Today, the former granary serves as a museum, making it possible not only to explore the collections of the Ethnographic Museum, but also to admire the original timber inner structure of the building, which is a true rarity in modern times.

History

The presence of warehouses and other storage facilities alongside the Vistula river banks was inextricably linked to the rise of river transport as well as the growth of the town of Włocławek itself, originally chartered by the Kuyavian duke Kazimierz (Casimir) I back in 1255. One of the few surviving examples of this trend in the modern age is the granary located alongside the Józef Piłsudski Boulevard. The brick building was erected before 1848, its design created by Franciszek Turnelle, the municipal architect of Włocławek. The building continued to serve as a warehouse and handling facility for more than 100 years. In years 1980-1985, a new, slightly taller structure was added to the southern gable wall, its overall appearance reminiscent of the historical structure which it was designed to accompany. An old, wooden granary is known to have existed in the immediate vicinity of the current one; however, that structure was lost to the blaze back in 1862. In the course of construction of the new, adjoining structure in the mid-1980s, the old granary was restored and adapted to serve as museum space. In October 1986, the interiors of the granary became the new home of the Ethnographic Museum in Włocławek. In years 2011-2012, various renovation and modernisation works were carried out. The façades of the building were restored, while the roof cladding was completely replaced.

Description

The granary is located near the Vistula river, in the eastern part of the original chartered town, its front (northern) façade facing the Józef Piłsudski Boulevard. A new museum building, erected in the 1980s, adjoins the southern side of the granary, its gable facing the Szpichlerna street. The two interconnected buildings are positioned in a side-gabled arrangement, along the north-south axis.

The granary is a three-storey brick building with a converted attic, its walls covered with plaster. The façades feature a tall socle at the bottom; the building, positioned along the north-south axis, is covered with a gable roof clad with ceramic roof tiles. A large dormer with two rectangular windows, covered with a mono-pitched roof which forms an extension of the main granary roof, can be seen projecting from the eastern side of the roof in the northern part of the building.

The front (northern) gable-end façade facing the J. Piłsudski Boulevard follows a five-axial layout. The ground-floor section of the façade is accentuated by a pair of rectangular doorways, framed with rectangular surrounds, with the doorsteps positioned at the same level as the top of the building’s wall base. Both apertures feature wooden, single-leaf doors. The two doorways are flanked by smaller, rectangular windows with no surrounds; nearly identical windows can also be seen on the upper levels of the building, with all of them featuring single-leaf wooden shutters. The façade is topped with a triangular gable with a plain surround, incorporating a trio of small windows. The western side of the building is adjoined by a wall with an information board of the Ethnographic Museum, supporting one of the leaves of the double-leaf swing gate facilitating access to the inner yard. The surface of the brick wall features a plaster finish.

The western façade of the granary follows a five-axial layout, with an entrance doorway framed with a plain surround positioned on the northernmost axis. The arrangement of the windows mirrors that of the northern façade. An inner yard leads alongside the façade.

The eastern façade follows a four-axial layout, its overall design being the same as that of the western façade. A profiled cornice runs below the eaves of the western and eastern façades. The southern façade is now obscured by the larger museum buildings, with a fragment of its gable wall rising above the roof ridge of the granary. Inside, the granary features open-space interiors with wooden ceilings supported by timber posts and reinforced by diagonal braces. The staircase facilitating access to the upper storeys is situated in the northern section of the building.

The monument is open to visitors. Exploration of the building is only possible by prior telephone appointment.

compiled by Krzysztof Bartowski, Historical Monument and National Heritage Documentation and Popularisation Department of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz, 08-12-2014 - 19-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. 11, issue 18, Warsaw 1988, p. 100.
• Boczarski J., Dzieje Włocławka: kronika wydarzeń w latach 1970-2005. part 1, Włocławek 2006, p. 20.
• http://www.muzeum.wloclawek.pl/pl/infopage.php?id=6