History

The building along with the outbuilding and fence was erected in years 1882-1883 for doctor Józef Talko, a renowned ophthalmologist. Faustyna Morzycka a.k.a. Szczęsna, the protégé of doctor Fortunat Nowicki, the writer, teacher and social activist whose portrayal forms the core of Stefan Żeromski’s renowned novella “Siłaczka” (“The Strongwoman”), is known to have stayed at this house in 1905. Here she maintained a small school for impoverished children, consisting of just two forms, as well as an amateur theatre in cooperation with Walentyna Nagórska. From 1920 onwards, the owner of the house was Józef Konieczny. Shortly afterwards, however - in 1924 - the building was acquired by the erstwhile bishop of Lublin, Leon Fulman, who intended the house to be used by the local clergy. Soon after World War II, the villa was taken over by the state and converted into a Social Welfare Home, while in 1950 it became the State Home for Pensioners. During the 1970s, a series of comprehensive renovation works was carried out, with the northern annex also being added at that time. Renovation continued into the late 1980s and 1990s. Today, the villa serves as a Psychiatric and Neurotic Care and Treatment Facility, a branch of the Independent Public Psychiatric Care and Treatment Facility in Celejów.

Description

The villa occupies the inner part of an extensive, fenced plot of land with a large garden, located on the northern side of the main road leading through the town of Nałęczów - the Lipowa alley. The front façade of the house faces the street. South of the house itself there is a single-storey outbuilding.

The villa was designed in the eclectic style.

Overall, the house follows a tripartite, three-bay layout with a hall and staircase positioned on the axis; the annex which extends the building towards the north is a later addition.

The building is symmetrical in shape, its design accentuated by a series of avant-corps, the ones projecting from the centre of the front and back façades being notably shorter than those extending from the sides of the building. A modern annex adjoins the building to the north. The main body of the building is a two-storey structure with a basement, covered with a hip roof, with three-sided roofs being used for the side avant-corps.

The façades, rising above the plinth at the bottom, are accentuated by a horizontal string course as well as an entablature and a profiled crowning cornice, with the corners being adorned with rusticated lesenes.

The front (southern) façade follows a symmetrical, seven-axial design with a short avant-corps in the centre, incorporating the entrance door set into a spacious niche flanked by Doric columns with fluted shafts. The first-floor level of the avant-corps features decorative rustication. The windows are adorned with profiled surrounds; the ground floor windows are rectangular in shape, while the single window and two balcony doors on the first floor are topped with segmental arches. The balcony doors, preceded by simple, metal balustrades, are flanked by smaller blind windows (niches) topped with semicircular arches. The niches, currently vacant, are known to have once incorporated allegorical figures of The Harvest and The Catch as well as Unity and Concord. The avant-corps is topped with a frieze with an inscription which reads “VILLA TOLIN”, above which there is an inscribed date “1882” and decorative coping crowned with a simplified pediment with a crenellation motif in the centre.

The building is made of brick and limestone, its walls covered with plaster; all roofs are clad with sheet metal.

The allegorical sculptures that had once graced the façade are preserved inside the house.

Apart from the villa itself, the complex also consists of a single-storey, brick outbuilding designed on an elongated rectangular floor plan with an annex towards the north, covered by a hip roof concealed beneath side parapet walls; in addition, the entire ensemble also includes a fence with a gate and a garden overgrown with trees.

The structure can be viewed from the outside all year round.

compiled by Anna Sikora-Terlecka, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Lublin, 02-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Record sheet, the “Tolin” villa complex, compiled by Serafinowicz Jacek, Seniuk Bronisław, Nałęczów 1998, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Lublin, Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Majewski K., Nałęczów Zdrój. Catalogue of historical monuments. Kazimierz Dolny nad Wisłą 1977, Archiwum WUOZ Lublin, [no page numbering available]
• Tarka M., Dzieje Nałęczowa, Nałęczów 1989, p. 89