A building in the middle of the terrace

The building at Wały Chrobrego 3 was created as the seat of the Municipal Museum, and today it is the Main Building of the National Museum in Szczecin, one of its six sites. The designer was Wilhelm Meyer-Schwartau, municipal building councillor of Szczecin in 1891-1921, who also designed the layout of the whole Chrobry Embankment, as well as the spatial layout and buildings of the Szczecin Central Cemetery. This text concerns the building itself, not the collections.

The decision to develop the terrace, then still the Hakenterrasse, was taken in 1901. The middle of the layout was taken by the Municipal Museum, and work on the whole terrace and the buildings surrounding it lasted, according to Wikipedia, from 1902 to 1921.

1908-1911 or 1908-1913

The construction dates of the building differ depending on the source. Wikipedia, citing a press article published for the building's centenary, gives 1908-1911, while zabytek.pl, that is, the heritage register, dates the whole to 1908-1913. The museum was officially opened on 23 June 1913 and housed art collections.

A similar difference in dates occurs for the neighbouring building. The government district building, today the Voivodeship Office, has construction dates of 1906-1912 in one Wikipedia article and a date of commissioning of 1911 in another.

A building that was never finished

The original plan envisaged a four-wing building with a central range and two inner courtyards. According to Wikipedia, the wing facing the Oder and the side elevations were built, so the opening in 1913 covered roughly half of the plan and was at the same time the end of the investment. The following year the First World War broke out. The original plan was never returned to, and the planned wing facing the city has not been built to this day.

The building has the plan of the letter E, and its style is described in the article on the building as referring to modernism and Art Nouveau, while the article on the Chrobry Embankment calls the museum's form early modernist. The height with the dome is 54 m and the exhibition area 5,563 m², according to the same article.

Reliefs on the façade

Between the arcades of the portico of the main façade, facing the Oder, there are four reliefs with buildings symbolising cultural epochs: the Pyramid of Cheops for Egyptian culture, the Parthenon for Greco-Roman, Cologne Cathedral for the Middle Ages and St Peter's Basilica for the Italian Renaissance. On the south wall there are female figures symbolising painting, graphic art and sculpture.

In front of the building, on the terrace, stands a sculpture by Ludwig Manzel from 1916, and behind it, towards the city, the monument to Adam Mickiewicz from 1960.

Fortunes after 1944

In 1944 the roof storey was damaged during air raids. On 21 March 1945 the most valuable exhibits were taken to the castle in Coburg. According to the article on the Chrobry Embankment, after the war the tower finials were altered and the corner pavilions on the roof were removed. In June 1948 the Maritime Museum was opened here, and two years later it was incorporated into the National Museum.

Since 1 January 1976 the Contemporary Theatre has operated on the upper floor of the building. According to Wikipedia, part of the building was adapted for a stage as early as 1950, and in 1975 it was decided to create two separate theatres in the city. From the tower open to visitors you can see Szczecin and its surroundings, especially Międzyodrze. The Ducal Castle is about half a kilometre from here.