Help us rebuild the Saski Palace with your family photos
After analyzing data on the Saski Palace, Brühl Palace and townhouses on Królewska Street found in domestic and foreign archives, we believe that key photos from before 1945 are still waiting to be discovered in private collections. If you have family pictures of these buildings, share them and rebuild 300 years of Polish history with us. The jointly built photo library – or, as we call it: Fototeka – of the Saski Palace will help us recreate the western side of Piłsudski Square in Warsaw down to the smallest detail.
When creating something incredible, every memory counts
Every photo matters. Sometimes a slightly different camera angle lets us see previously unknown, important details of buildings or confirm their proportions. Your family photo does not have to be perfect. It is more than enough if it shows at least a fragment of one of the buildings to be rebuilt in Piłsudski Square. If you are unsure what this area looked like before WWII, check the photos at the Saski Palace Fototeka website. You can also take a look at our 3D model of the Saski Palace, the Brühl Palace and the townhouses on Królewska Street.
How to upload a photo?
The Fototeka website includes a simple tool to quickly upload photos. There is also a guide on how to take a good photo of an old picture to help you out. Remember that each picture shared here is an actual step in rebuilding this part of Warsaw. It is a digital brick in the last stage of the postwar reconstruction of Warsaw!
The Saski Palace in the archives
We have already completed an in-depth search of the Polish, German and Russian state archives. After months of thorough work, we have collected over 4,000 items of source materials. Among them are many building plans, maps, photographs and drawings. This data was used to create the first architectural analysis of the historic buildings, which, among others, helped determine the techniques and materials used in the construction of the west side of Piłsudski Square. In turn, the Saski Palace photo library that we are currently building together may bring previously unknown gems that will shed new light on the previous information. Thus, thanks to your photos, architects will be able to verify every detail of the reconstruction.
The Fototeka: the Saski Palace Photo Library campaign
To reach as many people as possible, we started a collaboration with the Polish creative studio Platige Image S.A. The company has many years of experience with social and educational projects. Among them are a multimedia narrative of the permanent exhibition of the Józef Piłsudski Museum or a large-scale 3D mapping for the Warsaw Museum. In addition, Platige Image is the winner of the international competition for the concept of the permanent exhibition of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw. The studio's commercial clients include such well-known brands as Netflix, Warner Bros, BBC, Sony and Ubisoft. As the studio specializes in computer animation and special effects, it is perfectly equipped to bring back the Saski Palace to life. The cooperation resulted in a TV campaign to encourage sharing private photos of the Saski Palace and the surrounding area:
Heroes of the Saski Palace Fototeka
In addition, the collaboration with Platige Image also resulted in three longer films with testimonials. Each of the videos relate in a different way to the history of the Saski Palace and its surroundings. In the first one we meet Mariusz Zając - a photographer who discovered his passion for restoring color to historic photos.
The second video starrs Małgorzata Kożuchowska. The popular Polish actress mentions a few episodes of the history of the Saski Palace in Piłsudski Square. She also shares her own perspective on Piłsudski Square. She used to pass the area many times on her way to the Grand Theater, unaware of its historical context. Only recently did she learn how valuable a part of Polish history was lost with the destruction of the palace.
The last film shows behind-the-scenes footage of the process of rebuilding of the Saski and Brühl palaces and the townhouses. Two architects from the Pałac Saski company explain the process of restoring monuments based on a mosaic of historical data. They also reveal some of the artifacts preserved from the Brühl Palace. Some of these objects were uncovered recently, during the latest archaeological excavation at the site of the palace.
