From 1873, Joseph Pinkus, a secret trade counsellor, gathered there works of art of international importance (including a collection of Silesian tin products and Serbian King Alexander's chairs), and valuable vintage Judaica. His son Max Pinkus founded the Silesian Library which operated since the 1880s; the library was relocated to the new place of residence of the bibliophile in 1903.

History

The building was built probably on the initiative of Joseph Pinkus and Augusta, the daughter of Samuel Fränkel, in 1873. After World War 2, the villa was owned by the Cotton Industry Plant in Prudnik established in the former nationalised factory by Samuel Fränkel. In 1957, the plant was earmarked for the needs of a nursing school. Since 2002, it has housed the Janusz Korczak School Complex in Prudnik. In 2009-2010, the building underwent renovation involving repair of the roof, systems and installations, and renovation to the interior, door joinery, and fence.

Description

The Pinkus house is located at the corner of Piastowska Street and Nyska Street, leading to the former textile factory of the Fränkel family, surrounded by a garden enclosed by the decorative original forged fence. The body of the two-storey building consists of two wings perpendicular to each other with semicircular and rectangular avant-corps. To the north, there is a semicircular loggia glazed on the upper storey. The hip roof is clad with sheet metal.

Lavish architectural detail showing clear Classicist influences give the villa an imposing appearance. Plastered façades are divided by cornices into three zones. The base course zone with rustication is pierced by basement windows. On the ground floor, on the background of a rusticated wall, there are windows enclosed in profiled surrounds. Above, the façade is divided by pilasters and engaged columns, which support the window entablature and semicircular pediments with allegorical stucco depictions (to the north-east, the windows are surmounted by triangular pediments). The whole structure is surmounted by an elaborated cornice supported by volute-shaped corbels and adorned with rosettes. Originally, the roof was also surrounded by a spindled balustrade decorated with vases, which no longer exists. The northern loggia opens to the garden with a colonnade, which is glazed with English windows on the upper storey.

Partially preserved décor, fixtures and fittings prove the former splendour of the villa interior. The corridor walls are clad with wainscot with built-in mirrors and cabinets. Several rooms are covered with eclectic wooden ceilings or stucco work with floral motifs and allegories. The original wooden main stairs, servant staircase and door joinery are also decorative in nature.

Ornamental iron fence on a stone foundation is an example of the nineteenth-century artistic smithery. On the side of Nyska Street, one of the wicket gates features a PF monogram of the names of the villa investors.

The building is the seat of the Janusz Korczak School Complex in Prudnik; contact: http://www.zskorczak-prudnik.pl.

compiled by Joanna Szot, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 25-07-2014.

Bibliography

• Baron A., Max Pinkus. 1857-1934. Śląski przemysłowiec i mecenas kultury, Opole 2008.
• Chrząszcz J., Geschichte der Stadt Neustadt in Oberschlesien, Neustadt 1912.
• Kulczyk P., Rzepiela U., Prudnik na dawnej pocztówce, Opole 2002.
• Rathmann R., Neustadt in Oberschlesien, Berlin 1929.
• Rzepiela U., Szymańska-Seyler S., Prudnik lat minionych. 1895-1935, Opole 2006.