Szczecin Voivodeship Office is a historic administrative building, opened in 1911 and located at the Chrobry Embankment in the city of

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

History

The main designer was

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

architect Paul Kieschke. After his death in 1905, Paul Lehmgrübner continued the project and supervised the construction. Work began in 1906 on a 12860 m² site, purchased for 392,000

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. Because of the site's topography and the remnants of Fort Leopold, which had previously occupied the location, construction was preceded by large-scale earthworks. These included, among others, the construction of a moat bridge, the replacement of peat substrate, and drainage works. The building was built on the powerful, concrete foundations in places reaching 11 m below street level. The result of nearly six years of ongoing construction work was a monumental complex of three buildings connected by a common, richly decorated facade. The style belongs to German Historicism, emphasizing in particular parts of the northern Renaissance. The complex has two inner courtyards and two towers, one of which, 72 m in height, surmounted by a figure of Sailor. Many rooms in the building (notably, the main hall, stairway and conference room) have a representative character and retain their original decoration. The building was completed in 1911. Its central part was taken by the ''Government Presidium'' (Regierungspräsidium) of the Stettin Region. The southern part was the regional president's official home. In the northern part of the office complex, offshore institutions such as Maritime Authority, Lloyd's Agency, Police and Port Authority of Hydraulic Engineering were located. The investment cost amounted to 3.53327 million marks. The total area of buildings is 19451 m². The building was not damaged during the bombings of

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war, it became the seat of the Polish municipal authorities under Piotr Zaremba, who on 30 April 1945 ordered the Polish flag to be raised on it. In 1985, the building was inscribed in the register of monuments. In 2011, on its 100th anniversary, the building was opened to the public. Visitors can follow underground routes — including an uncharted, flooded tunnel running toward the Oder River — and climb the towers, where a collection of gargoyles, assembled by the Germans for reasons that remain uncertain, is on display.

Gallery

File:Szczecin Urzad Wojewodzki (z1).jpg, View from pl. Mickiewicz File:Szczecin Urzad Wojewodzki (z6).jpg, View from embankment File:Szczecin Urzad Wojewodzki (2).jpg, The Main Hall File:Szczecin Urzad Wojewodzki (3).jpg, Staircase

Footnotes

{{coord, 53, 25, 53, N, 14, 33, 58, E, region:PL_type:city_source:kolossus-plwiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Szczecin Office buildings completed in 1911 West Pomeranian Voivodeship Old Town, Szczecin