Palace of the Pomeranian Landschaft

The Palace of the Pomeranian Landschaft stands at Aleja Niepodległości 40 in Szczecin. The Neo-Baroque building of 1893-1895 was built for the Pomeranian Landschaft Society, and today it belongs to the Academy of Art.

For whom and by whom it was built

The Pomeranian Landschaft Society was founded in 1781. It brought together wealthy landowners from Pomerania, and its Mortgage Bank had its seat in the new building. The building was designed by the Szczecin architect Emil Drews.

Façade and interiors

The façade is monumental in character, with two wings of different lengths on either side. The most ornate part is the central projecting bay with a carriage drive, a balcony with sculptures of a knight and a farmer, and a tympanum. On the tympanum are placed the nine-field coat of arms of the Duchy of Pomerania and a griffin with a shield bearing the initials of the Prussian king Frederick II. Below is the date “1781”, the year the Society was founded. The ground floor and first floor have a rusticated elevation, rich window surrounds and a colonnade beneath the tympanum. Many rooms inside have kept their historic appearance and decoration.

Bank, schools and university

After the Second World War the palace housed banking institutions: first the Postal Savings Bank, later the General Savings Bank. Until 2014 a branch of PKO BP was located here, and it was moved to the Brama Portowa II office building. For a time the building was also used by economics schools. Today the building belongs to the Academy of Art and houses the Faculty of Music. The palace is entered in the heritage register under number A-894 of 1976.

Nearby

The building lies in the city centre, a few hundred metres from the Port Gate. It is about a kilometre to the Chrobry Embankment, and a walk also leads to the Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes.

Practical information

• Address: Aleja Niepodległości 40, Szczecin.
• The building is the seat of a university faculty, not a museum. Rules for visiting the interiors are not generally published, so the dates and the possibility of entering must be checked on the website of the Academy of Art in Szczecin.
• The façade and the projecting bay with sculptures can be viewed from outside, from the street side.