Palace of the Archbishops of Warsaw – Residence of the Primate of Poland

The Residence of the Primate of Poland at 17/19 Miodowa Street is situated in an 18th-century archbishops’ palace in Warsaw. In the period 1952-1981 it was the residence of the Millennial Primate, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The Palace of the Archbishops of Warsaw was rebuilt after the destruction of WWII in a style of late Baroque and Classicism. The consecration of the rebuilt Palace took place on 12 January 1953, the day when the Primate was to receive the cardinalitial hat at the Vatican. Since the communist authorities refused to give their consent to the Primate’s leaving for Rome, Cardinal Wyszyński accepted the homagium of the clergy in the Palace of the Archbishops of Warsaw. Arrested on 25 September 1953 (on the strength of a ban of the performance of ecclesial functions introduced by the Council of Ministers), he returned to the residence in Miodowa on 28 October 1956 after three years of imprisonment. Since 1981 the Palace of the Archbishops of Warsaw has been the seat of the Primate of Poland Cardinal Józef Glemp, Metropolitan of Warsaw. The Palace of the Archbishops of Warsaw hosted Pope John Paul II during his pilgrimages in 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1999. it was here that in 1983 John Paul II received the honorary doctorate of the Catholic University of Lublin, met with representatives of the Churches convened in the Polish Ecumenical Council and with representatives of the Jewish community, and in 1999 with the Conference of the Polish Episcopate.

aw, KAI //mam