The official said in an interview with the Newsweek magazine, published on Monday, that the area where the palace stood is the “only altar to the homeland that we have.”

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier rests beneath the only surviving fragment of the palace, which once graced one of the main squares in Poland’s capital.

He continued, stating that the Saxon Palace was “much-needed by Poles” as it was “the only place that still unites all Poles, regardless of their political views, religion and all other differences.”

Sienkiewicz added that the tomb would not be “surrounded by a hotel with a casino and a large structure where men make a lot of cash.”

“I want to rebuild the Saxon Palace so that it becomes the dominant element in the area that surrounds the most sacred place in Poland,” he concluded.

Dating back to 1666, the Saxon Palace was one of the most distinctive buildings in pre-war Warsaw before it was leveled by the Germans during World War II.