The Marshal Office of Warmia and Mazury Province; the Regierungsbezirk Building

Seat of the pre-war Regierungsbezirk (equivalent to nowadays Province). After World War II State Railways took over the building. Currently it houses the Marshal Office and the Provincial Administrative Court.

 

 

History

The Regierungsbezirk of Olsztyn was created in 1905 from the southern part of the Regierungsbezirk of Gąbin and Konigsberg. The Regierungsbezirk of Olsztyn consisted of 10 provinces inhabited by Polish speaking citizens living in East Prussia. The language was the main reason for creating the Regierungsbezirk in this shape. The architect of this edifice was Richard Saran from Berlin, a counsellor from the Ministry of Public Works. The construction works were conducted by Albert Dylewski from Olsztyn. The opening ceremony took place on 15 July 1911. On the ground floor there used to be a public section with a clerical office, cash offices and an insurance office. On the first representative floor there used to be: a session hall and an office of the President of Regierungsbezirk. Further down the corridors there were offices just like on the second floor. On the third floor, apart from offices, there was a library located. In the garret there used to be a Regierungsbezirk record office. In the basement you could find a printing office, an engine - room and a boiler-room.After World War II, instead of continuing the tradition of a Voivodship seat, the preserved building was passed on to the Regional Directorate of State Railways. The new Voivodship Office was built from scratch on the other side of the street. At the beginning of the 90s several dozen of private firms occupied this monumental edifice. In 1998 after the administration reform and creating local self-government authorities of the Voivodship, the Regierungsbezirk edifice regained its status as a seat of regional authorities. At present the Marshal of Warmia and Mazury Province occupies a former office of the President of Regierungsbezirk.

 

Architectural description

The body of the building comprises five wings. The main part consists of two parallel wings, connected in the middle with a staircase, thus forming two little inner yards, closed with two elongated wings. From the East the last wing connects both elongated wings, closing the big yard. The three – storeyed building is erected on a stone socle with rustication and basement windows as well as semicircular windows of high ground floor. Its upper floors are brick, non – plastered, apart from the space between the windows of the first and second floor. The windows are divided with pilasters with capitals.The main façade is in the western side. It has three risalits, the middle one with the main portal, shallower than the corner ones. The main portal with a huge, presently empty cartouche is made of sandstone from a Lower Silesian quarry in Radkowo. Above the portal, between the windows of the first and the second floor, there is a decorative bas –relief by Wilhelm Gieseke from Charlottenburg. In the top part of this risalit there is an oval cartouche, where previously there was the Regierungsbezirk coat of arms. Presently you can see only a crown on the top of the cartouche. The risalit decoration was restored in 2009.

 

Interesting facts

The inner yard of the Regierungsbezirk edifice was used as a film set in a series ”Stawka większa niż życie”, in an episode entitled ”Podwójny nelson”, filmed in Olsztyn in the summer of 1967.

 

Practical info

- the building can be seen from outside, inner corridors and staircases - during the working hours of the Marshal Office. You have to obtain a permission from the building administrator to visit session chambers. - office hours: 7.30 a.m. – 15.30 p.m.- free parking lot for coaches – 500 m. away (in Nowowiejskiego Street) or at the Urania Hall

 

Bibliography

Rzempołuch A., Architektura i urbanistyka Olsztyna 1353-1953, Olsztyn 2005

 

www.warmia.mazury.pl