Grunwaldzki Square in Wrocław

Plac Grunwaldzki is a former spacious square in Wrocław, today reduced to a wide street and junction, as well as the district surrounding this area, located east of the city's strict centre. In German times it was called Kaiserstraße, meaning Emperor's Street.

Where today's form came from

Designs for this route were created in the 1880s on the initiative of Richard Plüddemann, the building councillor of the time. The 1,350-metre street connected two bridges: the Kaiserbrücke, today's Grunwaldzki Bridge, with the Fürstenbrücke, today's Szczytnicki Bridge. The whole project was only completed towards the end of the 1920s.

Destruction of 1945

Towards the end of the Second World War, Karl Hanke, the head of the NSDAP in Wrocław, marked out an axis along Kaiserstraße for a field airfield. Buildings along the street were demolished at that time, including the Evangelical Martin Luther Church with a tower over 90 metres tall. Only two aircraft managed to take off from the improvised airfield, on 10 April and 6 May.

Reconstruction and the academic estate

After the war, the area first functioned as a so-called szaberplac, a place of trade. In 1951 the Association of Polish Architects (SARP) announced a competition for its development, which was won a year later by Kazimierz Marczewski and Tadeusz Ptaszycki. In the following years, buildings of the Wrocław University of Technology, the Agricultural University and the University of Wrocław were erected here, and between 1967 and 1975 a residential estate to a design by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak, made up of six sixteen-storey blocks. On 22 March 1966 a construction disaster occurred on the site of the Agricultural University.

Reagan Roundabout

Towards the end of the 1990s a fruit and vegetable market was still operating on the square. In March 2006 a thorough reconstruction of the central junction began, and on 4 April 2007 an ellipse-shaped roundabout was opened, taking the name Reagan Roundabout. On 15 March 2008 an underpass beneath the roundabout was opened, and in April 2007 the three-storey Grunwaldzki Passage. The German name of this junction was Scheitniger Stern, meaning Szczytnicka Star, after the nearby medieval village of Szczytniki, where Szczytnicki Park lies today.

Plac Grunwaldzki estate

The Plac Grunwaldzki estate also took its name from the square; its boundaries are marked by Wyszyńskiego Street to the west, Sienkiewicza and Grunwaldzka streets to the north, and the Oder to the east and south: the Old Oder and the river's main channel. Within the estate stand, among others, the D1 and D2 buildings of the Wrocław University of Technology, student halls of residence known as Dwudziestolatka, Parawanowiec, Ołówek and Kredka, as well as tower blocks popularly called Bunkrowce or Sedesowce.

Practical information

• Location: a central square and junction east of the strict centre of Wrocław, by the Oder
• Transport: a tram stop served by lines 1, 2, 4, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 19
• Nearby: the Wrocław University of Technology campus, Grunwaldzki Passage, a bridge over the Oder and an entrance to Szczytnicki Park