Konsulat Generalny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w Chicago Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago Contents![]() | |
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Location | Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, United States |
Address | 1530 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60610 |
Coordinates | 41°54′38″N87°37′36″W / 41.9105°N 87.6266°W Coordinates: 41°54′38″N87°37′36″W / 41.9105°N 87.6266°W |
Consul General | Piotr Janicki |
The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago (Polish : Konsulat Generalny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w Chicago) is a consular mission of the Republic of Poland in the United States. The mission serves the largest Polish communities outside of Poland.
The consulate is located at 1530 North Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast area of the Near North Side region of Chicago, Illinois. [1]
Soon after the establishment of the Second Polish Republic, a consulate was opened in Chicago on June 1, 1920, with Zygmunt Nowicki being the first consul. After the United States recognized the Provisional Government of National Unity (later becoming the communist Polish People's Republic) over the Polish government-in-exile in 1945, the previous representatives refused to hand over the premises of their missions, resulting in it taking several months before all consulates, including the one in Chicago, were taken by PPR diplomats. The US Department of State asked that the consulate be closed down in 1954; it took until October 1958 for an agreement to be made to restore it, with the consulate finally reopening in October 1959. The consulate had jurisdiction over 28 states from that point until the opening of a consulate in Los Angeles, which took jurisdiction over 15 western states previously managed there. [2] Through the 1980s, the Polish American Congress held demonstrations outside the consulate, among other measures, to signal their support for the Solidarity movement and protest the imposition of martial law in Poland. This led to the square outside the consulate being dubbed "Solidarity Square". [3]
The building that currently houses the consulate opened in 1916 as a private residence named Eckhart Mansion. The Polish government bought the house in 1974. The house became a Gold Coast historical monument in 1989. [1] [2]
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes an embassy, which is the main office of a country's diplomatic representatives to another country; it is usually, but not necessarily, based in the receiving state's capital city. Consulates, on the other hand, are smaller diplomatic missions that are normally located in major cities of the receiving state. As well as being a diplomatic mission to the country in which it is situated, an embassy may also be a nonresident permanent mission to one or more other countries.
A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people of the two countries.
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