As a photographer, I often find myself inside various courts dealing with copyright issues. Some of these buildings are bland and official, while a smaller number, because of their architecture, their history, or both, evoke certain feelings. Some buildings inspire reverence. Others disquiet you. Somehow, Wroclaw’s District Court complex manages to do both, and for years, I wanted to try to capture that unique tension in a photograph.
An Imposing Construction
Construction of the building began in 1845 and was completed in 1852. Designed by Berlin-based architect Karl Ferdinand Busse, the court complex is a striking edifice. Unlike so many courts with their brutalist, businesslike sensibilities, Wroclaw’s court is fortress-like in its appearance, complete with towers on either side of the entrance. Perhaps Busse had an irreverent sense of humor; the complex, which includes the court and a prison, were built on the plan of a Greek cross, which struck me as an odd choice, considering the complex’s function. Two later additions to the complex are more modern and typical in appearance for a court building but do nothing to diminish the original structure’s imposing look.
A Dark History
The building’s history is as ominous as its façade. For a time during World War II, the building was used by the Nazis as a prison. It was also used for executions, with those condemned to death by the Third Reich sent to the guillotine. Mostly they were political prisoners, brought from various Nazi-occupied countries as part of the regime’s sinister “Night and Fog” campaign. There were roughly one thousand executions in the complex, and, as with many totalitarian regimes, the victims were “disappeared,” their fates forever withheld from their families. Later, when the war was over, the building was used by Communist officials to hold members of the Polish Home Army and other members of the resistance. Even on a sunny day, it is difficult not to feel some of the weight of the building’s dark past.
Reckoning with History
Perhaps my inability to capture the court exactly the way I wanted had more to do with its past and the thin slivers of dread I felt knowing its history than with any technical problems. I wanted to photograph it for years but could never get it quite right. I had to learn to approach it slowly and not shy away from its troubled history. I had to remind myself that I live in a different time and that most of us, the vast majority of humanity, revere justice and abhor the abuses of power. Facing the building on a brilliant, sunny day, I framed the photograph with its stately, haunted façade squarely in the center. If it represents a once brutal past, it also represents the solemn necessity of a just system. I highly recommend visiting Wroclaw, a hidden gem and underrated European city.
