Konstancin-Jeziorna – the history of Konstancin dates back to 1897, when Count Witold Skórzewski, the co-owner of the land
property in Obory and the executor of the will of Countess Maria Grzymała-Potulicka, started the parcellation of the land in Obory. High-growing pine forest situated on the high bank of the Vistula River valley was put up for sale, with the intention that a stylish summer resort should be created in this area. To this end, the land division and zoning plan was prepared for the new housing estate, called Konstancja – after the deceased mother of Count Skórzewski, Konstancja z Potulickich Skórzewska. In the same year, the development of a summer resort started also in the neighbouring village called Skolimów. In 1926, the Potulicki family performed the parcellation of the land for the purposes of a summer resort called Królewska Góra in the area to the south of Konstancin to the Słomczyński Forest.
New plots were very soon purchased by new owners, who built their country manor houses here. The houses reflected diverse architectural styles and trends: Art Nouveau, Modernism, Functionalism, Historic Style (Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Baroque, Neo-Classicism, Eclecticism), Manor House Style or the style of Zakopane. The designs of the most outstanding architects working in Warsaw during the first thirty years of the 20th century were realised in Konstancin. After World War II, the villas, taken away from their legitimate owners and turned into municipal apartment houses, lost their original beauty and unique character. Many of them, fallen into decay, disappeared from the town’s landscape forever. Some of the villas and houses gained new owners in the 1990s. The most interesting villas are grouped along the streets of Jagiellońska, Batorego and Sienkiewicza.
The spa park in Konstancin has been there almost as long as the town itself. The arrangement of the park was completed in 1899; it is designed in the English style, which artificially extends the diversity of the area. In the 1970s, a graduation tower using thermal springs was constructed in the park.
To the north, Konstancin bordered the town of Jeziorna, which in the second half of the 18th century started to develop as a paper manufacturing centre. In the first half of the 19th century, when the paper mill was reconstructed after one of subsequent fires, a housing estate for workers and the house of the factory owner were built. During the following decades, the estate was further developed. After Żyrardów and Marki, it is now the third among the best-preserved factory housing estates in Masovia. Paper was manufactured in two factories called lower and upper. In 1836, Bank Polski (Polish Bank), the new investor, purchased a modern machine that enabled continuous paper production process – the first industrial equipment of that type in Poland. The machine was mounted in the upper factory and the mass production of paper in Jeziorna could be launched. In the end of the 19th century, the paper factory in Jeziorna was purchased by Akcyjne Towarzystwo
Mirkowskiej Fabryki Papieru (Mirków Paper Manufacturing Joint-Stock Association). The turn of the 20th witnessed a rapid development of the factory in Jeziorna, but the upper factory gradually loses its importance and the lower factory is developed. After World War II, the factory is named Warszawskie Zakłady Papiernicze (Warsaw Paper Factory). In the 1990s, the factory was purchased by the Finnish corporation called Metsa Tissue. In the site of the upper factory, burned in a fire in 1984, there is now a modern shopping mall called “Stara Papiernia” (“Old Paper Factory”, opened in 2002), whose architectural design refers to the old factory buildings.
In 1968, the summer resorts in Konstancin, Skolimów and Królewska Góra, as well as the neighbouring towns of Klarysew, Chylice and Jeziorna were connected into one administrative unit, thus founding the town called Konstancin-Jeziorna. In 1972, the town gained the status of a health resort. Ten years earlier, thermal salt springs with healing properties were discovered in Konstancin, 1750 metres under ground.
Church of St Mary of the Angels – Neo-Gothic church erected in the years 1903-1906 according to the design by Bronisław Brochwicz-Rogóyski and Władysław Kossowski.
Church of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary - Neo-Gothic church built according
to the design by Józef Pius Dziekoński in 1911.
Church of Joseph the Betrothed - Neo-Gothic church built according to the design by Stanisław Kudera in 1909.
Projekt, wykonanie - Mariusz Kleć: Polsko - Japońska Wyższa Szkoła Technik Komputerowych w Warszawie