The architecture of the representative administrative building is eclectic, referring to classicism. The former counting office is the only surviving building of the factory complex that operated between the current Strzelecka, Garbary and Krakowska Streets in the years 1858 – 1912. The tradition of the factory founded by H. Cegielski in 1846 in Poznań is continued by the company “H. Cegielski – Poznań S.A. (HCP)”.

The monument is located in the area of the Monument of History “Poznań - the historical city complex” (Regulation of the President of Poland of 28-11-2008).

History of the structure

Hipolit Cegielski (1813-1868) was a well-known industrialist and social activist. After completing his studies in Berlin, he returned to Poznań, where he began working as a teacher at the St. Mary Magdalene Gymnasium, of which he was a graduate. He lost his post in 1846 when he refused to conduct a search of his students’ apartments during the Wielkopolskie Uprising of 1846. The loss of his current source of income meant that in the same year he opened a shop in the Poznań Bazaar under the name of “Handel Żelaza”, and in 1850 a farm tool repair shop at Woźna Street. Soon, the thriving workshop was transformed into a small factory of agricultural machines and tools, which from 1855 was located at 7 Kozia Street in Poznań.

In 1858, due to the need to build a new, larger seat for his factory, H. Ciegielski bought a two-hectare plot in the shape of a triangle, located between the streets: Strzelecka from the west and Garbary to the east. From the north, it was bordered by the Struga Karmelicka stream (now non-existent), and from the south by the walls of the fortress with the Dębińska Gate (currently Krakowska Street runs at this point). The construction of the factory lasted until 1870. During this time, the production of locomobiles - a power unit based on a steam engine, used to power agricultural machinery, among other things - began. In the years 1869-1870 the most impressive building of the whole complex was erected, the preserved factory counting office (administrative building), designed by S. Hebanowski with the participation of H. Cegielski. Its tall, octagonal tower was a dominant feature among the factory’s other buildings. According to Z. Ostrowska Kębłowska, “(...) the use of the castle motif, which was particularly close to the landed gentry of Wielkopolska at that time, may have contributed to the widening of the circle of the most important customers for Cegielski’s tools and agricultural machines produced by the factory” (Z. Ostrowska-Kębłowska Z., Architektura i budownictwo w Poznaniu w latach 1780-1880, Poznań 2009, p. 399).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the previously private “H. Cegielski Factory of Agricultural Machines and Equipment in Poznań” was transformed into a joint stock company “H. Cegielski, Towarzystwo Akcyjne w Poznaniu”. The need to expand the dynamically operating plant and the lack of access to a railroad siding in the current location made it necessary to move the factory to Główna Street in 1913. The post-factory areas on Strzelecka Street belonged to the company until 1919. In the interwar period, a gradual development of the area began, followed by the demolition of the buildings forming the factory complex. Until the beginning of the 1990s, in addition to the administration building, there was also a workshop building, partially preserved at that time, located on its southern side. Currently, the counting office is part of the Wielkopolska Oncology Centre complex (it houses management and administration rooms), the buildings of which surround it from the north, south and east. On its west side there is a multi-family residential building from the 1960s.

The tradition of the factory founded by H. Cegielski in 1846 in Poznań is continued by the company “H. Cegielski – Poznań S.A. (HCP)” with its seat at 28 czerwca 1956r. Street, which is the producer of e.g. ship engines, locomotives and railway carriages.

Description of the structure

The former counting office of the H. Cegielski factory is located in the city centre, in the area between Strzelecka Street from the west and Garbary Street from the east. It is surrounded by modern buildings - on the west side by a multi-family residential building from the 1960s, set back from the frontage of Strzelecka Street, from the north, south, and east, by the buildings of the Wielkopolska Oncology Centre, with which it is connected by a glazed connector on the plan of an inverted letter “L”, departing from its eastern elevation.

The eclectic building, whose architecture resembles classicism, was built on a rectangular floor plan with an octagonal tower on the western axis, made of brick and plastered. The cuboidal body is two-storied, covered with a gable roof, the tower - four-storied with a low eight-pitched roof (all covered with tar paper).

In the axis of the two-storey, three-axial front elevation topped with a triangular gable there is a higher, four-storey tower, partially merged with the body of the building, containing a staircase with an entrance in the ground floor, situated on the western side. The height of its individual storeys, separated by profiled cornices, varies. The corners of the second, third and fourth stories are emphasized by pilasters. The first one corresponds to the height of the lower storey of the building, the third one is the highest, accented with window openings topped with full arches and similar blind windows in stepped surrounds, in the upper part of which there are clock faces. The window openings of the top storey are smaller but have similar patterns and are placed in pairs on each side of the tower. The remaining façades of the building are two-storey, divided by a string course and topped with a stepped crowning cornice. The window openings are rectangular, different but similar in size. Round, shallow niches surrounded with decorative plaster bands were placed between the first and second windows from the west of the second storey of the northern and southern elevations. The windows are contemporary with divisions reminiscent of the historic ones. In the axis of the eastern elevation, there is a glazed, cuboidal, two-storey connector reaching up to the crowning cornice, on the eastern side it bends at a right angle towards the south.  

The layout of the rooms in the interior is transformed, two-bay with the leading office and administrative function, divided by a corridor.

Visitor access. The site is accessible to the general public. The former counting office is now part of the Wielkopolskie Oncology Centre building complex and houses the administration.

Compiled by Anna Dyszkant, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 19.12.2017

Bibliography

• Atlas architektury Poznania, ed. J. Pazder, Poznań 2008, p. 286.
• Grot Z., Hipolit Cegielski, Poznań 2000.
• Januszkiewicz B., Wejchan-Kozielewska H., 150 lat firmy H. Cegielski – Poznań S.A., Poznań 1996.
• Ostrowska-Kębłowska Z., Architektura i budownictwo w Poznaniu w latach 1780-1880, Poznań 2009, p. 399.