History

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Karol Rudowski was one of the wealthiest merchants in Piotrków. In 1896, he bought two land plots no. 333 and 339, located between No. 3 Maja Avenue and Tomickiego Street. In 1899, he built an Eclectic palace on one of them, and the street in front of it was given the name of Rudowski Passage. In 1955, the name of the passage was changed to KRN Street. The original name was restored in 1991.

At the end of the 1920s, Karol’s son Maksymilian, a lawyer, was promoted to the position of the President of the Supreme Court. He then moved to Warsaw and rented the palace to a trade school. The school existed there until the 1970s. Rooms were also rented to a music centre. In 1980, Witold Rudowski donated the building to the city for use by a music school. The music school opened in 1989, after the building had been thoroughly renovated.

Description

The building is situated to the south of the Old Town, in the northern frontage of the quarter delimited by the following streets: Pasaż Rudowskiego, 3 Maja Avenue, Piastowska Street and Adama Próchnika Street. It is set back from the street and is preceded by a wide lawn. The northern elevation stands along the passage. The courtyard from the south is delimited by a building with modest ornamentation.

The palace was built in the Eclectic style with elements of Neo-Renaissance and Baroque.

It is built from solid ceramic bricks laid with lime-cement mortar. Plastered. The elevations are embellished with cement architectural details.

Over the cellars, there is a Klein ceiling, over the storeys, there are reinforced concrete slabs on steel beams (during the last renovation, the reinforced concrete slabs replaced wooden beams). The roof truss is wooden, with one queen post. It is clad with galvanized sheet metal. In the cellar, there are terrazzo and concrete screed floors. Marble slabs in the hall and on the terrace, herringbone parquet flooring in the rooms. The front wooden door is original. It has two frame-panelled wings with a two-section fanlight. The top parts of the wings are glazed and have a grate with the monogram KR. The other doors are contemporary, panelled, one-wing. The casement windows are single-section on the ground level and three-section on the ground floor, with a rectangular fanlight. In the avant-corps on the first floor, the windows are topped with a full arch. The external stairs are concrete, one-flight and trapezoidal, with a baluster railing. The stairs lead to a rectangular terrace. In the lower terrace, the balustrade is fully panelled. The brick stairs next to the avant-corps of the side elevations are one-flight, and so are the stairs leading to the cellars. The internal stairs are made of brick and reinforced concrete, with terrazzo steps and new steel bar balustrades. In the west-facing avant-corps, there are winding stairs made of sandstone.

The building was erected on a rectangular floor plan, with three rectangular avant-corpses at the front and two semicircular avant-corpses at the side elevations. The cellars have the width of one bay and a half, with a corridor from the south, accessible from the staircases in the main building and from outside – under the terrace. The ground floor has one bay and a half, with a corridor along the southern elevation. The main entrance in the avant-corps is positioned on the axis. It leads to a rectangular vestibule and a hall. The hall and the avant-corps are of equal width.

The building has high cellars and avant-corpses from the front. It is topped with low balustraded attics. The central avant-corps is preceded by a rectangular colonnaded portico on a rectangular floor plan. On the first floor, there is a terrace with a baluster railing. At the side elevations, there are semicircular avant-corpses. They are topped with a cornice placed slightly below the cornice that crowns the building. Shed roofs.

The two-storey elevations are set on a high plinth. Ground floor with rusticated plasterwork. On the ground floor, the openings are rectangular. In the avant-corpses on the first floor, they are topped with semi-circular arches. The dividing and crowning cornices are profiled. The crowning cornice rests on corbels.

The front elevation is 21-axial, symmetrical. The avant-corps on the axis is five-axial, the outermost ones are three-axial. The avant-corpses are topped with balustrades consisting of balusters and adorned by vases on posts. On the first floor, the windows are flanked by pilasters which support the entablature with a triangular pediment. Under the windows, there are decorative panels. The front avant-corps is preceded by an eight-column portico (with Corinthian columns at the front). The spacious terrace is rectangular, with a baluster railing. Each of the openings on the first floor is flanked by pilasters which support the entablature. On the axis, above the cornice, there is an aedicula with the monogram of the owner and the date of construction - 1899, surmounted by an iron flag. At the side avant-corpses, there are balconies supported by three massive corbels with mascaron ornaments. On the ground floor, there are three windows (the side ones are narrower). On the first floor, the balcony door is flanked by two windows. In the high cellars, there are narrow windows. There are also four rectangular windows in each of the avant-corpses and two on each elevation.

The side elevations are identical. Two-axial. At the corner of the back elevation, there is a slightly lower semicircular avant-corps, with stairs and a window facing north. On the ground floor, there is a rectangular entrance opening. On the first floor, there is a window opening topped with a semi-circular arch, identical to the one in the avant-corps at the front.

The back elevation is smoothly plastered. Along its entire length, it is adjoined by a single-storey ancillary building, covered with a shed roof. Over the building, there are small, rectangular windows lighting the attic.

Building of the Music School. The building can be viewed from outside.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 9 July 2020

Bibliography

• Szelągowska Ewa, Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, 1996, Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź, National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw,
• Głowacki K., Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski – Kielce 1984.