South Downtown (Polish: Śródmieście Południowe ) is a neighbourhood in Warsaw, Poland, located in the Downtown district. It is predominently a mid-rise residential area, with tenements and apartment residential buildings, as well as office and commercial spaces.
The area includes the housing estates of the Marshal Residential District and Latawiec. The neighbourhood includes numerous historic tenements, some dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also features several office building, including its two tallest skyscrapers, LIM Center and Chałubińskiego 8, which have the total height of 150 m (492.1 ft.) and 170 m (557.7 ft.), respectively, and each having the architectural height of 140 m (459.3 ft.). South Downtown also includes green spaces, such as parts of Mokotów Field park complex and Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły Park. The campus and most faculty buildings of Warsaw University of Technology are also housed within the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood includes the Warsaw National Museum, the largest museum in the city and one of the largest in the country, as well as the other institutions such as the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, and the Museum of the Earth of the Polish Academy of Sciences. South Downtown features the compex which houses the Sejm and Senate, the lower and upper houses of the Parliament of Poland. The area also has three historic Roman Catholic parish churches, the Church of the Holiest Saviour, St. Alexander Church, and Sts. Apostles Peter and Paul Church, as well as the St. Barbara Chappel. The neighbourhood is served by the Politechnika station of the M1 line of the Warsaw Metro underground rapid transit system.
The area of South Downtown began developing in the 18th century from small suburban towns of Bielino, Bożydar-Kałęczyn, and Nowogrodzka. The Stanislavian Axis, an urban layout of roads and urban squares connecting Warsaw with the Ujazdów Castle, was developed between 1768 and 1770, with Crossroads, Polytechnic, Saviour, Three Crosses, and Union of Lublin being created as part of it. They were later further developed in the third quoter of the 18th century. In 1776, two garden complexes, Na Książęcem Park and the Frascati Gardens, were developed in the northeastern side of the neighbourhood, later being redeveloped and reopened as the Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły Park in 1955. The area was incorporated into the city of Warsaw in 1974. The development of the neighbourhood continued in the 19th century, especially following the opening of the Vienna Station in 1845. It led to the construction of luxury tenements, with restaurants, stores and services in the area. In 1898, the Warsaw University of Technology was founded, and in 1910, the Mokotów Aerodrome was opened in the southwest part of the neighbourhood, operating until 1947. The Mokotów Field park complex was later developed in its place between the 1970s and the 1990s.
In 1939, while the city was under German occupation during the Second World War, a section of South Downtown centred on Szucha Avenue was transformed into the Police District, a restricted area housing the Security Police and the Gestapo. During the Warsaw Uprising, from 1 September 1944, the area became a battleground of German forces and Polish partisans of the Home Army. Following the defeat of the uprising, the population was evicted, and a large portion of the city was razed, including South Downtown, which had already been heavily destroyed during the fighting. The neighbourhood and many of its historical buildings were rebuilt after the conflict. Followed the end of the war, new housing estates were developed in the neighbourhood, including the Marshal Residential District and Latawiec in the 1950s. The two tallest skyscrapers in South Downtown, Chałubińskiego 8 and LIM Center, were opened in 1975 and 1989, respectively. The neighbourhood also experienced development of numerous office and retail buildings, beginning in the 1970s, and continued through the first quoter of the 21st century. In 1995, the Politechnika station was opened, connecting the neighbourhood with the Warsaw Metro rapid system network.
History Emergence of the suburban area
In the 18th century, several independent satellite towns (jurydyka) located outside both Old Warsaw and New Warsaw were established with royal decrees. They operated independently with their own laws and tax exemptions.Daniela Kosacka: Północna Warszawa w XVIII wieku. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1970, p. 59. (In Polish). Within the area of modern South Downtown, this included: Bożydar-Kałęczyn in the area of modern Jerusalem Avenue, established in 1702; the southern portion of Bielino in the area of Wilcza Street, established in 1766; and Nowogrodzka in the area of Nowogrodzka Street, established in 1767.Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1994, p. 548. . (In Polish).Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1994. . (In Polish).Kwiryna Handke: Dzieje Warszawy nazwami pisane. Warsaw: Muzeum Historyczne m.st. Warszawy, 2011, p. 168. . (In Polish).Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1994, p. 300. . (In Polish).
Between 1768 and 1770, an urban layout of streets, known as the was Stanislavian Axis, was developed on the initiative of king Stanisław August Poniatowski. It connected Old Warsaw and its satellite towns, with the Ujazdów Castle. It involved five roundabouts, later developed into urban squares, now known as Crossroads, Polytechnic, Saviour, Three Crosses, and Union of Lublin. Its main axis was formed by the Royal Road, connecting the castle to the Wola Election Field, which hosted the royal elections of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was placed alongside the Piaseczno Canal. The other main streets of the layout were Nowowiejska, Niemcewicza, Prądzyńskiego Streets, and Emancipation Avenue.Eugeniusz Szwankowski: Ulice i place Warszawy. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1970, p. 232. (In Polish).
