notable handbooks of architecture for universities: one for professors (1822) and one for the students (published in three volumes between 1828 and 1856). Karol Podczaszyński died April 19 in Vilna and is interred in Rasos Cemetery.
