One of the three field branch buildings of the Postal Savings Bank was in Vilnius. Its designers were Warsaw architects.

Pocztowa Kasa Oszczędności
The Postal Savings Bank (PKO) - one of the three great state banks of the Second Republic, next to Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and Państwowy Bank Rolny - was established in 1919 by a decree of the Head of State. It specialised in the collection of savings deposits.

The fund's agencies were located in post offices, and independent branches were established only in the seven largest cities. PKO built only three field branch edifices - in Kraków, Poznań and Vilnius - as well as the headquarters building in Warsaw. Unlike other state banks, it did not create its own design department, but entrusted the design of the field branches to recognised authorities.

Architects of the Vilnius bank
The architectural design was done by two Warsaw architects, Zbigniew Puget and Juliusz Żórawski. Both were graduates and employees of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology, and also ran their own design studios. Puget, an architect of French origin, was interested in modern monumentalism in public utility architecture. Żórawski, on the other hand, was one of the most respected and versatile avant-garde architects, and his residential buildings, designed on the basis of Corbusier's five principles of modern architecture, entered the canon of Polish architecture.

At the end of the 1930s, both architects became associated with the PKO. In 1939 Żórawski designed the Katowice branch and the central archive of the PKO in Warsaw, while Puget designed the Warsaw headquarters building (neither concept was realised due to the outbreak of the Second World War). Earlier - in 1934. - both came second in the competition for the PKO building in Poznań.

Architecture of the PKO building in Vilnius
The building of the Vilnius branch, constructed in 1936-1937, stood on the representative Mickiewicz Street (today Gediminas Avenue), in the immediate vicinity of the National Economy Bank, which was being built at the same time. The original concept envisaged a rather free composition with a corner, higher accent of the banking building and two lower arms of the residential and office part. Due to the comments of the Municipal Board and the conservation officer, this concept was changed to a more monumental one with an adjacent residential building. The architectural design was approved in October 1936. However, groundworks began as early as August in order to speed up construction before the winter period. In December 1937, the work was completed. The construction, installation and stonework was carried out by two Warsaw companies: "M. Łempicki S.A" and "J. Weber". The technical manager of the construction was the Vilnius architect and restorer, Jan Borowski (1890-1966).

The form of the building belongs to the current of monumentalism, embedded in the classicist tradition. The elevations of the main, four-storey banking part are rhythmically divided by simple lisens, closing the whole with a not very prominent cornice. Stone was used for the external façade finishing: the façades were faced with Szydłowiec sandstone, while the plinth and the portal were made of black granite from Zdziłów. The residential part was more modestly designed. It was covered with stucco with line work imitating stone slabs. The ground floor, which housed the "Orbis" office and the "Gebethner & Wolf" bookshop, was faced with trembling sandstone. The result was a monumental and dignified whole, but devoid of the literal qualities of classicism.

The elegant interiors were resolved in the classicist convention with art déco elements. The hall and staircase are finished in marble, while the railings and elements of the revolving glass entrances are finished in chrome metal. The walls of the conference room and the director's office are covered with decorative Vilnius fabrics. The art déco style furniture, supplied by the Vilnius company "M. Oszurko", was made of matt walnut and black oak. An important part of the décor was made up of crafts and folk art from the Vilnius region.

The most important room of the bank was the operating room, perfectly illuminated by huge windows in both side walls. It was lined with terracotta mosaics, the cash counters were covered with marble and the pillars supporting the ceiling were covered with stucco. The main decorative motif in the interior of the hall was a wall painting - an allegorical triptych entitled 'Work, Fortune, Savings', whose author was Ludomir Sleńdziński (1889-1980), professor of the Department of Monumental Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Stefan Batory University in Vilnius and one of the most important representatives of Polish monumental painting of the inter-war period.

Further fate of the PKO building in Vilnius
After the Second World War, the building was handed over to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania (KC KPL). In 1950, the KPL history institute and archive were arranged here. At that time, among other things, the Sleńdziński triptych was plastered and painted over. Today, the building houses SEB Bankas.

In 1996, the building was rebuilt, including the addition of a mezzanine around the cash room and a new wall at the pillars. The damaged painting was uncovered and its central part ('Fortuna') was restored. It now adorns the corridor, not visible from the hall.

Memories of the PKO bank in Vilnius
"I remember the troubles after the opening of the PKO bank in Vilnius. A few weeks after the opening, the director and the cashier lost the keys to the vault (there were only two sets). A crowd of people in front of the bank held up withdrawals. There was a cashier in Warsaw nicknamed Spicbrodka, appealed to through the prosecutor's office. There was no other way: vault walls = 1 m, reinforced concrete, the vault itself submerged in water (i.e. water between the double walls). Spitzer used to give consultations to young and novice cashiers at the barber shop in the "Bristol", every day before noon; a consultation cost 100 zloty. This time, however, he was sitting in the nick, and after a long bargain [...] he was transported by military plane to Vilnius. The suitcase with the tools - sealed! - was handed over by his wife. [...] The policemen did not want to leave the anteroom to the vault, but Szpicbródka declared that not only did everyone have to leave, but he would lock himself in the anteroom and not open it until he had 'done' the vault. Zórawski swore it lasted less than five minutes. Szpicbródka was taken off a couple of months as a reward."-Excerpt from the memoirs of Janusz Ballenstedt, after: Dariusz Błaszczyk, "Juliusz Żórawski. The Interrupted Work of Modernism' (ed. 2010).