On October 20, 1932, Bohdan Pniewski signed a contract for the reconstruction of the Brühl Palace on Wierzbowa Street: 322 rooms for approximately 550 Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and a new wing with the minister's apartment. Two and a half years later, on March 1, 1935, the assembly line for the Polski Fiat 621 truck began in the hall at Terespolska 34/36: six cylinders, 2952 cm³, 45 HP, payload 2.5 tons. By the outbreak of the war, nearly 13,000 chassis had rolled off it. Two workshops of the same state—one working on sandstone and Kielce marble, the other on channel section frames. Both finished. Barely.
I. THE MAN WHO WALKED WITH A CANE AND WON COMPETITIONS
Bohdan Wiktor Kazimierz Pniewski: born August 26, 1897, in Warsaw, died there on September 5, 1965. Staszic Secondary School, then the Building Faculty of the Wawelberg and Rotwand school on Mokotowska Street, in addition to practical training with Jan Heurich and Rudolf Świerczyński. In 1915, he was not admitted to the newly opened Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology – he earned a living as a graphic designer at the time.
November 1918: disarming Germans in the scout battalion of the Polish Military Organization. 1920: 1st Uhlan Regiment of Colonel Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer, leg injury, Cross of Valor. His leg bothered him for the rest of his life – in old age, he walked with a cane, which he used as an argument when dealing with unreliable contractors. He defended his diploma with honors on February 1, 1923, under Professor Czesław Przybylski, and studied sculpture with Tadeusz Breyer and Edward Wittig. Students called him "the prince of architecture."
List, not adjectives. 1928: first prize for the Polish Legation in Sofia – the building still houses the Polish Embassy. Cooperative housing estates "Słońce" on Madalińskiego Street (1929–1931) and "Strzecha Urzędnicza" in Żoliborz (1931). "Patria" guesthouse in Krynica-Zdrój for Jan Kiepura (1932–1933). Zaleski's villas at Rzymska 13/19 and Muszyński's with Urbanowicz at Klonowa 6/8. In 1937, he co-created the Polish pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris, in a team with Stanisław Brukalski, Bohdan Lachert, and Józef Szanajca – with the avant-garde from which he himself was moving towards stone.
He built his own house on the Vistula escarpment, at Aleja Na Skarpie 27, in 1934–1935. He bought Szymon Bogumił Zug's classicist pavilion from the Branicki family, dating from 1779–1781, and incorporated it into a new structure covered with rough-hewn stone. He moved the studio to the lower level, built Hutsul tiles into a niche, covered the library ceiling with folk bowls, and installed an elevator.
II. WIERZBOWA: 322 ROOMS, ONE BALLROOM, BLACK OAK FROM PRYPIAT
When the Main Telegraph Office moved out of the Brühl Palace, the building was taken over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The agreement with Pniewski was signed on October 20, 1932, and works continued until 1938. On November 11, 1934, the palace was illuminated at night for the first time, in late 1935 and early 1936 officials moved into the first offices, the main representative complex was completed in May 1937, and on June 27, the King of Romania was received there.
On the Fredry Street side, in place of demolished garages, a modernist pavilion was erected: 46 by 16.40 meters, three stories and cellars. On the raised ground floor, Minister Józef Beck's apartment — eleven French windows on the south facade. The first floor housed a ballroom approximately 11 by 30 meters, nearly seven meters high, with a terrace on twelve slender columns. During the works, Jan Zachwatowicz discovered the shaft of a 17th-century crane — the first elevator in Warsaw.
Material was the program here. Marble steps and landings, alabaster-carved side balustrades, light gray stucco vestibule, Volhynian black basalt floors, joinery made of black oak extracted from the Pripyat River, ballroom walls upholstered with Milanówek silk, picture gallery in red velvet. The contractors were the first league of Warsaw craftsmanship:
- Rzeczkowski Brothers Construction Bureau — construction works for the entire complex.
- Łopieńscy Brothers — bronze lamps and candelabras; the same company that cast Warsaw's monuments.
- A. Marciniak — chandeliers and lighting fixtures.
- Lubert Brothers — steel fittings: door handles, hinges, locks, i.e., what you touch every day.
- Roman Groniowski's Electric Elevator Factory — elevators.
