Warsaw's Finnish houses are primarily associated with Jazdow - a green oasis of rurality in downtown Warsaw. Partly inhabited and partly devoted to social and cultural activities, they are one of the favorite places on the alternative map of Warsaw. Two Finnish houses have also survived in Pole Mokotowskie park, one of which was home to Ryszard Kapuscinski. The city council has just allocated funds for their renovation.
2 million for renovation
photo: Wikimedia Commons
Capital city councilors have awarded 2 million zlotys for the general renovation of two Finnish houses, which are the only survivors of the colony located in Warsaw's Pole Mokotowskie Park. Donated to Warsaw in 1945 by the Soviet Union, they were among the first new buildings in a city recovering from wartime destruction. The largest settlement of houses has been preserved in Jazdow. It is there that student and neighborhood initiatives and a community garden are active. Less fortunate was the Mokotow estate. The only two houses that survived were not in use and had been falling into disrepair for years. Thelast Finnish houses are the remnants of 160 similar cottages, of which a very small part survives, now under conservation protection.
renovation and new function
Construction of cottages in Jazdów, 1945
photo: Wikimedia Commons
The decision to renovate the cottages was made in 2016. It was then that public consultations were held on plans to modernize the entire park. In the assumptions of the city authorities, they are to become a place of cultural and social activity, referring to the Polish school of reportage. Also planned for the cottages are international programs for female writers and writers of literature. Complementing the functions to be found in the cottages themselves will be a community garden and an outdoor stage in their immediate vicinity.
Kapuscinski House
photo: Wikimedia Commons
Thecenter for reportage in Pole Mokotowskie is not an accidental location. One of the two surviving houses was where Ryszard Kapuscinski lived immediately after the war. The writer's youthful years spent there are commemorated by a park path named after him.
We would like, as heiresses, to express our warm and enthusiastic support for the initiative of the City Council and the Mayor of Warsaw. We declare our willingness to cooperate in the revitalization of the place with which Ryszard Kapuscinski was associated for many years, and to which he always gladly returned.
Written by daughter Rene Maisner and wife Alicja Kapuścińska
