Stone in Memory of Jan Zachwatowicz
Poland
Zachwatowicz supervised this reconstruction from 1945 to 1957, serving as the Chief Conservator of Monuments of the Republic of Poland. In recognition of his contributions to the restoration of the Old Town, a section of the city wall along Podwale Street was named after Jan Zachwatowicz in 2011. Previously, the granite stone with a commemorative plaque was unveiled to remind people of the architect and conservator's achievements.
Jan Zachwatowicz
Zachwatowicz was born in a place called Gatchina. He studied how to build things at a university in Saint Petersburg and graduated from a school for architects in Warsaw in 1930. He got a special award from an architect group in 1971.
He was a teacher at the Warsaw University of Technology for a long time, starting in 1946 (he started working there in 1925). He was also in a group of smart people called the Polish Academy of Sciences from 1952. He was in another group in Paris for architects in 1967. He was part of a group that helped protect old buildings in Poland and was in charge of fixing them from 1945 to 1957. He was also in charge of a group that took care of important buildings and was the boss of a committee for fixing a big castle in Warsaw.
Zachwatowicz helped make the restoration service in Poland better. When Poland was taken over by other countries from 1939 to 1945, he taught, protected, and saved important things like old buildings. Starting in 1945, he helped lead an office to rebuild Warsaw.
After World War II, his team rebuilt many old buildings in Gdańsk, Poznań, and Wrocław using Zachwatowicz's ideas. One of their big achievements was fixing Saint John's Cathedral in Warsaw in 1960.
He was a smart person who wrote more than 200 major publications.
A monument was also erected to Jan Zachwatowicz, which is located near the Peter Beganski Wall next to Castle Square in the Old Town of Warsaw.
He had two daughters named Krystyna and Katarzyna. He died in Warsaw when he was 83 years old.