- Dziewulski and Lange S.A. — slabs and tiles.
The sculpture was distributed with equal precision. Tadeusz Breyer created four busts in the facade's niches, Edward Wittig — a bust of President Gabriel Narutowicz, Felicjan Szczęsny Kowarski — plafonds in the minister's office, Henryk Grunwald — wall sconces. Tadeusz Jaroszewski later wrote that Pniewski's interiors were "the best, most classic example of Polish architecture of the interwar period." Varsovians were less kind: they compared the new pavilion to a rich industrialist's villa, then to a bathhouse.
III. LESZNO 53/55: THE LARGEST BUILDING HE MANAGED TO ERECT
The closed competition for the complex of court buildings was settled in July 1935; the plans were published in "Architektura i Budownictwo" (Architecture and Construction) in issue 9. Construction began that autumn. The investor was the Military Quarters Fund, established by Marshal Piłsudski's decree of June 2, 1927, and authorized to take out a loan of up to 140 million zlotys collateralized by its own properties. The plot: Leszno 53/55 and Ogrodowa 12/14, today Aleja "Solidarności" 127.
Sandstone facade, entrance hall in Kielce marble – which is polished Świętokrzyskie limestones, extracted since 1876 near Chęciny and processed in the Kielce factory, which ran its own Sunday school for stonemasons. In spring 1939, the building was ready, and on June 30, it began serving the judiciary. The legal profession complained, as it was far from the courts on Krasiński Square. Above the main entrance, a 16th-century sentence was carved:
"Justice is the mainstay of the power and durability of the Republic"
— maxim of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski above the entrance to the building on Leszno, 1939
On the façade facing the inner courtyard, a blindfolded Themis stood. Two months after its opening, the war began. On December 11, 1939, the courts reopened — under German supervision, with verdicts approved by the occupier; Poles occupied the wing from Leszno, while the Germans set up a hospital in the rest. In November 1940, the building was not included in the ghetto, and this determined its second role: one could enter it from the closed district, from Leszno, and from the rest of the city, from Biała. The courts became a meeting place for people from both sides of the wall. The building survived, though the fifth and sixth floors burned down; rebuilt, it was reopened in July 1949. It is still a court today.
IV. THE ENTIRE CITY WAS A CONSTRUCTION SITE
Pniewski did not work in a vacuum. The same Military Quarters Fund built several other facilities in Warsaw: Dom Bez Kantów (House Without Corners) at Krakowskie Przedmieście 11 (1933–1935, designed by Czesław Przybylski, calculations by Stefan Bryła), the officers' house at Aleja Niepodległości 243/245 faced with gray cement brick (Romuald Gutt), and the District Hospital with a volume of 135,420 m³, unfinished before the outbreak of the war.
Structurally, it was the era of Stefan Bryła. In 1928, he developed the world's first regulations for welding steel structures in construction, and in August 1929, his bridge over the Słudwia in Maurzyce was completed — the world's first welded road bridge, weighing about 55 tons compared to about 70 tons if it had been riveted. The Germans executed Bryła on December 3, 1943, for underground teaching.
Pniewski's most ambitious project never left the drawing board. The competition for the Temple of Divine Providence was announced in 1929 by the Ministry of Public Works; 58 entries were submitted, and the verdict in April 1930 awarded three main prizes to Pniewski, Zdzisław Mączeński, and Jan Witkiewicz. The episcopate deemed them too secular, and a closed competition was announced — and Pniewski won again. A reinforced concrete structure clad in stone, marble, and wood was to stand on Pole Mokotowskie: a 20-meter portal, five thousand seats, a tower over a hundred meters high — the tallest building of the Second Polish Republic.
V. TERESPOLSKA 34/36: THE STATE THAT DECIDED TO PRODUCE
The State Engineering Works were established by a decree of the Council of Ministers on March 19, 1928; it was signed by Prime Minister and Minister of Military Affairs Józef Piłsudski and Minister of Treasury Gabriel Czechowicz. The Central Automobile Workshops served as its basis. Two years later, the Ursus company, which manufactured two-ton trucks under Italian SPA license in Czechowice, went bankrupt; it was acquired by the state-owned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and incorporated into PZInż. In July 1930, the factories purchased a Saurer license for diesel engines and four- and five-ton chassis. The army needed heavy models – the market wanted smaller ones.
