Turbasa Jakub Jerzy, The space of the sacred and values in the life and works of Witold Cęckiewicz, “Sacrum et Decorum. Materiały i studia z historii sztuki sakralnej”, Art. nr 17, 2024, doi: 10.15584/setde.2024.17.1.

Abstract:
The merits of the late Professor Witold Cęckiewicz (1924–2023) in the field of architecture and urban planning cannot be overestimated. Without a doubt, the history of Polish architecture in the second half of the 20th century is marked by this important figure and his designs. Projects such as the Cracovia hotel building with the adjacent Kino Kijów [Kyiv Cinema] in Kraków, the embassy of the Polish People’s Republic in New Delhi and large urban projects have entered the canon of modernist works. Moreover, monuments or selected buildings intended for sacred purposes have become representative examples of more than one epoch of Polish architectural reality. Epochs, because the time scope of Witold Cęckiewicz’s activity as a designer covered over half a century – from the 1950s to the first decade of the present century. The buildings of his design have influenced not only the aesthetics and spatial shape of places, but also the imagination of students, architects, critics and ordinary citizens. They have accompanied city residents during important events as well as in everyday life. This especially applies to Kraków, where most of them were erected. Older Kraków families remember perfectly well the distinctive design of the modern café in “Cracovia” (the Cracovia Hotel), the meeting place of Kraków’s socalled società, where one could also meet the designer himself. During the carnival period, in the abovementioned hotel, lawyers organised the most elegant balls, which were a “breath of the Western world” against the background of the gray reality of the Polish People’s Republic, and the fame of the cream cakes (according to Stefan Przebindowski’s recipe) served in the hotel’s confectionery shop reached far beyond the borders of Krakow.

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