History

The townhouse is located within the Old Town. The plot on which the townhouse is situated was probably delineated when the layout of the old town was determined in the 14th century. It was a little shorter then. It was extended eastwards after the town walls had been demolished in the 19th century. Until the 19th century, only the front part of the plot was built-up – there was only a frontage townhouse there. The cellars on which it was erected suggest that the building could have been built at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries at the latest.

The townhouse was remodelled in the first half of the 19th century.

Description

The townhouse is situated within the Old Town of Piotrków Trybunalski, in a quarter delimited by the following streets: Farna, Zamkowa, Zamurowa, Starowarszawska. The north-west corner of the quarter adjoins Czarneckiego Square. It is a corner townhouse. It occupies the entire width of the front part of the plot. It is included in the densely built-up western frontage of Farna Street. From the north, the frontage building is adjoined by a single-storey building situated in the frontage of Zamkowa Street. Behind the outbuilding, there is a high, brick fence with a gate leading to the plot. From the south, the plot is delimited by the wall of the building standing on the neighbouring plot.

The design of the building does not represent any architectural style.

The townhouse was erected on a trapezoidal plan, with a longer northern wall aligned with Zamkowa Street. The interior has a three-bay layout with the hallway along the southernmost axis. The rectangular structure is covered with a gable, asymmetrical roof with its ridge on the north-south axis, with the larger roof surface sloping towards the eastern elevation. The building was erected on a field stone foundation, bound with lime mortar. In the cellars, the walls are made from solid ceramic bricks laid with lime mortar in a Gothic and block pattern. The partition walls in the cellars are made of wood. The walls of the above-ground storeys are made from solid ceramic bricks laid with lime mortar, plastered from the outside and inside, with a smooth float finish.

In the cellars, there is a barrel vault perforated by lunettes (created by being pierced in a bricked-up section) above the passageway and ventilation opening. Made from ceramic bricks laid with lime mortar. Above the rooms on the ground and first floors, there are wooden beam ceilings with a soffit, covered with plaster with a reed mat as a plaster base. The wooden roof truss over the front of the house is of a mixed type: with a rafter-purlin and rafter-collar beam structure and 4 queen-post walls longitudinally braced with brackets. The roof is covered with bituminous felt on a timber deck.

In the cellars, there is concrete screed flooring. In the hallway on the ground floor and in some of the rooms, there are terracotta floors. In other rooms, there are wooden plank floors on joists.

The stairs leading to the hallway and to the commercial premises are made of brick and plastered. The stairs leading to the cellars are made of brick, with sandstone steps and risers and an openwork metal balustrade with a wooden handrail. The stairs to the attic are wooden, ladder-type, with a wooden handrail.

The plastered elevations are unadorned with the exception of an under-eaves cornice in the eastern and western elevations and sections of cornice under the window openings in the northern elevation.

The front (western) elevation faces Farna Street and is four-axial, asymmetrical and two-storey. The window and door openings are rectangular. On the second and fourth axes on the ground floor, from the north, there are entrance openings. On the second axis on the first floor, there is a porte-fenêre door leading to the balcony. A balcony with a metal structure is based on metal angle brackets. The balustrade is made from straight metal bars.

The northern elevation is asymmetrical, gable and two-storey. There are four window and door openings on each storey. On the ground floor, on the easternmost axis, there is a large rectangular window divided into six sections. A little further, there is an entrance to the shop, preceded by concrete stairs. On the first floor, in the westernmost section of the building, there is a blende. The western corner has the form of a shallow avant-corps. The elevation is extended from the east by the northern elevation of the outbuilding and further by a wall with a gate.

The eastern elevation is asymmetrical and two-storey. From the north, the openings on the ground floor and first floor are placed on the same two axes. In the other part of the elevation, there are two window and door openings on each story, which are non-axial. The entrance to the hallway is situated on the ground floor in the southernmost part of the building.

The upper storey of the southern elevation is concealed by the neighbouring building at No. 4 Farna Street. In the gable, there is a ventilation opening supplying fresh air to the attic.

Private property. The building can be viewed from outside.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 27 April 2020

Bibliography

• Pietrzak J., Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, 1998, Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź, National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw,
• Głowacki K., Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski – Kielce 1984.