The building of the Polish Embassy in Ankara was the first in the reborn Republic to be built for a diplomatic post. On a vast plot of land in the centre of the representative Çankaya district, a building was constructed with stylistic features unusual for a Turkish capital. It was decided to give it the character of a 'Polish court on the model of the Belvedere'. In this way, the form of the building itself became an element of the state's foreign policy and the promotion of Polish art abroad.

Beginnings of the Polish mission in Ankara
The Polish Embassy in Ankara was established in June 1924. The location of its headquarters in the new Turkish capital gave the possibility of direct access to state authorities and was an expression of support for the Turkish national trend and the policy of Kemal Atatürk. While most representatives of European states were still residing in Istanbul and had no thoughts of building permanent embassies, Polish diplomats began to establish permanent and strong international relations. In organisational terms, however, this was not easy.

The first Polish MP in Turkey, Roman Knoll, began his office in a makeshift building, leaking in the rain, several kilometres from the city. The then charge d'affaires of the post, Władysław Günther, compared this situation to colonial pioneering. It was therefore decided quite quickly to build its own building.

The embassy was to be built in Çankaya, the diplomatic capital of Ankara, where the seat of the Turkish president was also located. On land donated by the Turkish government, the cornerstone dedication ceremony for the embassy building took place on 3 May 1927. The suggestion to give it a design reminiscent of the Belvedere in Warsaw came from Władysław Günther, and Karol Iwanicki was chosen as the architect capable of carrying out this task.

Warsaw Belvedere in Turkey
In accordance with the commission, the building designed by Iwanicki was dressed in a neoclassical costume referring to the manor house style - at the time considered the quintessence of Polishness. The building - on a rectangular plan with three backward projecting transverse wings and corresponding shallow risalits in the façade - was composed in an arrangement resembling the letter 'E'. The ground floor was designed to house administrative and technical offices, while the ground floor was intended to be representative. The rear wings of the building were intended to house the staff.

The façade of the building is dominated by a magnificent four-column portico with Ionic columns in great order. They carry a pediment in which is placed a bas-relief emblem of the Republic. The whole creates a monumental impression appropriate to the function of the building.

The interior furnishings and decoration form a unified ensemble emphasising the representative role of the building. A great impression is made by the interior of the dining room with a set of Polish furniture in the Art Deco style, the Raspberry Room with furnishings in the Louis XVI style, as well as the Music Room, additionally decorated with bas-relief views of the cities of Warsaw, Kraków, Vilnius and Poznań. In the building there are lamps and wall lamps made by the Warsaw-based Łopieński Brothers factory, as well as other metal elements, such as handles and door knobs, all decorated with a representation of a crowned eagle.

"The prettiest building in Ankara "
Due to financial and organisational difficulties, the building was not completed until 1929.During construction, a few changes had to be made to the design. Among other things, the west wing was modified, and the living quarters provided for there were moved by Iwanicki to a free-standing building that corresponded in style to the main building. The building was constructed by the Warsaw Building Company under the direction of arch. The building was constructed by the Warsaw Building Company under the direction of architect Stanisław Władysław Woyciechowski. At the time of its completion, the building was regarded as one of the most beautiful in Ankara. As the Counsellor of the Embassy, Jan Gawroński, recalls: 'Our headquarters shone with old-fashioned elegance between the ugly but modern Soviet embassy building and a number of no less ugly nightmarish bungalows hastily built by the Germans.

In July 1930, the post was upgraded to embassy status. The building is surrounded by extensive green areas. The adjacent garden contains, among other things, a bust of Adam Mickiewicz made in 1909 by the sculptor Stanisław Kazimierz Ostrowski. In the late 1950s, part of this area was donated for the widening of Ankara's main street. In the following years, the embassy ceded another section of the square to the city, where today the Swan Park (Kuğulu Park) is located. Since 2000, the street adjacent to the garden of the Polish Embassy to the north has been named 'Poland'.

Architect Karol Iwanicki
Karol Ivanitski (1870-1940), born in Tahancha, in the then Kiev Governorate, was a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture of the Lviv Polytechnic. He is known as the author of designs for numerous public buildings (including the Cadet Corps building in Sumy and a bank branch in Rivne), as well as residences and mansions in Ukraine. He was very popular for his publications in the field of building guides, most notably the following, published in 1917. "Rural Construction.

The design of the Polish Embassy in Ankara was not the only collaboration between Karol Iwanicki and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the following years, the architect also carried out the reconstruction of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Berlin and produced designs for the consulates in Königsberg and Dyneburg. He also collaborated in the selection of buildings acquired for the embassies in Bucharest, Vienna and The Hague, and in the selection of the building for the consulate in Lille. Iwanicki was also active in Warsaw's architectural community: between 1926 and 1929, as Head of the Architectural Division at the Warsaw Province, he carried out as many as 62 projects.