Architecture of Zamość

Zamość is one of the cities in Poland that distinguishes the unique architectural and urban layout of the Old Town with a complex of buildings from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Monuments in the Old Town are also completed by a few objects located in other parts of the city.

Old Town

Physiognomy and spatial layout
The characteristic spatial layout of the Zamosc Old Town is evidenced by the line of the old walls with seven bastions and the layout of the streets within the former fortress, intersecting at right angles. Some changes have taken place since the founding of the city, which included mainly buildings (especially during the partition period, when many of them were deprived of rich decorations, and some even dismantled) and fragments of fortifications, especially bastions (of which only one remained) and other elements of fortifications of the Zamość fortress. Nevertheless, the layout of the city has survived to this day practically unchanged. It is the main attraction for urban planners and architects visiting Zamość, as it is an example of the implementation of the ideal city.

The first “master in Zamość” Jan Zamoyski commissioned the design of the city to architect Bernardo Morando, who in the elaborated project referred to the anthropomorphic concept. The main axes of this system are one of the busiest streets of the Zamość Old Town: Grodzka Street on the east-west line (the “spine” of the city), running through the Great Market Square (“heart”) towards the former palace (“head” of the city) and Solna and B. Moranda on the north-south line (his “arms”), where there are three markets, and outside the main Market Square are: Salt Market (north) with irregular sides, and Water Market(to the south of the Great Market Square), which are the “internal organs” of the city. Bastions are his “hands” and “legs” for defense.

In addition to the markets, the remaining squares are located in the northern part of the M. Stefanidesa Square and Freedom Square in the eastern part (in the place of the demolished Franciscan monastery) and a small square of J. Jaroszewicz near the church of St. Catherine and the building of the former academy.

In recent years, many of the streets of the Old Town have been renovated and changed into footpaths, without separate pavements (including streets: Grodzka, Kolegiacka, B. Moranda), and subsequent repairs are underway. Some are intended only for pedestrian traffic (Grodzka, Ratuszowa, fragments of streets: I. Pereca, Ormiańska, Solna, S. Staszica).

The buildings of the Old Town are dominated by tenements, mainly two-, three-storey (though not only) from different periods.

The density of development is noticeably greater in its eastern part, where it is more compact, and here the majority of dwellings are concentrated, the number of which is currently decreasing, which is related to the functions of this part of the city, especially services including tourism and culture. Clearly thinner, and at the same time larger buildings cover the western and southern parts of the Old Town, where there is more space between the buildings, which can be seen in such buildings as the former palace, former academy, cathedral, former collegiate hospital or arsenal. Among the larger buildings that stand out from the rest of the buildings, there are also churches located closer to the line of the old walls, i.e. on the periphery of a compact building.

Exceptions to the Old Town buildings that did not resemble the sights and somehow “storm” the harmony among buildings such as significantly larger than the surrounding hotel “Renaissance” built on the site of the former Armenian church at the turn of the 60s and 70s of the twentieth in.; a building at the corner of Grodzka and Kolegiacka Streets or the office of the Labor Office at Plac Wolności, connected to the west with a higher building (so-called “Centrala”).

In 1992, the Zamość Old Town, constituting an example of Renaissance urban architecture, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

26 June 2004 at the Second Forum of Polish Cities and Sites of UNESCO city and objects in Poland, located on the UNESCO World Heritage Site, to provide information, and promote cooperation focused on the League of Polish Cities and Sites of UNESCO. The headquarters of the League was Toruń, and its first (and current) president – Zamosc’s president Marcin Zamoyski.

Monuments
Some of the many monuments entered in the register and municipal records:

Secular buildings
Town Hall at the Great Market Square – a symbol of the city, one of the most valuable monuments, mannerist – baroque, with fan-shaped stairs and a 52-meter tower, connected to the north with a lower outbuilding annexed in the 19th century (initially a prison with an entrance from the Salt Market Square);
tenements with arcades at the Great Market Square, including:
Armenian tenements (17th c.) with attics (northern frontage of the Great Market Square);
tenement houses: Morandowska II, Szczebrzeska and Turobińska from the beginning of the 17th century (the southern frontage of the Great Market Square – S. Staszica Street);
tenement house. Kazimierz, 17th century (eastern frontage of the Great Market Square);
Linkowska tenement, second half of the 17th century (western frontage of the Great Market Square);
tenements with arcades at Solna Market (northern frontage), among others the house of Rabin from the mid-17th century;
a tenement at the corner of Kolegiacka St. and S. Staszica with attics;
townhouses with arcades at ul. Armenian, outside the frontage of the Great Market Square (on the north side);
former Zamoyski Palace (Akademicka Street) – the seat of Zamoyski’s ordinance, the first building, whose construction was begun in 1579, rebuilt many times, in XIX century transformed into a military hospital during the partitions, which lost its unique appearance (now the building with courts) and communal flats);
former Zamojska Academy – one of the first Polish universities, XVII century, rebuilt in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (currently high school and college);
Arsenal (Zamkowa St.) – former armory, first half XVII century;
Central House, so-called “Centralka” (S. Żeromskiego St. / Bazyliańska St.) – Art Nouveau, beginning of the 19th century Twentieth century, name from the former “Centralny” hotel;
“Generałówka” (T. Kościuszki Street) – a neo – renaissance building from the second half Nineteenth century (next to the post office).

Churches and former sacral buildings
historic churches:
cathedral Resurrection and Saint. Thomas the Apostle – former collegiate, Renaissance basilica (according to the old nomenclature of the so-called zero class) from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, with a rich interior (including crypts with Zamoyski coffins and ashes under the nave) and a free-standing belfry (currently also the function of a lookout tower) with three bells (Jan, Wawrzyniec and Tomasz);
rector church St. Catherine (L. Zamenhof St. / Jan Jaroszewicz Square) – baroque, second half XVII century;
Franciscan church. Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (S. Staszica Street – Wolności Square) – the largest church in the Old Town in Zamość, baroque, half XVII century;
church St. Mikołaja (street T. Kościuszki / Bazyliańska St.) – former Greek Catholic church of the OO. Bazylianów, Renaissance – Baroque, XVII century;
Infurajka – by the cathedral (Kolegiacka street), with a baroque portal, XVI / XVII centuries (the Sacred Museum of the Zamość Cathedral);
former Seminary (Akademicka Street) – baroque, XVII century, currently the seat of a university;
former church and monastery of the Poor Clares (church – baroque, end of the 17th century, monastery – second half of the 18th century) (T. Kościuszki St.), currently the seat of a music school;
a former monastery and a bonifratri hospital (S. Staszica St. / Grecka St.) – formerly a monastery, later a “Pod Karpi” inn, late baroque, XVII / XVIII centuries;
former collegiate hospital (T. Kościuszki Street) – 18th century, currently the Post Office;
the so-called. “Presbytery” (st. Academic) – The curates the former with the Collegiate XVII. The rebuilt in XVIII in.

Fortress Zamość
Among the remains of the fortress fortifications in Zamość are:

bastion VII (street: W. Łukasińskiego) – the only surviving of seven bastions, which were created in the sixteenth century, in the style of a new-Italian with ears;
two retrenchments (ul. W. Łukasińskiego) – formed by upgrading Fortress Zamość the time of the partitions; And a half. Nineteenth century;
a water gate with a poterna (southern line of walls, B. Moranda street);
a playpen in the city park near the old Brama Lubelska, the only one preserved;
a powder magazine near the Arsenal (Zamkowa St.);
Kazamata near the church of St. Mikołaja (Bazylińska Street);
Rotunda Zamojska – an important, historic building south of the Old Town, associated m.in. with the expansion of the fortress in the 19th century, where the museum is now located;
gateway:
old Lublin Gate (Akademicka Street / Królowej Jadwigi Street) – the first gate of Zamość, walled most probably at the beginning of the 17th century to commemorate the introduction by the founder of the city, Jan Zamoyski, a prisoner of war at Byczyna (Archduke of Austria Maksymilian), but also to strengthening the fortress of that time, the end of the 16th century;
the new Lublin Gate (W. Łukasińskiego Street) – it was erected during the modernization of the Zamość Fortress during the partitions; And a half. Nineteenth century;
the old Lwowska Gate (street: W. Łukasińskiego / Partyzantów St.) – mannerist, late 16th century;
the new Lwowska Gate (Okopowa St. / Partyzantów St.) – also built during the modernization of the Zamość Fortress during the partitions, and finally walled up (with a further extension added later); And a half. Nineteenth century;
Szczebrzeska Gate (Szczebrzeska Street) – from the beginning of Seventeenth century, rebuilt in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, eventually walled up.