Beginning at the swamps near the modern Starynkiewicz Square and flowing out to the Vistula river, the Żurawka river was an important water source in the Warsaw agglomeration due to the large quantity of flowing water in it. It had originally flowed though the area now occupied by South Downtown until it was channeled into underground pipes and canals in the 18th century, so as to flow underneath what are now Żurawia, Czerniakowska, and Okrąg Streets.Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1994, p. 1034. . (in Polish)Marian Marek Drozdowski, Andrzej Zahorski: Historia Warszawy. Warsaw Wydawnictwo Jeden Świat, 2004, p. 8. . (in Polish)
During the last third of the 18th century a number of urbanising developments took place in the satellite towns connected by the Stanislavian Axis. In 1770, the Lubomirski Ramparts, a series of dirt ramparts were erected around Warsaw and its satellite towns, to decrease the spread of the plague during its second pandemic.Eugeniusz Szwankowski: Warszawa. Rozwój urbanistyczny i architektoniczny. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwa Techniczne, 1952. (in Polish)Anna Berdecka, Irena Turnau: Życie codzienne w Warszawie okresu Oświecenia. Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969, pp. 238–239. (in Polish) The tollhouses were established at the entrances and exits to the agglomeration, on the roads crossing the rampart lines. One of them was placed at on Union of Lublin Square, to the north of the village of Mokotów, with two pavilions placed on both sides of the current Puławska Street.Andrzej Karpiński: "Biedota miejska wobec klęsk żywiołowych", Rocznik Warszawski XVI. Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1981, p. 90. . (in Polish)Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1994, p. 732. . (in Polish) In 1818, the buildings at the square were replaced with two neoclassical pavilions, called the Mokotów Tollhouses.Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1994, p. 569. . (in Polish)Juliusz A. Chrościcki, Andrzej Rottermund: Atlas architektury Warszawy. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Arkady, 1977, p. 208. (in Polish) The plague, which was expected to reach the city in 1771, was instead halted by a harsh winter. In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, the ramparts were enforced with cannons placed in front and behind them, forming parts of the city fortifications during the siege of Warsaw the same year.Andrzej Zahorski: Warszawa w Powstaniu Kościuszkowskim. Warsaw: Wiedza Powszechna, 1985. . (in Polish) In 1825, the ramparts were renovated, to aid in enforcing duty collection at the city boundaries. A portion alongside Koszykowa Street was moved to the south to Nowowiejska Street. The ramparts were removed in 1875, following the abolishment of the duty fees from entiring the city.Stefan Kieniewicz: Warszawa w latach 1795–1914. Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1976, p. 181. (in Polish)
In 1774, the neighbourhood of Nowa Jerozolima () was established as part of the town of Bożydar-Kałęczyn, then owned by August Kazimierz Sułkowski. Located between the modern Artur Zawisza Square and Kaliska Street it was inhabited by a Jewish community, despite being in violation of a law which forbade Jewish people from living in Old Warsaw or within a 3.2 km (2 mile) radius of it. Consequently the city hall of Old Warsaw sued Sułkowski, demanding the neighbourhood be destroyed. Despite residents' protests it was demolished on 23 January 1776, with its inhabitants being displaced and their trading goods confiscated.Jarosław Zieliński. Z dziejów Ochoty. Plac Zawiszy. In: Ochotnik, issue 30, p. 5, 2007. (In Polish).
In 1776, prince Kazimierz Poniatowski founded two garden complexes, Na Książecem and Na Górce, which would later form the Na Książęcem Park and the Frascati Gardens, respectively. They were located to the east of Three Crosses Square, in the area of the current Książęca Street, with the Na Książęcem Park also including Elizeum, an underground rotunda with corridors and caves.Eugeniusz Szwankowski: Ulice i place Warszawy, Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1970, p. 104. (in Polish)Jerzy Kasprzycki: Korzenie miasta: Śródmieście południowe. Warsaw: Veda, 1996, p. 18. (in Polish)M. Szczepaniuk: Elizeum znów będzie miejscem schadzek. In: Życie Warszawy. Warsaw: Presspublica, 19 June 2008, . (in Polish) In the late 18th century, king Stanisław August Poniatowski founded the agricultural estate of Koszyki, located within the triangular area marked out by Koszykowa, Śniadeckich, and Noakowskiego Streets. In 1778 its ownership was granted to diplomat Pierre-Maurice Glayre, who built a small residence there known as the Koszyki Manor House, and over time a small settlement developed nearby. The estate changed ownership several times, and in 1872 it was partitioned and sold for the construction of tenement houses, with the manor house itself being demolished in 1899.Jarosław Zieliński: Atlas Dawnej Architektury Ulic i Placów Warszawy, vol. 6: Kę-Ko. Warsaw: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami, 2000, p. 157–158, 161. . (in Polish)
In 1784, on the initiative of king Stanisław August Poniatowski, the hamlet of Nowa Wieś () was established for people displaced from the village of Ujazdów due to construction of the Ujazdów Castle. The settlement consisted of 12 houses, symmetrically placed in two rows along the Royal Road between Saviour and Polytechnic Squares, on the current Nowowiejska Street.Jarosław Zieliński: Atlas dawnej architektury ulic i placów Warszawy. vol. 14. Warsaw: Biblioteka Towarzystwa Opieki nad Zabytkami, 2008, p. 11. . (In Polish). The village also owned 106 hectares of farmlands, which were very profitable for the local residents.Encyklopedia Warszawy. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1994, p. 549. . (in Polish)
Urban development