Fifty years of Peking
Whether they wanted that gift or not was irrelevant; they were getting it and what's more they were going to like it. After all, you never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when the snorting beast in a generous mood is Stalin.
Like many Soviet constructions, the Palace had its propaganda function. It was a gift to the Polish people and as such it had to impress and amaze them. So instead of a direct copy of a notable Russian building, such as the Moscow University, it was decided that a new, different building epitomizing social-realist architecture, while at the same time drawing on Polish history, would be built. To this end, the team of Russian designers was dispatched on a whirlwind trip of Poland to admire its various cities. Whether this trip was successful, and if any trace of Kraków, Toruń and Gdańsk can be found in the Palace, is in the eye of the beholder.
The story of how the Palace's height was decided has become legend. An airplane dragging a balloon circled the area at ever increasing altitudes as the team that was to design the edifice looked on from a vantage point on the Praga bank of the Vistula. At 120 meters, the Russians declared it high enough for Warsaw, but the Poles has other ideas and pushed forward to 160 meters.
Construction began in 1952 and ended in 1955, which was breathtaking speed for the time. Soviet construction workers and materials were shipped in and a separate town was built in Jelonki in northwestern Warsaw to house the builders. Some 3,500 workers using 40 million bricks and 28,000 sqm of marble put the beast together brick by brick and 500,000 sqm of rubble was cleared from the surrounding streets. Sixteen Russian workers paid with their lives during the construction.
The building is still one of the tallest in Europe, at 231 meters with a spire of 43 meters. There are 3,288 rooms over 43 floors, with a total area of around 120,000 sqm. The architect behind it was Lew Rudniew. Following Stalin's death, it was swiftly decided to name Warsaw's most famous monument after him, but at the end of the 1950s the brass letters of his name were taken down and replaced with the neon inscription Pałac Kultury i Nauki (this is often abbreviated to PKiN, leading to the nickname Peking).
For years rumors circulated of underground passages leading from the Palace to the Communist Party's headquarters near Rondo de Gaulle'a, along with atomic and air-raid shelters, but these appear little more than fanciful stories.
The Palace has played host to thousands of guests over the years, but the most famous were probably those who took to the stage in Sala Kongresowa. Among the international stars to have taken the limelight are Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, the Rolling Stones, Marlena Dietrich (who was pelted with an egg by one enraged photographer as she had forbidden photographs) and Ella Fitzgerald. And hanging over their heads is one of the building's more curious features, an enormous curtain that is actually several tones of concrete finished in gold.
Like many Soviet constructions, the Palace had its propaganda function. It was a gift to the Polish people and as such it had to impress and amaze them. So instead of a direct copy of a notable Russian building, such as the Moscow University, it was decided that a new, different building epitomizing social-realist architecture, while at the same time drawing on Polish history, would be built. To this end, the team of Russian designers was dispatched on a whirlwind trip of Poland to admire its various cities. Whether this trip was successful, and if any trace of Kraków, Toruń and Gdańsk can be found in the Palace, is in the eye of the beholder.
The story of how the Palace's height was decided has become legend. An airplane dragging a balloon circled the area at ever increasing altitudes as the team that was to design the edifice looked on from a vantage point on the Praga bank of the Vistula. At 120 meters, the Russians declared it high enough for Warsaw, but the Poles has other ideas and pushed forward to 160 meters.
Construction began in 1952 and ended in 1955, which was breathtaking speed for the time. Soviet construction workers and materials were shipped in and a separate town was built in Jelonki in northwestern Warsaw to house the builders. Some 3,500 workers using 40 million bricks and 28,000 sqm of marble put the beast together brick by brick and 500,000 sqm of rubble was cleared from the surrounding streets. Sixteen Russian workers paid with their lives during the construction.
The building is still one of the tallest in Europe, at 231 meters with a spire of 43 meters. There are 3,288 rooms over 43 floors, with a total area of around 120,000 sqm. The architect behind it was Lew Rudniew. Following Stalin's death, it was swiftly decided to name Warsaw's most famous monument after him, but at the end of the 1950s the brass letters of his name were taken down and replaced with the neon inscription Pałac Kultury i Nauki (this is often abbreviated to PKiN, leading to the nickname Peking).
For years rumors circulated of underground passages leading from the Palace to the Communist Party's headquarters near Rondo de Gaulle'a, along with atomic and air-raid shelters, but these appear little more than fanciful stories.
The Palace has played host to thousands of guests over the years, but the most famous were probably those who took to the stage in Sala Kongresowa. Among the international stars to have taken the limelight are Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, the Rolling Stones, Marlena Dietrich (who was pelted with an egg by one enraged photographer as she had forbidden photographs) and Ella Fitzgerald. And hanging over their heads is one of the building's more curious features, an enormous curtain that is actually several tones of concrete finished in gold.
