History

The present-day property at No. 2 Rynek Trybunalski (Tribunal Square)/ No. 2 Sieradzka Street initially consisted of four land plots - two at the Market Square and two facing Sieradzka Street. The precise date of construction of the townhouse has not been established, because no archaeological and architectural research has been carried out there. The first information found in the archives comes from 1702 and concerns the plot known today as Rynek Trybunalski No. 1. It is mentioned there that Agnieszka née Janowicz, wife of Jakub Szterling donated a 2,000 zloty share in the value of the house to a church in Pabianice. As shown by an illustration of the Piotrków Market Square from that period, it was an arcaded house. The house is also known to have been called “Brydakowska”. In the mid-18th century, the property belonged to Domicela and Sebastian Pawlicki. In 1762, it was sold to Agnieszka and Marcin Neymanowicz and Anna Karella. In 1786, the upper part of the building and the woodwork were destroyed. After its reconstruction, the Naymanowicz couple sold their part to Konsyliarz (Official) of the Free Cities of the Republic of Poland, Tomasz Makułowski, who had already owned the part previously belonging to the Karelli family (the corner part of the land plot). In 1836 the townhouse was damaged in a fire. A year later, Mr. Makułowski died, and the townhouse was inherited by his daughters. In 1840, they sold the plot to Dymitr and Marianna Grabowski. The new owners, who did not have sufficient resources, decided to wall up the badly damaged arcades. The Grabowski family also took over the plot previously belonging to the Kanelli family. After Dymitr’s death, Marianna remarried. Her second husband’s name was Franciszek Dąbecki. When Marianna died in 1861, Franciszek Dąbecki sold the property to Józef and Józefina Mikulski. They in turn sold it to Jan and Letycja Michalecki, owners of the neighbouring property. At that time, both townhouses underwent a full-scale renovation and were combined into one building. In the second half of the 18th century, the third, west-facing part belonged to Szpakiewicz, from whom the house, damaged during a fire in 1786, was bought by Jacek Świetlikiewicz – a shoemaker. After Jacek’s death, the house was inherited by his son Stanisław. Stanisław’s widow sold the property to the Mikulski family, who in turn sold it to Józef Michalecki. In 1868, he also bought the fourth part of today’s property. In this way, he became the owner of the entire property at No. 2 Rynek Trybunalski / No. 2 Sieradzka Street. Between 1869 and 1870, he renovated the last part of the property, combining all the buildings into a corner townhouse, which reopened as Hotel Litewski. In 1878, he leased the building for 9 years to Paweł Kotnowski and Stanisław Skorupski from Warsaw. The next owner of the property was Teofil Netzel and then his daughters Emilia Netzel and Aleksandra Chęcińska. In 1958, the building became the property of the State Treasury.

Description

The townhouse is situated at the north-west corner of Rynek Trybunalski (Tribunal Square). It occupies the larger part of the north-west quarter at the market square and is surrounded by the following streets: Rynek (from the east), Sieradzka (from the north), Rycerska (from the west) and Szewska (from the south). From the south, it adjoins a two-storey townhouse.

The townhouse has Neoclassical features.

It consists of three rectangular buildings built around a rectangular yard. From the east (the front of the townhouse at the Market Square), it follows a floor plan resembling a square, in an asymmetrical three-bay system, with a rounded north-east corner. The north-facing part of the townhouse is two-bay, built on a floor plan of an elongated rectangle, with an avant-corps in the southern wall and a narrow one-bay outbuilding from the west.

The front townhouse and the side wing are cellared and have three above-ground storeys. In the principal block, there is a usable attic. The principal block has a three-hipped roof with a lantern skylight, which provides natural light to the staircase. The side wing is covered with a gabled roof, with the southern slope extending over the avant-corps. The two-storey outbuildings are not cellared and have an attic, a part of which was habitable in the past. The outbuildings are covered by shed roofs. The attics are lighted by dormers.

The townhouse was built from ceramic bricks laid with lime and lime-cement mortar. Stone was also used in some of the cellars. Plastered. In the cellars, there are barrel vaults. In the hallway, there is a barrel vault with lunettes. The ceiling is made from wooden beams. In the staircase, there are Klein ceilings. The wooden roof truss over the principal block and the wing has a purlin-collar beam structure with a double queen-post wall. The roof is covered with bituminous felt on the roof boarding. In the cellars, there are earthen floors. The floors are white and made from planks on joists. The floor in the gateway has a cement finish. In habitable rooms, there are ceramic tile floors. One-flight, brick stairs lead to the cellar. There are three staircases in the above-ground storeys. In the principal block, there are wooden, two-flight stairs. The stairs connecting the ground floor with the first floor have a metal balustrade with a wooden handrail. Above, the balustrade is made from wooden balusters. In the side wing, there are three-flight, quarter-turn stairs with a reinforced concrete structure and terrazzo steps, terracotta-covered landings and a simple metal railing. In the western staircase of the side wing, there are wooden, two-flight stairs with stringers. The wooden balustrade is made from turned balusters.

The modern, coupled windows mirror the form of the original windows. The windows have two wings, each divided into four sections. On the ground floor, there are permanently fixed shop windows.

The single and two-wing doors are frame-panelled. In the front gate, there is a two-wing door with a fanlight.

The front-eastern elevation mirrors the style of the northern one. They are both set on a plinth whose height is adjusted to the slope of the ground. The openings on the ground floor are placed against the background of rusticated strips. The ground floor is topped with a cordon cornice. Above, against the background of a smooth wall on the second storey, there are rectangular window openings and a port-fenêtre in stuccoed, profiled frames. Over each opening, there is a section of profiled cornice. Above, the plain wall is pierced by rectangular openings in stucco frames. The walls are topped with a double cornice. Above it, against the background of a smooth frieze, there are round windows lighting the attic. The walls are crowned with an under-eaves cornice.

The eastern-front elevation is three-storey, six-axial and asymmetrical. The northernmost axis is positioned in the rounded corner. Along its entire height, this axis is accented by smooth pilaster strips. In the southernmost axis on the ground floor, there is a gate topped with a basket arch. On the axis of the gate, in two storeys, there are balconies and a port-fenêtre. There are also balconies in the axes of the upper storeys, at the rounded corner. Each balcony rests on metal brackets and has a richly decorated metal balustrade. The northern elevation has twelve axes.

Inside the townhouse, there are preserved items of the fixtures and fittings of the former hotel. Wide stairs lead to the upper floors. The layout of the former hotel rooms is still clearly discernible there, even though some of the rooms have been combined. The skylight above the staircase has been preserved too.

On the ground floor of Hotel Litewski, there was a restaurant. The owners and the name of the restaurant changed over the years. It functioned under different names, such as “Adria” and “Cristal”, but it was invariably known for its delicious cuisine.

Private property. The building can be viewed from outside.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 15 June 2020

Bibliography

• Pietrzak J., Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, 1996, Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź, National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw,
• Głowacki K., Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski – Kielce 1984.
• Kozalski A., Dokumentacja historyczno-archiwalna III bloku zabudowy staromiejskiej, PKZ Kielce 1989 r., typescript from the archives of the Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź.