Renovation uncovers wartime Fighting Poland anchor on Warsaw building at Puławska 48
Under old plaster on a tenement at Puławska 48 in Mokotów, a Fighting Poland anchor was found during facade work. Experts say it may instead date from the 1980s Fighting Solidarity movement.
Discovery under the plaster
Workers stripping plaster from the facade of the building at Puławska 48 in Warsaw uncovered an anchor, the symbol of Fighting Poland (Polska Walcząca), and informed the heritage conservator. Wnp reports that the sign was exposed on 12 September by an employee of the Archiwum Akt Nowych, while rmf24 credits the workers with the find. The anchor sits beside the entrance to the stairwell. Two days after it was exposed, an unknown person painted over it in black, "correcting" it clumsily. The building belongs to a housing association that had decided to renovate the facade.
Two competing explanations
The Archiwum Akt Nowych, which coordinates the Zraniona Stolica project, says the anchor may be a remnant of the Fighting Poland sign from the Second World War or of the Fighting Solidarity (Solidarność Walcząca) sign from the 1980s. A representative of the Warsaw conservator drew up a protocol at the site. Professional removal of the modern paint and securing of the sign are planned. The housing association will pay for the work and may apply to the conservator's office for reimbursement. The sign will be confirmed as an authentic trace from the war only after conservation work is carried out.
Local backing for keeping the sign
Mokotów district spokesperson Tomasz Keller told PAP that the district would consider a request for funding.
If after conservation work the sign is confirmed as an authentic trace from World War II, and the housing association asks the district office for help financing its protection, we declare a positive consideration of such a request within the district's available possibilities and applicable procedures.
Sródmieście councillor Radosław Sosnowski (PiS) filed an interpellation asking the district to support efforts to keep the sign, and the district says it is ready to cooperate. The association's management board and the building manager, Lokal Serwis, also say they fully want to keep the anchor.
Anchors across wartime Warsaw
The first such anchor appeared on Warsaw streets on 20 March 1942, painted on the veranda of the Lardelli confectionery, probably by scout leader Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski, "Alek". Anchors can still be seen on the Ministry of Climate and Environment building at Wawelska 52/54, and three more are on the Supreme Chamber of Control (NIK) building at Marszałkowska 82. Nobody knows how many were painted, mostly by scouts of the Szare Szeregi. The timeline below places the Puławska 48 find alongside the wartime dates.
- First anchor painted on the Lardelli confectionery veranda in Warsaw
- Mokotów insurgents evacuate through sewer manholes near Puławska
- Archiwum Akt Nowych employee exposes the anchor under plaster
- Unknown person paints the anchor black
Jan Ołdakowski, director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, recalled a few years ago that the anchor was once painted in 400 places in the capital in a single day.
There was a day when the anchor was painted in 400 places in the capital. And yet one could end up in Pawiak for it.
Uprising history at the site
The tenement at Puławska 48 witnessed fighting during the Warsaw Uprising. Near the junction with Szustra Street (now Dąbrowskiego), manholes in the area were used on 26-27 September 1944, when insurgents from Mokotów evacuated through the sewers to the Śródmieście district. Numerous memorial sites are nearby, including the Tchorek plaques and monuments commemorating executions and soldiers who fought in Mokotów, among them at Puławska 67/69 and on Skolimowska Street.
