Library of the Krasiński Ordination in Warsaw

Brief Information

The special building on Okólnik Street was built not simply to store books: it was intended to house the library and museum collections of the Krasiński Entail. This is why the place reads as an attempt to make a family collection public and durable, with a separate home, a reading room, and rooms for the holdings.

The sharpest turn in the building’s history came after the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising. On October 25, 1944, the special collections kept here were burned from basement to attic, even though the capitulation agreement required libraries and archives to be protected. After the war, the surviving materials were transferred to the National Library, as was the restored building. It has not been used since the 1980s.

What to Notice First

On the facade, it is worth comparing three signs of one idea: the Latin motto Amor Patriae Nostra Lex, two versions of the Ślepowron coat of arms, and stucco work with soaring white eagles. This is not neutral decoration: the building presented the private library as a family undertaking and, at the same time, as a cultural duty to the country.

Two annexes change the first impression of the building. Until 1944, the southern and northern annexes contained modern apartments for representatives of government and diplomatic circles; rental income went toward maintaining the library. So alongside the ceremonial symbolism, it is worth noticing the more practical arrangement: the library lived not only from its collections, but also from the income-producing part of the building. Of the former decoration of the annexes, only some garlands on the northern annex remain, and this loss echoes the fate of the holdings more precisely than any general commemorative formula.