Prominent figures from the cultural milieus lived and created their works of art there. It was built for a painter Zdzisław Jasiński, who sold it to a writer Stefan Żeromski. It later belonged to his informal wife, Anna Zawadzka, and his daughter, Monika Żeromska, both of whom were painters. Currently, the building hosts a museum devoted to the writer and his family.

History

The house was erected on a plot no. 9, according to a development plan of the Konstancin resort, situated at the intersection of Sienkiewicza and Witolda streets. The plot was purchased before 1914 by a painter popular at that time, Zdzisław Jasiński, who commissioned his friend, constructor Zenon Chrzanowski - an author of, among others, several houses in nearby Piaseczno, with the design of the villa. The construction was carried out by a design office of Władysław Czosnkowski, but due to financial problems caused by the war the villa was not completed. In 1918 Zdzisław Jasiński depicted this house, which he inhabited together with his wife and three daughters, on a watercolour. One can see large, non-glazed window and door openings in the south wall of the veranda. The villa’s name - Świt - was related to a family history and political situation of that period, filled with hope related to the regained independence. Confronted with the postwar crisis, the painter decided to sell the house. On 25 July 1920 it was bought by Stefan Żeromski. The writer moved into the completed villa together with Anna Zawadzka and daughter Monika. At first, he lived there for the whole year, being personally involved in fitting the house and the garden. Later, especially after being granted an apartment in the Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1924, he treated the “Świt” villa as a summer residence. After Żeromski’s death on 20 November 1925, his daughter remained in the villa together with her mother. During World War II, in May 1944, just like many other houses in Konstancin, the villa was taken over by the Germans, who destroyed parts of the fixtures and fittings. After the war, the previous owners lived there together with forcefully accommodated tenants, trying to preserve the interior décor from Żeromski’s times. Under their will, the building was handed over to the Foundation for the Maintenance of Stefan Żeromski’s Legacy, established in 2002. Renovated in 2012, the Stefan Żeromski’s House Museum, was transformed into the Commune Museum of Stefan Żeromski and His Family on 1 May 2017.

Description

The house is located in Konstancin-Jeziorna on a rectangular plot at an intersection, on the north side of Sienkiewicza Street and the west side of Żeromskiego Street. The building is located in the north part of the plot, with its front façade facing Żeromskiego Street, at which a gate with a wicket is found in the property fencing. The house is surrounded with a historic forest park with a garden part on the south side. The feature has a simple, modest form with balanced proportions, characteristic for the early modernism. The building is made of brick, plastered and with a basement underneath parts of its structure. The two-storey main block is erected on a rectangular floor plan, covered with a hip roof clad in tiles with a projecting stepped eaves and small eyebrow dormers on the east-west axis of the planes. A one-storey veranda is added at the front, crowned with a terrace on the second floor. Initially, this annex was pierced by large door and window openings with a permanent framework divided into quarters of various sizes by means of muntin bars. After 1925 this part of the house was slightly redesigned. One of the openings in the south part of the front façade was walled up and the window in the north façade was diminished. At the front there is an entrance door on the axis on the ground floor. Above, there is a balcony window leading to the terrace. A single-storey annex adjoins the north-west corner of the house, with a slightly taller porch adjacent to the north wall. Both components of this part of the house, with separate door openings on the east and north side, are covered with separate three-sided roofs. On the axis of the south façade, on the second storey, there is a small balcony that, similarly as the front terrace, has a simple wooden balustrade with vertical battens and distinctive rectangular clearances from the bottom up. Windows of various sizes, mostly arranged asymmetrically, and the number of partitions are distinguished by multi-panel ornamental glass with vertical muntins. Window sills on the ground floor are clad in beaver tail roof tiles. The interior of the building features décor surviving from the times of Stefan Żeromski’s life, among others, tiled stoves and stairs with wooden balustrades. The museum display presents the equipment and the writer’s memorabilia as well as paintings by Monika Żeromska and graphics by Anna Zawadzka.

The historic monument is accessible to visitors. The museum is open between 1 May and 15 October on each Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, between 10:00 and 16:00. It may be visited in other months upon prior appointment by phone.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Warsaw. 03-01-2018

Bibliography

• Record sheet, Willa „Świt”, Konstancin-Jeziorna, prepared by “Triforium” 1992, Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw;
• Record sheet, Willa „Świt”, Konstancin-Jeziorna, 1975, Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw;
• Communal Inventory of Monuments sheet, Willa “Świt” z zielenią w granicach posesji, Konstancin-Jeziorna, 2006, collection of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw;
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