The house, constructed using the traditional timber framing technique, retains its original architectural form as well as parts of the period door and window joinery.

History

The house is believed to have been constructed during the first half of the 19th century, as evidenced by the type of timber framing and roof truss used as well as by the structure of the vaulted ceilings on the basement level. No information is available about its builders or original owners; the presence of utility buildings indicates that the parcel originally had the status of agricultural land, being one of many similar plots situated at the outskirts of the old town complex. After 1945, the land was taken over by a repatriated farmer who came from the former Lviv province; both the site and the house itself have retained their original nature, with the building itself undergoing ad-hoc repairs only, allowing its period appearance to remain intact.

Description

The house is located in the western part of the old town, forming part of a tightly clustered northern frontage of Jana Pawła II street - one of the main streets of the town of Mieszkowice. The tenement house does not possess any architectural detailing indicative of a specific architectural style, with the aesthetic value of its façade dictated purely by the distinctive arrangement of its timber frame as well as by the presence of period door and window joinery. The house was built on a roughly square floor plan and measures 11 by 10.4 metres; its front façade faces the south-east. The house has two entrances in total. It was designed as a two-storey building with a basement; it is covered with a tall gable roof which shares its ridge with the neighbouring house no. 23. The walls of the house feature a half-timbered structure with both clay (wattle-and-daub) and brick infills, their surface covered with painted plaster. The basement walls are made of field stone. Inside, the house features wooden beamed ceilings with a smooth clay finish. The basement level features vaulted ceilings of the barrel type. The rafter and collar roof truss rests upon a double queen-post structure, with the individual timbers forming part of the truss exhibiting significant differences in terms of finish and origin. The roof is clad with beaver-tail roof tiles forming a lace pattern. The front façade retains its original, four-axial layout, accentuated by the distinctive pattern and colour scheme of the structural timber frame as well as the period door and window joinery. The rear façade has been covered with plaster in modern times, its doors and windows likewise being of modern manufacture. The interior retains its original layout, with a gateway leading alongside the southern gable wall and into the backyard as well as the two-bay arrangement of walk-through rooms in the residential section of the house. Notable features include the four-pane windows divided by a cruciform arrangement of mullions and transoms and flanked by panelled window shutters on the ground floor level as well as the panelled double entrance door with a decorative astragal strip.

Private property. The building can be viewed from the outside.

compiled by Waldemar Witek, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Szczecin, 20-02-2015.

Bibliography

• Witek M., Witek W., Budownictwo ryglowe w gminie Mieszkowice. [in:] Nadodrzańskie Spotkania z Historią 2014, A. Chudziński (ed.), Pruszcz Gdański 2014, pp. 299-321.