Warsaw. After the court’s ruling, they were no longer to be considered monuments. The conservator restored their protection

Professor Jakub Lewicki, Masovian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments, initiated proceedings to enter the buildings at 3 Mysia Street and the villa at 10 Pogonowskiego Street in Warsaw into the register of monuments.

This was announced on social media.

“Thanks to this decision, objects of important historical value are now subject to conservation protection. Previously, by the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court, they were removed from the Municipal Register of Monuments. They were deprived of protection. Thanks to the initiated procedure, all work on them requires approval with the MWKZ. Protected is, also removed from the GEZ, the Relax cinema building at Złota Street. In 2019, it was entered into the register of monuments,” the entry states. – “Prof. Lewicki announces the commencement of further entries regarding deletions from GEZ” – added

The judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court paved the way for further such judgments, which may result in the destruction or transformation of facilities.

The capital’s conservator of monuments, Michał Krasucki, explained that it all started in May, when the Constitutional Tribunal found that the provisions of the Act on the Protection of Monuments, based on which presidents, mayors and commune heads include objects in the municipal register of monuments, violate the provisions of the Constitution. The procedure specified in the Act, which has been used so far, did not ensure the protection of owners’ rights.

– The point is that the procedure of entry into GEZ is unconstitutional. Precisely, the provisions on the protection of monuments are inappropriate because they do not guarantee owners sufficient participation in the entire process. Because this is not a proceeding, but a technical, administrative activity – noted Michał Krasucki in an interview with PAP.

The capital conservator said after the verdict that he was afraid that this was only the beginning of the avalanche. – This year, since May, we have had about 20 such cases, and there will probably be a few more by the end of the year. Some of them will already be in the Supreme Administrative Court, so judgments will be issued this year. The question is how many such trials there will be next year, he emphasized. The case concerns various facilities, e.g. the Zatrasie housing estate or the transformer station at Mińska Street – he specified.

The problem concerns objects currently included in the GEZ, but which are not in the provincial register or the register of monuments. When asked about the scale of the phenomenon, the capital conservator said that there are about 8,000 such objects in Warsaw.

– Of course, some of them are protected by the development plan, and in some cases the owners do not want to dismantle them or do anything with them. So this is about a section, but we’re potentially talking about eight thousand objects. On a national scale, it is probably several dozen or even several hundred thousand, he explained.

He added that the most risky cases will be those where the owners want to rebuild or demolish the buildings and then go to court.

He said that a temporary solution, which is also indicated by the Ministry of Culture, may be to enter these objects in the register of monuments, in the provincial register, and then the city will automatically include them in the GEZ. However, these are temporary solutions. This is what was used in the first three buildings.

– Urgent changes to the regulations are necessary – he emphasized.

The capital conservator stated that specific statutory proposals have already been prepared on the initiative of the capital city. Warsaw and among city conservators of monuments (including from Szczecin, Poznań, Kraków, Łódź, Sopot, Lublin, Żory, Racibórz, Ruda Śląska, Zabrze, Gdynia, Chełm, Wejherowo, Zakopane, Toruń, Wrocław, Pszczyna, Ostrów Wielkopolski) .

– The patronage over these works was taken by the Association of Polish Cities and the Union of Polish Metropolises, and the topic was initially raised at the meeting of the Parliamentary Team for Warsaw chaired by Aleksandra Gajewska – he explained.

The municipal register of monuments should include immovable monuments entered in the register, other immovable monuments included in the provincial register of monuments and other immovable monuments designated by the president of the city, mayor or commune head.

The register of monuments (both provincial and municipal) is a broader concept than the register of monuments. The register of monuments is a form of protection of immovable monuments and requires the issuance of an appropriate decision.