140 The Architectural Legacy of Stanisław Bukowski in Vilnius – a Contribution to Further Research Sebastian Wicher Sleńdziński Gallery in Białystok
[email protected] This article is a supplement to the author‘s monograph entitled Żyć architekturą. Życie i twórczości Stanisława Bukowskiego (1904–1979), published in 2009. The author presents the less known activity of Bukowski as an architect, town planner and conservator of monuments in Vilnius and its area in the years 1936–1945. Keywords: architect Stanisław Bukowski (1904–1979), modern architecture, architecture and urban planning in Vilnius, Vilnius monuments, artistic life in Vilnius, interwar period in Vilnius, Vilnius during World War II. 141 1. A portrait of Stanisław Bukowski by Krystyna Wróblewska, 1941, from the collection of Joanna Łempicka Krystyna Wróblewska, Stanisławo Bukowskio portretas, 1941 Stanisław Bukowski [illus. 1] was an architect and urban planner, who earned his reputation in Polish historiography as the person behind the restoration of monuments destroyed during World War II in Białystok. The restoration of the late baroque residence of the Branicki family became his opus magnum. Yet before he arrived in Białystok in April 1945, he had spent nearly ten years living in Vilnius. Bukowski is the only architect from Białystok whose life and work have been chronicled in a monograph1. It is a summary of the research based on previous publications devoted to the architect. As far as the Vilnius period is concerned, the publication was a 1 Sebastian Wicher, Żyć architekturą. Życie i twórczość architekta Stanisława Bukowskiego (1904–1979) (To live architecture. Life and work of architect Stanisław Bukowski (1904– 1979)), Białystok: Stowarzyszenie Architektów Polskich Oddział w Białymstoku, Studio Wydawnicze Unikat, 2009.