Baku City Council building
The architectural landscape of Warsaw and Baku have much more in common than one might think. This is due to Polish architects, who played a special role in the development of the Azerbaijani capital. During the period of the city's most intensive expansion, which coincided with the beginning of the 20th century, four Poles successively held the position of chief architect there. The first of these was Józef Gosławski - the author of the Baku City Council building, considered the best administrative building in the Azerbaijani capital.

Creator: Józef Gosławski
Józef Gosławski (1865-1904) was born in Warsaw and studied at the Institute of Civil Engineers in St Petersburg. In 1891 he found himself in Baku, where he took part in organising the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which no longer exists today. Already a year later he was appointed chief architect of the city and held this position until his death. At the same time, he was intensively active in design, and between 1893 and 1900, 12 buildings of his design were completed. These buildings changed the architectural face of the city. The main client was the local oil magnate Zeynalabdin Tagiyev.
Josef Goslavsky's most important realisation is considered to be the seat of the Bakyan City Council located at 4 Nikolaevskaya Street (now Istiglaliyat).

Description of the building
The monumental 3-storey edifice with features of Baroque and Classical architecture rises in the historical centre of the city. Gosławski's design skilfully combines Western elements with urban motifs, using local building materials. The symmetrical façade is divided by an openwork tower. It provides a counterbalance to the rich horizontal divisions in the form of cornices and prominent window frames. The use of contrasting materials - light-coloured stone and red clinker bricks - is innovative for Bakian architecture of the time.

Józef Gosławski did not live to see the completion of the building; after his death, the role of project manager was taken over by Kazimierz Skórewicz, and later by Józef Płoszko. The building of the Baku City Council remains the seat of the Baku authorities to this day. In 2001, it was declared a monument by a government decision.

Memorabilia of Jozef Goslavsky
In addition to the numerous edifices designed by Jozef Goslavsky, the house where the architect lived in 1902-1904 has also been preserved in Baku, where he died of tuberculosis at the age of 39. This small historic building is located at 11 Mirza Ibrahimova St. In the private flat, owned by relatives of Goslavsky, authentic interiors from the early 20th century have been preserved, containing numerous mementos of the architect (including his drawings and designs, as well as family photographs). In 2008, a plaque commemorating Józef Gosławski was unveiled on the building.


Poles in Baku
The influx of Poles to present-day Azerbaijan began on a larger scale in the second half of the 19th century. Warsaw, under Russian rule, and Baku, conquered by the Tsarist empire, were then part of a single state. The capital of Azerbaijan was visited mainly by economic migrants, among whom were many highly qualified specialists: engineers, architects or doctors. The wave of labour migration to the Caucasus intensified at the turn of the 20th century in connection with the oil boom (at that time, more than half of the world's oil production came from Baku). Poles, such as Witold Zglenicki, Paweł Potocki and Tadeusz Wyganowski, also played a major role in this field.

The end of Polish activity in Baku was brought to an end by the revolution and civil war in Russia. Between 1917 and 1920, most of our compatriots left Azerbaijan, which was then annexed to Soviet Russia.