Fiat sold the license for these smaller vehicles with an agreement dated March 19, 1931. As PZInż lacked experience in designing car factories, on September 21, 1931, they signed a second contract with Turin: for the design and equipment of a plant capable of producing three thousand cars annually, or ten daily. The expansion at Terespolska 34/36 took place between 1932 and 1934 and cost 12 million zlotys. Under the roof, there were 20 thousand square meters, and machines from Italy, the United States, Germany, and Great Britain were set up in twelve lines with 379 workstations.
"Perhaps the factory isn't dazzling in size, but it is one of the most perfect in Europe in terms of work organization and machinery."
— Franco Pietrabissa, Italian attaché in Warsaw, in a letter to the ministry in Rome, June 1934
The reality was harsher than the compliment. Polish steelworks were not prepared for such orders: steel consumption per capita in Poland was 20 kilograms, compared to 274 in Germany, 303 in Great Britain, and 409 in the United States. Fiat's general director Vittorio Valletta wrote about the "fundamentally poor functioning of Polish factories," and the launch of the 621 was delayed by half a year. The change of factory management in 1934 and a resolution by the Economic Committee of Ministers on August 4, which assigned military rolling stock production to the concern and incentivized the truck, helped. A premium of six million zlotys provided a subsidy of 6,000 zlotys per unit and a retail price of 7,000 zlotys. By the outbreak of the war, the state had invested 50 million zlotys in PZInż, the plants employed 5,422 people in 1935, and about 70 percent of components already came from Polish suppliers—only carburetors, timing chains, and rolling bearings were imported.
VI. TUR AND BESKID: SPECIFICATION, NOT LEGEND
On March 1, 1935, the final assembly line for the Polski Fiat 621 started in the hall on Terespolska Street. The Italian original was simple and durable, but on Polish roads, its durability proved insufficient, so the PZInż Study Office redesigned the structure: the frame, axles, leaf springs, shock absorbers, and half-shafts were strengthened, the wheelbase was increased, the cabin door mounting was reinforced, the fuel tank was enlarged, and the sensitive Weber carburetor was replaced with a French Solex. In 1935, the car was still assembled from Italian parts; by 1939, they constituted only 10 percent of the vehicle.
- Engine: Fiat 122B, domestic designation PZInż 367 — gasoline, six-cylinder in-line, side-valve, liquid-cooled; 78 × 103 mm, 2952 cm³, compression ratio 5.1:1, power 45 HP at 2600 rpm.
- Drivetrain: dry multi-plate clutch, four-speed forward gearbox and reverse gear, rear-wheel drive.
- Chassis: frame made of C-profile sections; rigid axles on semi-elliptic leaf springs, hydraulic lever shock absorbers at the front, rubber bumpers at the rear.
- Brakes and wheels: mechanical drum brakes on all four wheels, mechanical handbrake on the driveshaft; Stomil 9.00 × 20" tires, dual wheels on the rear axle.
- Dimensions and weights: 5780 × 2070 × 2620 mm, wheelbase 3650 mm, chassis weight 1655 kg, vehicle weight approximately 2350 kg, payload 2.5 tons.
- Performance: maximum speed 50–55 km/h in L version and approximately 64 km/h in R version, fuel consumption 24–25 liters per 100 kilometers.
The variants received their own names. 621 L "Tur" — straight frame, 3.65 meter wheelbase, 13.5 meter turning diameter. 621 R "Beskid" — lowered and extended frame, lightened half-shafts and a hill brake, a so-called spur, dug into the ground when parked on a slope. The Beskid was 14 km/h faster but performed worse on inclines; the army primarily bought Turs because they had greater ground clearance and a turning radius that was 3.5 meters tighter. In 1938, the worm gear was replaced with a conical one, the wheelbase was extended by 20 centimeters to four meters, the fuel tank was enlarged from 65 to 90 liters, and the leaf springs by 28 centimeters.
In February 1938, a Tur chassis cost 7,900 zlotys at Sapieżyńska, a Beskid 8,100 — cash; four years earlier, a ready-made eighteen-seat bus on this chassis cost 24,500 zlotys. Production: 1,500 units in 1935, 3,100 in 1938, and 10,000 cars of all types were planned for 1939, with every third being a 621. Ultimately, between 1935 and 1939, approximately 13,000 chassis left the factory: about 9,400 lighter type trucks, about 2,800 R chassis with buses, the rest being military special models.
