History

As early as in 1788, the Solnicki Family has a masonry one-storey tenement house in the southern frontage of the chartered Kielce market square. In the late 18th century, ownership of the property was taken over by another family, since the then owners, Raab family, sold it to the Solnicki family as a burned-down site with a shop and basement after the town fire in 1800. The property returned to the family that once owned it. The Solnicki family rebuilt a masonry one-storey house on the property; the house featured arcades supported by pillars from the side of the market square and was marked on the regulatory plan of Kielce dated 1823. The tenement house filled the L-shaped plot front, with a rectangular yard, partly enclosed with outbuildings and a narrow entrance from current Dłużej Street. After the death of Franciszek Solnicki, mayor of Kielce, ownership of the property passed to his heirs. In 1826, the widow was urged by the town authorities to demolish the arcades and extend the house upwards by adding a floor, already in the new development line. Only her son-in-law, merchant Adam Ciecholewski, made the recommended alterations and upward extension in 1828.

The one-storey tenement house is side-gabled and built of stone transformed into limestone; its whole ground floor covered with barrel vaults. Two front halls housed a shop and a guest room. The back suite of rooms included a storage, book-keeping room, and hall. The yard was accessed via a narrow hall on the outermost axis. The first floor was accessed via a staircase and stone winder stairs. The wealth of the owners allowed to decorate the façade with stone décor details. The roof was clad with iron sheet metal. Two balconies with stone platforms and forged balustrades were installed on the façade. A narrow long yard situated between two rows of masonry outbuildings featured a stone well. In 1866, the property was owned by Julia Ciecholewska. The property remained in the hands of her family until the end of the 19th century.

In 1907, it was bought by Moszek Majer Rosenberg on an auction. In 2010, earthworks revealed relics of the basement beneath the market square, which mark the line of the land development in the 18th century.

Description

The tenement house is located on the southern frontage of the Market Square, densely built-up area between Duża Street and Mała Street. The brick and stone house is side-gabled just like the neighbouring buildings. Two wings of the outbuildings in the back of the tenement house adjoin the multi-storey cylindrical front part covered with a gable roof. The façades of the tenement house are plastered. Classical architectural decoration adorns only a symmetrically shaped five-axial façade from the side of the market square. Shallow avant-corps on the outermost axes on which entrances to the building, topped with balconies, are located, were particularly lavishly decorated. The avant-corps are flanked by pilasters on both storeys and crowned with a massive entablature with triglyphs on the first floor, and a line of eaves topped with parapet walls. The décor of the central three-axial part of the façade is limited to cornices and crowning entablature. Details on the façade include: two portals, balcony door frames, crowning cornice, supports under the balconies made of sandstone. Balcony platforms are also made of stone. The interiors of the ground floor featuring a two-bay layout, with a staircase to the first floor and a hall completely retained the layout from the mid-19th-century and original barrel vaults on arches.

The part for customers is open to visitors during the opening hours of catering establishments.

compiled by Anna Adamczyk, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Kielce, 10-12-2014.

Bibliography

• National Archives in Kielce, files of the Insurance Directorate, ref. no. 133, pp. 289.
• Adamczyk J. L., Rynek w Kielcach. Przekształcenia przestrzenne i zabudowa mieszczańska Kielc lokacyjnych w XVII-XIX wieku, Kielce 1993, pp. 31, 68-69, fig. 56, 57, 80.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. 3, Województwo kieleckie, issue 4. Powiat kielecki, prepared by Przypkowski Tadeusz, p. 40 (fig. 35).
• Miks N., Podcienia rynku kieleckiego. “Ochrona Zabytków”, 1954, no. 2, p. 131.
• Urbański K., Miklaszewska H., Sentymentalne Kielce. Fotografie ze zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego w Kielcach, Kielce 2004, p. 18.