Buildings of the former Jewish population
The monuments also include buildings characteristic of the Jewish population, which occupied the north-eastern part of Zamość, hence here are such objects as:

synagogue (L. Zamenhofa St. / Bazyliańska St.) – late Renaissance, first half XVII century;
kahal house (L. Zamenhofa street) – next to the synagogue, XVII century;
former mikvah (L. Zamenhof St.) – 18th century, rebuilt in the second half Nineteenth century;
“Rabin’s House” (house at Salt Market Square);
former house of prayer at ul. I. Pereca.
former house of prayer at ul. Daniłowski.
butchers at the corner of ul. G. Daniłowski and pl. M. Stefanides.
Other buildings outside the list of monuments:

house of prayer on the corner of ul. G. Daniłowski and pl. M. Stefanides.

Outside of the Old Town
Apart from the Old Town, there are not too many historic buildings, more magnificent than the others, but they are especially buildings on the main streets, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when after the liquidation of the fortress the city was given the opportunity to develop and expand on new areas.

Among them, there are:
former synagogue in the New Town from the 2nd half XIX century – ul. Commune 32;
office building of former meat factories, socialist realist, 1951 – 54 – ul. J. Kiliński 75
classicistic building of the former post office from 1835 (the first brick building in Nowa Osada, currently the Education Board) – ul. Lwowska 19 (the Słoneczny Stok estate);
administrative building of the former “Monopol” spirit factory, 1896 – 98 – ul. Orla 2
building of the former social insurance (currently a clinic) from the 1930s – ul. Partyzantów 5;
building of the former bank (later District Court) from the 1920s – ul. Partisans 10;
building of the former municipal bathhouse from 1928 (currently bank) – ul. Partyzantów 12;
a large tenement house from the 1930s – ul. Partisans 21;
the only wooden water tower from the late 19th century preserved in the city – ul. Partyzantów 72;
the oldest building in the city hospital, from 1885 – 87 – ul. Peowiaków 1;
a small building, so-called “Belwederek”, from 1901 – ul. Peowiaków 7;
parish cemetery on Peowiaków St. with a neo-gothic chapel (from 1917), the gravedigger’s house and tree stand;
Garrison Club building at the military unit, socialist realist, 1951 – 53 – ul. J. Piłsudskiego 36, and selected buildings in the Koszar;
main building of the railway station, 1916 – 17, with later reconstruction – ul. Szczebrzeska 11
selected buildings of the High School Complex No. 5, from the 1920s – ul. Szczebrzeska 102;
small villa-palace buildings at ul. G. Orlicz-Dreszera (People’s Partisans).
The characteristic buildings from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially wooden ones, can still be seen in the streets of the Wiśniowa housing estate near the Old Town, where there are, among others, small buildings typical of suburbs.

Monuments
Old Town
a statue of Jan Zamoyski – in front of the former Zamoyski Palace;
a monument to John Paul II – at the cathedral;
monument to Children of the Zamość region – ul. Akademicka, at the Old Lublin Gate;
Monument to Soldiers of the Home Army – ul. Partisans, behind Bastion VII;
statue of the Peasant Battalions – ul. Partyzantów, opposite the monument of Home Army soldiers;
memorial-cross “Katyn 1940” – near the church of St. Catherine;
monument to King David the Psalmist – ul. W. Łukasiński, near the Nowa Brama Lubelska.

Other
monument-pope Stanisław Staszic – ul. J. Piłsudskiego (City Park);
monument to the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II – ul. J. Piłsudski (Planty);
statue of John Paul II – at the church of Our Lady Queen of Poland;
monument to Soviet prisoners of war – ul. Silesia;
monument to the Memory of the Victims of Fascism, “Anioł Śmierci” – ul. J. Piłsudskiego / ul. S. Okrzei;
a monument to Soviet Soldiers – ul. Szwedzka / ul. Poplar;
monument to the Jews of Zamość (lapidarium) – ul. Straight.

Source from Wikipedia