History

Mentions of the first owner of the property were made as early as 1377; records dated 1415 refer to the second owner thereof. The tenement house itself was built in the Renaissance style in 1560, for Johann Connert, a city councillor. In 1616, it remained the property of Engelbreht Koenig, while from 1755 onwards its owner was magistrate Christoph Warcholl and his successors, among whom was the Schaumann family, who owned the house in years 1803-61. During the second half of the 18th century, the facade was enriched through the addition of a stoop designed in the Rococo style. The interiors of the house were subjected to alteration works on numerous occasions during the 19th and 20th century; the stoop in front of the house was demolished in 1872. In 1912, during the adaptation works designed to adapt the ground floor to serve as a café, a stone Renaissance arch was relocated to the town hall in the Old Town, where it survives to this day. In 1917, the tenement house was bought by a bank; in years 1920-1924 alteration works were performed on the interiors, with the ground floor becoming functionally linked to the ground floors of tenement houses carrying the numbers 44 and 43. In 1934, a shopping arcade operated inside the interconnected tenement houses. In 1945, the house suffered extensive damage, the only remaining parts being the lower sections of the facade and a part of the side facade with a dormer. The reconstruction of the building, designed to recreate it as it was in 1560, was conducted in years 1951-1953, using the surviving parts of the house; Z. Wysocki was the architect in charge of the works performed. The most recent renovation of the facade was conducted in 2006.

Description

The tenement house is located in the central part of the Main Town, in a very visible spot on the corner of the Długa and Ławnicza street, on the Long Market. The facade of the house faces the Długa street. The painted Renaissance facade decorations are reminiscent of the Mannerist art of the Netherlands, which exhibited strong Classical influences. The tenement house was built on an elongated rectangular plan. It features three storeys and a basement and is covered with a gable roof with dormer windows. The building is a brick structure with stone sculptural decorations; the ceilings are modern structures made of reinforced concrete, while the roofs are clad with roof tiles. The tenement house features a three-axis facade with three storeys, the ground floor being the highest; a prominent gable crowns the entire building. The house stands on a tall, pronounced stone plinth, with vertical Tuscan pilasters dividing the facade and supporting entablatures adorned with a triglyph and metope frieze (bucrania and round shields). The gable wall is divided in the same pattern as the facade, with Tuscan pilasters in the lower section of the gable and herm pilasters in the upper section); the edges are framed with volutes. Sculptures depicting Diana and Apollo, designed by A. Pietrowiec, stand inside niches in the lower section of the gable wall, with a statue of Zeus perched atop the structure. The entrance portal with a transom light is positioned on the axis of the facade and preceded by a flight of stairs; the doorway is framed by a semi-circular arch and flanked by columns supporting a mitered entablature with a frieze. The building features a nine-axis side facade set atop a tall plinth, divided by pilasters and entablatures with friezes; the dormers are decorated in a similar manner, with edges framed with volutes and triangular pediments crowning each dormer. The back facade repeats the layout of the front facade, although sculptural decorations are absent.

Accessible historic building.

Compiled by Krystyna Babnis, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 29.10.2014.

Bibliography

• Friedrich J., Gdańskie zabytki architektury do końca XVIII w., Gdańsk 1997, s. 255-256.
• Stankiewicz J., Massalski R., Ulica Długa nr 45, [in:] Katalog Zabytków Sztuki, B. Roll and I. Strzelecka (eds.), Miasto Gdańsk, part 1: Główne Miasto, Warsaw 2006, pp. 196-197.