Józefa Piłsudskiego Street

The street was staked out early in the 19th century in place of the former road leading to Wola Justowska. At that time, the street – originally named Wolska – began to function, and operated until 1933. Today’s Piłsudskiego Street received its present shape in the last quarter of the 19th century. As at the time much attention was paid to the architectural design of the street and urban planning, the effects were marvellous. From this side of the Błonia Common Green, it commands a marvellous perspective onto the towers of St Mary and the Town Hall, while from the side of the Planty Garden Ring it commands a marvellous view of the Kościuszko Mound. Little wonder that the street has always had a representational character, which is attested by the preserved buildings, especially on the left-hand side (looking from the side of the Planty). The former city residence of the Potulicki family (No. 4) built in 1874-1875 to the design of Filip Pokutyński is worth special attention. After the fire that consumed it during the second world war, the formerly neo-baroque building was rebuilt in a neo-classicist style. Somewhat further away, at No. 12, stands the new Renaissance palace of the Krasiński family (1883-1884), purchased later by the eminent collector of old coins and prints, Count Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, who rebuilt it to meet the needs of the future museum according to the design of Tadeusz Stryjeński (1896). Today, it houses a branch of the National Museum.

Going further, on the right side of the street, there stands the building of the Polish Gymnastic Society “Sokół”, built in 1889 to the design of Karol Knaus. The size of the building was quickly found to be insufficient for the growing needs of the “Falcon”: the reconstruction work that began in 1894 was entrusted to Teodor Talowski; now its side face which is crowned with a picturesque top renders the creative anxiety so characteristic of the achievements of this eminent architect.

The highly varied, eclectic façades of a number of representational townhouses that Talowski designed in the 1880s and 1890s are certainly an attraction of the neighbouring Retoryka Street. They include:

No. 1–2 – Pod śpiewającą żabą – under the singing frog; the house owes its name to the figure of a music-making frog situated on the façade. The double allusion to the croak of the frogs was clearer when the Rudawa River was still flowing in the middle of the street, and the building fulfilled its intended function, i.e. it housed the musical school.
No. 7 – Festina lente; was the property of Talowski. Completed in 1887, it had the 4th storey added in 1929; that is, at the time when the original portal was destroyed. The façade is asymmetrical and built of assorted materials. It contains Latin inscriptions: Festina lente (make haste slowly) and Ars longa vita brevis (art is long, life is short), a cartouche with the name of the author, and his coat of arms.
No. 9 – Pod Osłem – Under the donkey, as Talowski placed a head of a donkey on its façade. The architect must have considered the animal to be an advantage and not a disadvantage, as he placed it here to illustrate the inscription that urges to a stubborn pursuit of your goal: Faber est suae quisque fortunae (everyone forges his own fortune).
No. 15 – is decorated with the adage Długo myśl – prędko czyń, meaning “think long, act quickly”.