Jan Zachwatowicz


Jan Zachwatowicz was a Polish architect, architectural historian, and restorer.

Biography

Zachwatowicz was born in Gatchina. He studied Industrial Civil Engineering at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University, and graduated from the School of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology in 1930. He was awarded with the SARP Honorary Award.
He was a professor of the Warsaw University of Technology, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, member of the Académie d'architecture in Paris, member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, general restorer of relics in Poland, chairman of the Architectural-Restoration Committee, and chairman of the Civil Committee of Royal Castle in Warsaw Reconstruction.
Zachwatowicz contributed to reorganization and enlargement of Polish restoration service. During the occupation of Poland he took a part of teaching, protecting and saving works, i.e. set of relic buildings measurements. From January 1945 he co-directed the Warsaw Reconstruction Office.
After World War II, many other historic buildings in Gdańsk, Poznań, and Wrocław were restored or rebuilt according to principles established by Zachwatowicz and his team. Among his many achievements was the rebuilding of St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw.
He was a scholar with over 200 major publications to his credit.
He was the father of Krystyna and Katarzyna Zachwatowicz. He died in Warsaw, aged 83.

Selected works