The “Polish Colosseum” stands abandoned. There are ideas on how to change them
Poland has many beautiful buildings. Some of them, although they look interesting and have a long past, are abandoned today. It is difficult to treat them as traditional attractions, but they are monuments. This is the case with the “Warsaw Colosseum”.
The building in question, or rather a complex of two buildings, may resemble a Roman monument. For some, this comparison will be exaggerated, still others will think that the Colosseum Sauna Arena in Czeladź, the largest sauna in the world stylized as a Roman amphitheater, or the Krzyżtopór Palace, the impressive ruins of the castle in Ujazd, are more deserving of the nickname of the “Polish Colosseum” in our country. Today, however, we would like to remind you about the Warsaw Gasworks in Wola.
A building in Warsaw like the Colosseum
The former Warsaw Gasworks at Kasprzaka Street still impresses residents and visitors alike. This place had its golden period since 1888, when the cannon was the second of its kind in the capital. It was used to produce lighting gas from coal, which was mainly used for street lighting, home heating and powering everyday appliances. In 1970, gas production from coal was discontinued and replaced with natural gas. The business finally closed in 1978.
The interior of the “Warsaw Colosseum”, although empty today, looks phenomenal. The building’s round shape, color, windows, ceiling and characteristic Neo-Romanesque decorations are impressive. It is one of the most beautiful and best-preserved industrial architecture complexes from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The facility is not open to visitors, but tourists can visit the Warsaw Gasworks Museum nearby. We will see there, among others: heavy machinery and equipment, such as gas compressors, rotary suction cups, ammonia scrubbers, underground gas pipelines, as well as a beautiful Berlin gas meter for internal gas measurements from 1899.
The “Warsaw Colosseum” is protected
Taking care of the historic gasworks buildings turned out to be crucial. In 2020, the facades of both gas collectors were restored on the initiative of the private owner, the Biernacki Family Foundation. Interestingly, as Joanna Dębska, a legal advisor representing the owner, recently reported, the investor plans to create a Technology Center in the larger building, where children will be able to learn physics through play, and a concert hall is planned to be created in the lower rotunda. It is unclear how these plans will ultimately pan out.
Today the buildings are entered in the register of monuments. We are talking about both a neo-Gothic water tower and two disused gas tanks and a chimney. In 2021, a fragment of the gasworks fence was also entered into the register of monuments.
