Party House in Warsaw

One of Warsaw’s prime examples of socialist realist architecture has been declared a monument.

The building served as the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party from May 1952 until the dissolution of the party in January 1990. In 1991-2000 it housed the Warsaw Stock Exchange and is now the property of the state-owned company Centrum Bankowo-Finansowe (Banking-Financial Centre) ‘Nowy Świat’. The State Treasury recently announced plans for the privatization of the building.

The city’s arts conservator Barbara Jezierska says that her decision to make the building a monument was prompted by both the building’s uncertain future, which poses a danger of devastation, and its architectural merits.

The decision has been criticised by city councillors of the opposition Law and Justice party, who claim that there are many pre-war buildings in Warsaw that are far more worthy of being listed as architectural monuments, whereas the Party headquarters was a symbol of Poland’s 'enslavement' during the communist period. A leftist councillor, who first came with the idea of giving the building listed status, described it as an architectural gem, a testimony to post-war design and a symbol of Poland’s transformations over the past two decades.

Referred to by Poles during communism as the Party House or, ironically, the White House, the building comprises 27,000 square metres of usable space, including 18,000 square metres of office space. (mk/mmj)