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House (villa) complex, currently an office building - Zabytek.pl

House (villa) complex, currently an office building


residential building Kielce

Address
Kielce, Juliusza Słowackiego 16

Location
woj. świętokrzyskie, pow. Kielce, gm. Kielce

Example of an Art Nouveau urban villa from the early 20th century, preserved almost in the original shape with accompanying buildings and authentic façade and interior décor.

House of a famous architect Stanisław Szpakowski from Kielce.

History

The villa was built on the outskirts of the urban district called “Nowe Miasto” (“New Town”) in the then Hipoteczna Street in 1904-1906. The property was owned by Barbara Szpakowska who purchased from the association of Kielce Catholic Clergy Funds (Polish: Kieleckie Finansy Katolickich Duchownych) in 1904. The area of the plot originally reached Wesoła Street. The villa was erected simultaneously with a utility building (gatehouse) between the front yard and the garden and a fence from the street. The design was most likely developed by the husband of the owner, Stanisław Szpakowski, renowned architect from Kielce, who carried out an official function as an engineer and architect of the Kielce Governorate since 1905. The Szpakowski family lived in the villa until 1913. The next owner was Julian Kośmiński, former heir to Książ Mały. Before World War 2, ownership of the property passed to the Gajdziński family.

In 1968, it became the property of the State Treasury. The building housed tenant flats and an Orthodox chapel in the living room, on the ground floor. In 1979, ownership of the building was acquired by the Polish Automobile Association, for the purposes of which the building was completely renovated (1979-1980). Further renovations were made in the 1990s. The complex has been preserved in almost original form. The villa composed as a free-standing structure was disfigured by the addition of a neighbouring one-family house already during World War 2. The area of the plot was decreased by cutting off part of the garden for the purpose of creating Wesoła Street. The remains of the garden with a swimming pool, fountain and ornamental pillars topped with vases existed still in the 1970s.

Description

The villa complex is located on the outskirts of the south centre of Kielce, on the west side of Słowackiego Street, on a rectangular plot. The originally free-standing villa (adjoined by a newer building to the north) is set slightly further back from the buildings on the frontage and separated by a decorative masonry cast iron fence from the street. Its south-western corner adjoins a low one-storey building, through which a gateway leads to the garden in the back of the plot. The front yard features an old two-wheel pump over a well and an ornamental cast iron well installed in the side façade of the villa. The complex is characterised by an Art Nouveau design scheme, which, with its geometric decorations, is partly reminiscent of the Vienna Secession, with clearly discernible historicist influences.

The villa was built of brick and is distinguished by a highly fragmented body. It was erected on an irregular floor plan resembling the shape of “L”, with a projecting south-eastern corner and several smaller avant-corps, loggias supported by pillars and columns, and a lookout tower facing the garden. It is covered with a conglomerate of roofs of various shapes. The façades are bicolour and feature a combination of bright plaster and fragments made of red brick. The décor consists, among others, of wall partitions by means of cornices, corners and ground floor windows decorated with massive rustication, surrounds of window arches with pronounced keystones. The graphically distinct south avant-corps of the façade features triforium windows characteristic of Art Nouveau with semi-circular flanks on the ground floor and biforium on the upper storey, framed with volutes, crowned with segmental surrounds and decorated with the most popular Art Nouveau motif of a circle with three strips at the bottom.

The avant-corps is surmounted by a pronounced machicolated cornice broken by a curved gable with an oculus in the middle and spherical pinnacles on the sides. A tall loggia added next to it is crowned with an attic composed of concave segments between the posts. The garden façade was decorated in the more historicist style: chamfered walls of the avant-corps are framed by lesenes, and the roofed porch rests on four Tuscan columns supporting a classic entablature. The interior of the southern wing has a one-and-a-half-bay layout with a wide corridor, whereas the northern wing — a two-bay layout. The interiors feature the preserved original stucco ceiling detail, decorative cast iron staircase balustrade and a few tiles stoves with finials. The adjacent small utility building is masonry and plastered.

It was built on a rectangular floor plan and covered with a gable roof. The façade is pierced by an entrance gate in the middle, accentuated by a segmental pediment. The front decorative fence consists of a stone foundation, adorned with arcaded panels and masonry posts framed by volutes on the sides, connected by means of forged iron spans. Two wicket gates are covered with semicircular vaults.

Limited access to the monument. The monument can be viewed from the outside.

compiled by Anna Adamczyk, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Kielce, 15-12-2014.

Bibliography

  • Adamczyk A., Nowa dzielnica- inwestycja miasta gubernialnego. Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne Kielc, vol. 2, part 3 a, PP PKZ O/Kielce 1991, pp. 94-95, typescript available in the Archives of Regional Monument Inspector for Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship.
  • Adamczyk A., Prace remontowo-konserwatorskie i budowlane w granicach województwa świętokrzyskiego i dawnego kieleckiego, [in:] Piasecka A. (ed.), Prace konserwatorskie w latach 1999-2000. Dziesięć lat Służby Ochrony Zabytków w Kielcach, Kielce 2001, p. 38.
  • Adamczyk J. L., Przewodnik po zabytkach architektury i budownictwa Kielc, Kielce 1998, p. 66.
  • Adamczyk J. L., Wróbel T., Portrety zabytków Kielc, Kielce 2004, p. 36.
  • Różalski J., Architektura rezydencjonalna w Kielcach. Przykłady z pierwszych dziesięcioleci XX wieku, [in:] Adamczyk J. L. (ed.), Architektura pierwszych dziesięcioleci XX wieku w Kielcach, Kielce 1998, pp. 75-76.
  • Szczepański J., Architekci i budowniczowie. Materiały, Warsaw-Cracow 1990, pp. 146-148.

Category: residential building

Protection: Register of monuments

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_26_ZE.24498