Landmarks

Marszałkowska Housing District (MDM) in Warsaw

The Marszałkowska Housing District (MDM) is the best-known Warsaw example of socialist realism: a huge housing ensemble built in 1950–1952 along Marszałkowska Street, from Wilcza Street to Union of Lublin Square. Construction began on 1 August 1950 and was ceremonially completed on 22 July 1952; the first tenants moved into building 6B as early as 21 July 1951, after just nine months of work.

Architecture in the service of ideology

The ensemble was designed by winners of State Art Awards: Józef Sigalin, Stanisław Jankowski, Jan Knothe and Zygmunt Stępiński. The project was made famous by the slogan „the people will enter the city centre”. Tenement houses were replaced by monumental blocks of 6–7 storeys with service arcades on the ground floors, faced with sandstone and polished granite and crowned with massive cornices and attics. The scenery is completed by sculptures and reliefs devoted to the working class, and the centre of the ensemble is marked by Constitution Square.

Life after its heyday

MDM also includes the Latawiec estate (1953–1955) designed by Eleonora Sekrecka. Today the whole ensemble is listed in the register of monuments (2015) — a walk along the arcades is a lecture on 20th-century architecture in the form of a stroll.