The start of Wolska Street, overlooking Błonia Park with the Kościuszko Mound towering over it, was an important place in the city’s structure as indicated in the competition plans for Greater Kraków from 1910. This led to the erection of formal buildings along the eastern boundary of Błonia, with the National Museum building at the forefront. In 1950, an urban-planning competition was held in relation to the planned construction of important buildings in this area. This paper presents unpublished works and the effects of decisions taken in this already forgotten competition on today’s development of the area around the square in front of the National Museum.
The goal of this paper is to present unknown competition designs dating back to mid-20th century and to indicate their impact on spatial solutions of the area at the end of Piłsudskiego Street, near the National Museum.
A comparative analysis of preserved pictorial materials and designs known to the author was used in this study. The analyses concluded that the opportunities to turn the start of Piłsudskiego Street into a nodal point in the urban plan of the city, a spot that would integrate space at both sides of Trzech Wieszczów Avenues, were not fully used. Urban analysis that also covered the area at the eastern side of the Trzech Wieszczów Avenues is a key to producing correct spatial solution for the square in front of the National Museum.