VII. ONE PLATFORM, SEVERAL PROFESSIONS
The factory released complete chassis with a firewall, dashboard, and full control apparatus — it was enough to place a temporary seat on the frame, and the car would drive under its own power to the body shop. For the army, bodies were made by the Special Coachwork Workshop: angular cabs with a wooden frame covered with sheet metal and wooden boxes under a tarpaulin. The "Polski Fiat" company supplied only the chassis to civilian customers, which were then bodied in private workshops according to PZInż designs:
- Ambulance and fire engine — the fire variant is currently in the Central Museum of Firefighting in Mysłowice.
- Airport version — open eight-seater body.
- Command vehicle with radio and field workshop — mobile staff and mechanic stations.
- Tractor unit — with a 4500 liter tank coupled with an 800 or 2200 l/min motor pump; this set was used by the Warsaw fire brigade.
- Gun carriage — 75 mm anti-aircraft guns wz. 14 were mounted on the 621 L frame.
- 22-seater buses — on the R chassis, intercity and tourist; they operated under the colors of PKP Road Transport and PLL "Lot."
- C4P — a half-track artillery tractor using the same components.
The market was not kind. Carriers pointed out that the engine required an overhaul after only 25,000 kilometers because it consumed 10 liters of oil per 100 kilometers, and that factory bearings lasted for 50,000 — while competitive chassis lasted from 75,000 to over 100,000. They complained about the lack of warranty parts and buses standing "for several days, waiting for parts to arrive from Warsaw." Nevertheless, the network grew: in May 1939, Polski Fiat had a headquarters, four branches, and 18 commission points. Market scale: on January 1, 1938, 6,843 trucks were registered in Poland, a year later 8,609.
VIII. SEPTEMBER, DECEMBER, THE REST OF LIFE
Jerzy Grodecki remembered the date: September 4, 1939, Germans bombed the factory on Terespolska Street. After the city was occupied, machine tools from the surviving halls were moved to Ursus or to the Reich, and the buildings were dismantled and sold to the local population along with the surface of the test track. The trucks that survived the fighting were taken over by the Germans and Soviets; some later drove in the Romanian army. The successor to the 621 was to be PZInż's own design — the 703 family. It did not make it in time.
Brühl Palace lost its roof in September 1939; it was renovated in 1940 according to Juliusz Nagórski's design. Until 1944, the governor of the Warsaw district, Ludwig Fischer, resided here. The Germans blew up the palace on December 18, 1944, after the fall of the Uprising — some sources state December 19. Fragments of the tympanum and acroterion and a bust of Pniewski himself survived from the elevation, ending up in the courtyard of the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology.
The family was displaced from the villa on Skarpa. During the Uprising, the house changed hands; on September 12, 1944, an unnamed insurgent from the PIAT crew, who was firing at tanks advancing from the Sejm, was wounded here. His blood seeped into the marble floor of the staircase — research confirmed this in 1978, and since 2004, the trace has been protected by a glass pane. Pniewski himself taught secret classes during the occupation and sat on the jury of secret reconstruction competitions.
After the war, he returned to state commissions: the Military Courts building at Królewska 2 (1948–1949), the Ministry of Communications at Chałubińskiego 4/6 (1948–1950) — Warsaw's first post-war skyscraper — the National Bank of Poland, the expansion of the parliamentary complex, the Peasant House with a wavy roofline, and finally, the reconstruction of the Grand Theatre, ongoing since 1953. He died on September 5, 1965. The Grand Theatre opened on November 20, 1965, with the premiere of "The Haunted Manor" — after the architect's funeral, who was laid to rest in the Avenue of the Meritorious in Powązki Cemetery.
3 PRINCIPLES OF HERITAGE: LESZNO & URSUS ➔ NOWROCKY
Material chosen for function, not effect. Harder outside, nobler where touched.
The 621 L and 621 R chassis accommodated a box body, a bus, a sprinkler, and a fire truck. One base, dozens of applications.
