Szarych Szeregów Square

Szarych Szeregów Square is one of Szczecin's star-shaped squares, from which five streets radiate. It used to be called Arndtplatz and over more than a hundred years its name changed several times.

Layout of the square

The square lies on the axis of Wojska Polskiego Avenue and has the form of a roundabout, from which Piastów Avenue, Józef Piłsudski Street, Wojska Polskiego Avenue, Wielkopolska Street and 5 Lipca Street lead off. The central island is a green space with a few trees and a triangular tram track junction.

According to the Wikipedia entry, the square was designed in 1879, while the Encyclopedia of West Pomerania states that it was designed in 1874 as square “N”, initially with chamfered corners, and then with the regular shape of an oval. The name Arndtplatz was given in 1879, in honour of Ernst Moritz Arndt, a German writer and delegate to the Frankfurt Parliament.

Buildings

The pre-war buildings around the square have survived almost entirely. On some of the corners, among others at the junction of 5 Lipca Street with Piastów Avenue and of Piłsudskiego Street with Wielkopolska Street, stand eclectic tenement houses several storeys high from the late 19th century. The remaining corners are occupied by villa-style buildings from the early 20th century. Only the tenement house at the corner of Wojska Polskiego Avenue and Piastów Avenue was destroyed, replaced at the beginning of the 21st century by a modern infill building.

On the square stands a monument to Józef Piłsudski, unveiled on 19 March 2000, to a design by Bohdan Ronin-Walknowski.

Names of the square after the war

After 1945 the name of the square changed many times: Plac Sprzymierzonych (Allies' Square) (1945-1950), Konstanty Rokossowski Square (1950-1956), Vladimir Lenin Square (1956-1991), Plac Sprzymierzonych again (1991-2009), and since 2009, in memory of the Grey Ranks (Szare Szeregi), the present name. In the second half of the 1940s there was a cemetery of Red Army soldiers on the square.

Practical information

• The square lies in the centre of Szczecin, in the area of the Centrum and Śródmieście-Północ estates.
• On the central island there is a tram track triangle, and just before the square, along Piłsudskiego Street, the tram stop Plac Szarych Szeregów.

Nearby

• Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic - about 0.5 km.
• Grunwaldzki Square - about 0.5 km.
• Jasne Błonia - about 0.8 km.
• St John the Baptist's Basilica - about 0.9 km.