The family tomb of Leopold Kronenberg
Leopold Julian Kronenberg
The Kronenberg family mausoleum is one of the largest mausoleums at Stare Powązki Cemetery.
Kronenberg was the wealthiest Pole of the previous century, which is why the tomb is so impressive in size.
Leopold Julian Kronenberg (1849–1937) was the son of banker Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg (1812–1878), so a career in finance was his destiny. He managed the family business, including Bank Handlowy, which still exists today. A versatile man and active politician, he was interested in culture and managed estates and sugar refineries, as well as the Warsaw–Terespol Railway, the Vistula Railway and the Warsaw–Vienna Railway.
He initiated the construction of the monument to Adam Mickiewicz on Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw, supported the establishment of the Polytechnic Institute and served on the board of the Warsaw Philharmonic.
Leopold Julian Kronenberg was also a musician who composed symphonic and chamber works, as well as songs. As a philanthropist, when the Warsaw Philharmonic faced bankruptcy, he was among those who paid off its debts.
Leopold Julian was a respected and esteemed entrepreneur. The family's financial success was to be symbolised by a palace built in Warsaw at Evangelical Square and Królewska Street. This grand building, a symbol of luxury, did not survive the Second World War. Leopold Julian eventually left Warsaw and moved to the Brzezie estate in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, where he bred horses and entered them in races.
He came from a Jewish family and converted to Catholicism shortly before his death. He wished to be buried beside his beloved wife, the singer Józefina Reszke, who had died prematurely. He died at the Brzezie estate at the age of 88.
(plot 19-1/2-28)
The history of the Kronenberg family came to an end in 1980, when the last person bearing the surname died.