Pałac Kultury i Nauki

The place i really wanted to draw in Warsaw was the Pałac Kultury i Nauki, the Palace of Culture and Science. It is one of the most famous sights in Poland, and the country´s tallest building, yet i didn´t meet any Poles who actually liked it. A gift from our dear soviet friends, i heard someone call it. When I first saw pictures of the building i was irritated because.. wasn´t that the Lomonossov university..in Moscow?

Lev Rudnev, the building´s russian architect, built the Palace as a modified version, a continuation, of the Lomonossov project. So, understandably, many Poles saw it as yet another stalinist intrusion.

The interior has an eerie feel to it, it is generous, even luxurious in the use of space and materials but at the same time, all that dark marble and heavy columns make it feel very oppressive.

In the background, there´s a new skyscraper by Daniel Libeskind under construction, it makes the Palace look very old fashioned.

There are some more drawings (non stalinist) of Warsaw and Poland on my blog.