The building, together with the adjacent garden, is distinguishable by high landscape values and constitutes an important composition element of the Górny Sopot villa district. As a place of residence of eminent citizens and a prestigious administrative centre, it has also substantial historical values for Sopot.

History

The villa was built in the years 1921-1922 according to a design by Heinrich Dunkel. Moritz and Sophi Lietzau were its owners and let it to tenants. British consul Eric Grant Cable and professor Franz Kade, among others, resided in the building. In 1937-1939, it was a place of residence of Józef Poznański who was the Head of the Merchant Navy Office, the commissar of the Polish Delegation to the Port and Waterways Council in Danzig, a social activist of the Association of Poles in the Free City of Danzig and the Maritime and Colonial League. After 1945, the building was taken over by the Polish State Treasury. After 1979, the villa was adapted into an education centre for the members of the Polish United Workers' Party. After 1989, the building housed a service centre for foreign counterparties. In 2000, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stayed here. In 1991, for a short period of time, the villa became the seat of President-elect Lech Wałęsa. At that time, it gained its popular name: “Small Belvedere”.

Description

The villa is situated in the area of Górny Sopot, on the northern side of Mickiewicza street. It is situated deep within the plot and surrounded by a small garden. The front façade faces Abrahama street. From the street, there is a short access road leading to the property. The building neighbours single-family dwellings with gardens and two multi-family buildings. Building No. 36 is distinguishable by its large size and plot.

It was designed in the neo-Baroque style and is made of brick. It is built on a floor plan similar to a square, with avant-corps on the southern, eastern, and northern façade, and a brick veranda at the western façade. The body of the building is compact, single-storey, covered with a hip mansard roof with a two-storey residential attic. The southern and eastern avant-corps have two storeys and three axes, and are topped with neo-Baroque gables ended with a stepped concave-convex arch. Above the veranda in the western façade and above the avant-corps in the northern façade, there are dormers in a form analogical to that of the avant-corps. In the eastern (front) façade, there is a colonnaded portico resembling the Classicist style, built with the use of two pairs of Tuscan columns supporting entablature. In the southern (garden) façade, there is a triangular single-storey annexe and stairs to the garden. Above the portico, annexe, and veranda, there are terraces. Architectural detail is subtle and has a form of profiled cornices and window and door casings. The original window woodwork and the main door leading into the building have survived.

The interior features a vestibule and a central hall, surrounded by rooms arranged in an enfilade. The décor, e.g. the decorative accentuation of the walls in the vestibule, i.e. profiled panels, cornices and internal stained glass windows, have also survived. The elements of the interior that have been preserved include also wooden stairs, door woodwork, plasterwork decorations, a fireplace, flooring, as well as a stained glass plafond in the hall on the first floor.

No visitor access to the monument.

compiled by Beata Dygulska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 26-01-2015.

Bibliography

• Domańska H., Opowieści sopockich kamienic, Gdańsk 2005, s. 17-19;