The Passage Under the Blue Sun near the Market Square in Wrocław

The Passage Under the Blue Sun holds a prestigious address on the Market Square. The building has a long history. Many crowned heads have visited it. In 1611 the entrance gate was widened for the Habsburg carriages. In 1901 the building gained its neo-mannerist façade which remains to this day. WW II spared the building, but despite the fact that it had an Austrian owner, Heinrich Mikolaschek, it fell into ruin. The heirs who inherited it sold the building to Thyssen Krupp Immobilien Development GmbH, which managed to revitalize it at the turn of the XXI century.

A team of architects from “Studio Bieniasz Nicholson Architekt” was responsible for the project. The revitalized buildings of the block currently form a multifunctional unit with office, trade, exhibition, and gastronomy functions. Renovations were finished in 1999 but there wasn’t an idea for the entrance and signboard from Kiełbaśnicza street. Architect Wacław Bieniasz turned to Tomasz Urbanowicz for a design, together with approval from the City Conservation Officer.

Tomasz Urbanowicz designed and created a modern glass form for this monumental building: a door of blue glass and brass from the square side, and a glass signboard depicting a blue sun in a forged frame hanging by the entrance from the narrow Kiełbaśnicza street. The project was completed in 1999/2000.

The “Passage Under the Blue Sun” has been recognized in multiple prestigious competitions.