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On the site where now the Staszic Palace is situated once a Dominican church stood. It was built in the second half of the 17th century. At first, it was rather small. Only later it was enlarged and turned into a grand beautiful cathedral. The Dominican church was very popular and a lot of believers visited the church every day. It had been so up to 1818 when a tragedy happened. During the service a young priest committed a suicide. Weather he shot or poisoned himself nobody remembers now just as why he did so. The church was closed down and then demolished according to the order of Grand Duke Konstantin.
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The classical Palace designed by Italian architect Antonio Corazzi was built in 1823. The Palace was named after Stanislaw Staszic, the founder of the Society of Friends of Science and the building that housed this Society. Staszic was one of the most outstanding representatives of the Polish Enlightenment, who made a prominent contribution to the Polish science and education. The objectives of the Society of Friends of Science were to preserve Polish culture and promote sciences. According to this, the Society collected a lot of Polish works of art and artifacts referring to the Polish history. In response to November 1830 Uprising, the Society and Warsaw University, that was also founded by Stanislaw Staszic in 1816, were dissolved by the Russian authorities as a center of free-thinking and patriotism. Since then the Palace housed the offices of the State Lottery and afterward a gymnasium for boys.
At the end of the 19th century, to wipe out any reminders of the national independence, the Palace was rebuilt in Russian Byzantine style by the Russian architect Pokrowski. In the central part of the building the Orthodox chapel commemorating the Shuysky Tsars was established. In 1918 Poland became independent and the palace was given back to the Warsaw Scientific Society, which recommenced the work of the Society of Friends of Science. In the 1920s, the Palace was restored to its original neo-classical style. Architect Lalewicz didn't strive to create the exact copy of Corazzi's building but to preserve the style.
During World War II the Palace was severely damaged although not leveled as other historical building. The reconstruction works started right after the end of the War and were to restore the original 1820 design of the building. That wasn't an easy task while there were no authentic materials, pictures or designs by Corazzi left. The architects examined very carefully the remaining walls of the Palace and were guided by other Corazzi's work as examples of his style. In 1948 the restored building was handed over to Warsaw Society for Science. Nowadays the Palace houses the Polish Academy for Science (the supreme scientific institution in Poland), the Centre for Social Studies and some other scientific institutions.
In front of the Palace, there is the Copernicus monument, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen, a Danish sculptor. It was erected in 1830 on Staszic's initiative. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543), the founder of modern astronomy, created the theory that contradicted the religious conception of the world and was quite radical for that time. Without telescope (that was invented a century after) he discovered that the Earth rotates around the Sun and that our galaxy is only one of billions in a vast universe. His ideas were declared heretical by the Catholic Church. In 1616 his fundamental work "De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium"(1530) was included by the Holy Inquisition in the list of banned books and had been under ban up to 1828.
During World War II the Nazis placed a bronze plaque on the statue, where it was written that the great astronomer was a German. In 1942, the Varsovian Alek Dawidowski managed to tear down the odious plaque. After that the Nazis removed the statue and hid it in one of the vaults. In the postwar years the monument was restored and placed on its original site and Dawidowski for his bravery became a hero of Polish folklore.
