Rozjezdny Square

Rozjezdny Square lies in Wrocław's Przedmieście Świdnickie, squeezed between a railway line and Kolejowa, Jęczmienna and Pszenna streets. Its irregular shape comes directly from the course of the tracks on a viaduct and embankment, and the square's history goes back to a circus and a tram power plant, of which nothing remains today.

A shape forced by the railway

The square was founded in 1881-1882 on the land of the former village of Gajowice, and its layout follows two triangles: one formed a green square, the other a building plot. Above and along the square runs a railway viaduct from the direction of Wrocław Główny station, built in 1896-1901, with steel spans of 20-25 metres, resting on stone abutments and cast-iron columns. One of the viaducts passes directly over the square's roadway.

A circus and a tram power plant

In 1877 the E. Renz circus was set up here, taken over a year later by the Busch circus - the second permanent circus in Wrocław. It occupied a timber-framed, brick building on a twelve-sided plan, able to hold 6,000 spectators, with stables for 100 horses at the back. In 1885 the building was rebuilt in brick, and it was destroyed only in 1945. In 1898 a substation feeding the tram network of the ESB company was built by the square, with tracks laid to deliver coal - remnants of which survive to this day. In 1927-1928 the substation was rebuilt into a municipal power plant.

Post-war changes

After 1945, a large part of the buildings around the square was destroyed and demolished, and only the buildings on Joachima Lelewela and Prosta streets survived. In the 1960s, residential blocks were built on the vacant land, and the square itself was extended eastward by a former block of buildings. The open space was developed for recreation: there was an asphalt area serving as a tennis court and badminton pitch, benches, trees, and a small rise by the embankment used in winter as a sledging hill. In 2000, construction of a service and parking complex began on the former green square by the tracks, but was halted at the shell stage - the building was demolished only in 2015-2017, and an office and service building with underground parking is planned on its site.

Practical information

• Location: Przedmieście Świdnickie in Wrocław, between the railway line and Kolejowa, Jęczmienna and Pszenna streets
• The roadway counted as part of the square is 114 metres long, from Kolejowa street to Jęczmienna
• The original layout of the square survives today mainly in the street plan, with most of the former buildings not having survived
• Nearby, towards the centre, lie the National Forum of Music and the Wrocław Opera, and further on the Market Square