A funeral home in central Warsaw has been deemed so much of an eye-sore that it must be removed, just seven years after being built.
The decision is the first case of an urban development plan calling for the removal of a building in the city centre, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. Urban planners have previously on occasion called for partial demolition or reconstruction of buildings, but never for an outright removal.
The “Galaxy” funeral home stands next to the Church of St Jacob the Apostle, which towers over Narutowicz Square in Warsaw’s Ochota district. Built in 1908, the brick church combines modernist and Romanesque elements – neither of which are complemented by the box-shaped, beige funeral home.
A new development plan for the square marks a viewing corridor around the church, with a ban on objects that could “disturb the visual perception” of the area, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. The funeral home has been deemed such an obstacle, with the plan stipulating that it must be either relocated or demolished.
The building has provoked controversy ever since its construction in 2013. It is “kitsch in rustic post-Soviet form”, says Jarosław Zieliński, a historian of the city. “Erecting this next to a building as beautiful as the church of St Jacob, is like a slap on the face.”
“It is aesthetic evil violating the spatial order of Narutowicz Square,” agrees Michał Leszczyński, an architect and local resident interviewed by Gazeta Wyborcza.
One of the designers of the building was, ironically, the head of the aesthetics department in the Warsaw mayor’s office. After facing severe criticism, he resigned from that post in 2013, reports Gazeta Wyborcza, though he remains employed by the city in its planning department.
Whether the building will be demolished or somehow relocated is yet to be decided. The Galaxy funeral home was not willing to comment. A public discussion about the new spatial development plan for Narutowicz Square will be held online on 6 October.
Main image credit: Google Street View
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