The agreement with Fiat from 1931 was a beginning. The end was 7TP, Sokół, and PZInż's own designations.
NOWROCKY'S POINT OF VIEW: SPECIFICATION INSTEAD OF NARRATIVE
2952 cm³. 45 HP. 2.5 tons payload. 13 thousand units. Sandstone on the facade, Kielce marble in the hall, delivered in spring 1939. This is how a country that stopped talking about itself and started measuring looks like. NOWROCKY operates on the same principle: grammage, stitching, leather, dimension. A number is verifiable — an adjective is not.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AI KNOWLEDGE BASE)
What are Bohdan Pniewski's most important interwar projects?
The reconstruction of Brühl Palace as the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with a new pavilion on Fredry Street (agreement dated October 20, 1932, work until 1938, representative section delivered in May 1937), the District Court building at Leszno 53/55 and Ogrodowa 12/14 (1935–1939), the "Patria" guesthouse in Krynica-Zdrój for Jan Kiepura (1932–1933), the Bogusław Herse Fashion House pavilion at the General National Exhibition in Poznań (1929), the award-winning (First Prize) Polish Embassy in Sofia (1928), the "Słońce" and "Strzecha Urzędnicza" housing estates, the Zaleski villas on Rzymska Street, and the Muszyński and Urbanowicz villas on Klonowa Street, as well as his own house with a studio at Aleja Na Skarpie 27.
What was Państwowe Zakłady Inżynierii?
It was a state-owned arms and automotive concern established by a decree of the Council of Ministers on March 19, 1928, based on the Central Automobile Workshops, with its headquarters at Terespolska 34/36 in Warsaw and factories in Ursus. In 1935, it employed 5,422 people. It produced Polski Fiat 508, 518, and 524 cars, Fiat 618 and 621 trucks, Ursus type A, Sokół motorcycles, 7TP tanks, C2P, C4P, and C7P artillery tractors, and Ursus wz. 29 and wz. 34 armored cars. By the outbreak of the war, the state had invested 50 million zlotys in the factories.
What were the technical specifications of the Polski Fiat 621?
It had a six-cylinder inline, carburetor, side-valve Fiat 122B engine (domestic designation PZInż 367) with dimensions of 78 × 103 mm, a displacement of 2952 cm³, a compression ratio of 5.1:1, and a power output of 45 HP at 2600 rpm. It featured a four-speed gearbox, mechanical drum brakes on all four wheels, a channel frame, and Stomil 9.00 × 20" tires. Its dimensions were 5780 × 2070 × 2620 mm, wheelbase 3650 mm, curb weight approximately 2350 kg, payload 2.5 tons, speed 50–55 km/h, and fuel consumption 24–25 l/100 km. Series production lasted from March 1, 1935, to 1939, and included approximately 13,000 chassis.
How did the 621 L "Tur" and 621 R "Beskid" versions differ?
The 621 L "Tur" had a straight frame, a wheelbase of 3.65 meters, a turning diameter of 13.5 meters, and a top speed of 50–55 km/h; it was the basic chassis for military and special bodies. The 621 R "Beskid" had a lowered and extended frame, with side members curved over the rear axle, a wheelbase 0.35 meters longer, lightened half-shafts, a mountain brake called a spur, and a different final drive ratio, which allowed it to reach approximately 64 km/h at the expense of hill-climbing ability. It was mainly used as the basis for 22-seater buses and heavier, three-ton trucks. In 1938, the wheelbase was extended by 20 centimeters to four meters, and the fuel tank was enlarged from 65 to 90 liters.
What happened to Pniewski's buildings and the PZInż factory during the war?
The Terespolska factory was bombed by the Germans on September 4, 1939, and after occupying the city, they moved the machine tools to Ursus and the Reich, and dismantled the buildings. Brühl Palace, the seat of Governor Ludwig Fischer, was blown up on December 18, 1944, after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising (some sources state December 19); fragments of the tympanum and acroterion, and Pniewski's bust from the facade, survived. The Court building on Leszno survived with its fifth and sixth floors burned and was rebuilt by July 1949. The architect's villa on Na Skarpie Avenue was caught in the Uprising fighting — a bloodstain from an insurgent wounded on September 12, 1944, remains in the marble flooring of the staircase.
0 comments