It is one of the last half-timbered structures in Puck.

History

The first hospital in Puck was built in the mid- 14th century. Initially, it was a hospital for contagiously ill, and therefore was situated outside the town walls (near the Gdańsk Gate). It was operated by the church of St George. The first hospital building was probably wooden. In 1413-1426, it was replaced by a new one, built as a half-timbered structure. In the 16th century, it was described as a parish hospital that fulfilled the function of a shelter for poor, disabled, and elderly. During the Swedish war, in 1656, the building was totally destroyed. Presumably about 1681, it was rebuilt, this time within the town walls. In 1757, owing to the foundation of Starost of Puck Ignacy Przebendowski’s sister and mother, Urszula nee Potocka, the building was rebuild after having been destroyed again. In 1827, it was given a statute that was modified in 1854. Until 1971, the building was used as a parish old people’s home. Next, it was adapted, together with the neighbouring blacksmith’s house and smithy, to serve as a museum point, and converted in 1980 into a branch of the Museum of the Puck Land.

Description

The building is located in the centre of Puck, within the medieval borders of the town, in the northern frontage of Wałowa street. Its roof ridge runs parallel to the street. The eastern side of the hospital adjoins the blacksmith’s house and the smithy (10 Bogusława street), while its western side adjoins a modern building. It is a half-timbered structure, with brick infills covered with plaster. Its plan resembles the shape of a square. It is a two-storey building covered with a tall hip roof. On the axis of the front façade, there is a dormer topped with a triangular gable. The building features an exposed checkerboard arrangement of posts and beams, as well as braces within the first storey and the dormer. Between the storeys, there is a grooved draining cornice. The building features also lavishly profiled cornices under eaves. Windows are square and rectangular, with six panes, in profiled window surrounds and with shutters on the ground floor. In the window opening in the dormer, there is a steeple from the 18th century. On the first floor of the front façade, there is a wooden crucifix with a Baroque sculpture of Christ from the same period (a copy; the original sculpture is kept in the museum). On the roof, on both edges of the roof ridge, there are paired iron crosses, and in the roof ridge of the dormer, there is a flag with the date “1757”.

The blacksmith’s house with smithy was built in the first half of the 19th century, in the form of a half-timbered structure, analogically to the almshouse hospital, with a brick eastern façade erected in the late 19th century. It was erected on a rectangular floor plan, with a smithy built on a plan resembling the shape of a square and adjoined on the northern side. It is a single-storey house, covered with a gable roof. The smithy is a two-storey structure, covered with a flat roof. The interior of the smithy features a unique set of blacksmith tools (from the smithy in Mechowo).

The historic monument is accessible to visitors. Branch of the Museum of the Puck Land.

compiled by Beata Dygulska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 08-06-2015.

Bibliography

• Historia Pucka, red. A. Grotha, Gdańsk 1998, str. 82-83, 124-125;
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, t. V: Województwo gdańskie, z. 2: Puck, Żarnowiec i okolice, oprac. T. Chrzanowski, M. Kornecki, B. Rol, I. Strzelecka, Warszawa1989, str. 43-44;
• Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne Pucka, t. I - II, oprac. I. Dmochowska, A. Kołecki, A. Wołosewicz, A. Stefanowicz, Gdańsk 1970;
• Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne Pucka, t. I - III, oprac. H. Domańska, A. Kołecki, A. Wołosewicz, Gdańsk 1976;