History

The villa was built on a plot bought in 1902 by Artur Tomasz Hoser, who belonged to a family of well-known Warsaw-based gardeners. Artur Tomasz was a son of Wincenty Hoser, a gardener and pomologist, co-founder of the “Bracia Hoser” company. His wife, Władysława Lasocka, was related to Michał Piotr Lasocki, an owner of the property, the partition of which marked the beginnings of Milanówek resort. Artur Tomasz Hoser actively participated in various associations for the Milanówek community. The “Borówka” villa, along with a utility building, was completed in the Autumn of 1904 and designed, perhaps in collaboration with the investor, by a well-known team of Warsaw-based architects, Wadysław Kozłowski and Apoloniusz P. Nieniewski. Although the owner was not a gardener, he designed the garden around the villa, which included valuable specimens of trees and bushes and forest tree stands. After the Warsaw Uprising the villa was inhabited by refugees from Warsaw; later on, the complex was taken over by the accommodation office. The plot was gradually partitioned and the garden fell into neglect. In the 1980s the villa was renovated by the founder’s descendants. In 2007 it was restored by new owners and adapted to serve as a hotel and restaurant. Currently, since 2014, subsequent owners have run a restaurant with conference facilities in the villa. It is a place that hosts numerous cultural events.

Description

The complex is located in the centre of the town, on the northern side of the railway tracks of the former Warsaw-Vienna line, on an irregular parcel between Kościelna and Queen Jadwiga Streets. Initially, the parcel with the garden stretched to the corner of these streets. Currently, in the east and west it neighbours on parcels formed as a result of post-war partitioning. The estate’s fence at Kościelna Street is distinctive for its gate with two wicket gates and four brick, quadrangular posts decorated by plastered blind windows. On the side of Kościelna Street, the estate is surrounded by a former plastered wall with brick lesenes and an elongated utility building standing parallel to its line. A villa located in the middle of the parcel has an irregular plan and a diverse shape of the body. It is made of red brick and the appearance of the façades is enriched by contrasting white fragments of walls and parts made of fieldstones. One-storey annexes, among others, a veranda with large windows terminating in semi-circles, were added to a two-storey building corpus with a basement and a loft, covered with steep gable roofs clad with roof tiles. A quadrangular tower, added in the east, with an upper part stylised as medieval machicolations, that is, a type of a porch resting on corbels and equipped with narrow apertures, towers over the building.Facades are decorated with lavish detail, consisting of, among others, pointed-arch blind windows, turrets, pinnacles, buttresses, varied forms of windows. A repertoire of decorations is enriched by green tiles placed in rows in panels under the windows. A characteristic shape and decoration of the building trigger its picturesque appearance that arouses associations with a Gothic castle complemented by Renaissance elements. Opposite the entrance gate, there is the most stunning front façade of the building. An elongated utility building with extreme avant-corps, located at the back of the estate, initially housed a carriage house, a stable and a watchman’s house. Its decoration is modest, albeit corresponding to the villa’s appearance. The development is surrounded by well-cared-for greenery with a new arrangement of alleys.

The feature is open to visitors.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 20-11-2014.

Bibliography

• Karta Ewidencyjna, Willa letnia, willa „Borówka” zw. Willą Hosera, oprac. Ślizińska-Mrozek Milada, Milanówek 1976, Archiwum NID.
• Ewidencja, Ogród przy willi „Borówka”, oprac. Sokolska Jadwiga, Aniszewska Ewa, 1984, Archiwum NID
• Jaroszewski T.S., Architektura rezydencjonalna wielkiej burżuazji warszawskiej w latach 1864-1914, w: Od klasycyzmu do nowoczesności, s .137
• Kajzer Leszek, Niedaleko Warszawy, „Spotkania z Zabytkami” nr 1, 1987, s. 3-7
• Żuławska Z., Milanówek 1899-1939, [b.m.w.] 1999, s. 11-12
• Wesołowska H., Spacer po Milanówku 1, [b.m.w.] 1995, s. 13
• Architektura Milanówka w rysunkach Katarzyny Chrudzimskiej, [b.m.w.] 1997, s. 17
• Album fotograficzny Letnisko Milanówek 1899-1951, Milanówek 2006, s. 37
• http://www.willaborowka.pl - dostęp 19-11-2014 r.