Architectural Reconstructions in post-war Poland

The article is an attempt at identifying the positive and negative effect the decisions to reconstruct monuments made immediately following the end of World War II and that of reconstructing Warsaw's Royal Castle made 25 years after the war had on the perception of monuments and the historical value of the urban tissue. It is in this perspective that the reconstruction cases performed in Poland after 1989 (namely after the collapse of Communism) and their social impact are analyzed. The examples which are both negative: falsifying historical knowledge and insulting aesthetical criteria, as well as positive: manifesting high instructive values, are pointed to. Moreover, the question is asked how it is possible that in the 210 century people are attracted to the idea of reconstructing monuments which were not destroyed in the course of World War II, but significantly earlier. In Poland, for instance, a political idea has been recently conceived to reconstruct several dozen mediaeval castles ruined in the 17th century.