History

The extension of the Warsaw-Vienna railway in the mid-19th century caused resulted in an increase in value of areas situated near the railway station in all towns and cities along the railway line. In Piotrków, such an area was the Sieradzkie Suburb, in particular Pryncypalna Street (currently Juliusza Słowackiego Street) connecting the railway station with the city centre - the Old Town. At this street and along the intersecting streets, elegant townhouses began to spring up – with apartments for officials, offices and banks. One of such streets is Bankowa Street (today’s Dąbrowskiego Street). In the second half of the 19th century, the land plot at number 15 belonged to Konstanty Sapiński. It was him who commissioned the construction of the northern part of the present-day, two-storey, four-axial townhouse. In 1908, the house came into the ownership of the Krüger family, who had the house enlarged. The front elevation was given a more uniform appearance, based on a design by Feliks Nowicki, an architect from Piotrków.

Description

The plot occupied by the villa is situated in the quarter between the following streets: Dąbrowskiego, gen. Roweckiego-Grota, H. Sienkiewicza and J. Słowackiego. It is included in the western frontage of Dąbrowskiego Street, with its eastern elevation being visible in that frontage.

The building was erected in the Eclectic style with Renaissance Revival elements decorating the front elevation and Baroque Revival interior design.

The tenement house was built on a plan of two rectangles. The southern rectangle is narrower and follows a one-and-a half-bay layout. The northern rectangle is twice as wide, four axial and has a two-bay layout. On the southernmost axis, there is a coach gateway. On the central axis, there is an entrance hall leading to the staircase. The staircase is situated in the northern part of the building, at the western elevation. Its axes are positioned against the background of a pseudo-avant-corps. In the place where the northern part adjoins the southern part of the building, there is a one-storey extension on a rectangular plan.

The building has two storeys and a cellar. The northern part of the building is covered with a low gable roof, whereas the southern part has a mono-pitched roof sloping eastwards. The annex at the western wall is covered with a shed roof.

The tenement house is made of brick laid with cement-lime mortar. It is plastered and painted. It has cement stucco finishes.

The cellars have segmental vaults. The upper storeys are covered with wooden, beam ceilings, plastered on a reed mat, with gypsum stuccoes. The wooden roof truss has a rafter and purlin structure and is supported on a knee wall from the east. The rafters are based on queen posts with raking shores. The roof is clad with bituminous felt on a timber deck In the cellars, there is cement screed flooring. On the ground floor, in the front part and in the staircases, there are floors made from colourful ceramic tiles with floral and geometric patterns. In the residential parts, there are plank floors or herringbone parquet flooring. The brick stairs in the northern part are two-flight, with landings and steps made of sandstone. They are fitted with a cast iron, openwork, decorative balustrade. In the southern part, there are winding, concrete stairs, built around a wooden, polygonal column.

The coach gateway is closed with a double-wing gate with a wicket. The gates are made from slatted boards, at the front - from herringbone boards. The one- and two-wing doors in the building are mostly frame-panelled, some with entablature and lavish engraved panel decoration – cornices and overlays. There are also partially glazed and barred doors. The front doors are topped with transom lights and segmental architraves. The windows are jambed and divided into four sections, two lower wings and two top fanlights. In the front elevation, there are two balcony port-fenêtre windows. The two balconies are based on four or five cast-iron volute supports. Each balcony has a plank floor and an openwork balustrade.

The front elevation is two-storey and nine-axial. It is set on a smoothly plastered plinth. The wall on the ground floor is covered with rusticated plasterwork. The wall above is smoothly plastered. The openings on the ground floor have a segmental architrave. The openings above have rectangular tops. The coach gateway was placed along the southernmost axis. Four southern axes are accented by the high door openings leading to the shops. Four axes from the north are accented by the window openings. Above them, there are decorative panels. The plinth below the ground floor windows incorporates entrances to the shops in the basement. The windows and the port-fenêtre (on the second and seventh axis from the north) on the first floor are flanked by pairs of Ionic pilasters on pedestals. The pilasters support the entablature featuring a smooth frieze, a cornice section and a tympanum topped with a segmental arch. The wall is crowned with a corbelled cornice. On the walls between the openings of the ground floor, in the southern part, there are still visible traces of shop signboards from before the Second World War.

The western elevation is smoothly plastered. In the southern part, there is only the opening of the coach gateway and a single entrance opening, as well as a window illuminating the staircase. The northern part is set on a plinth, two-storey and four-axial. From the south, there is a single-axial avant-corps containing the staircase. The window openings on both storeys are rectangular. In the attic, the windows have the shape of rectangles with their longer side in the horizontal position.

Décor – sumptuously decorated door woodwork has been preserved. Front door leading to the main staircase, doors in the interiors. The preserved embellishments in the hallway and in the staircase include stucco decorations on the ceilings and above the entrance openings to the apartments, in Baroque Revival and Baroque Revival style.

The building is not accessible to the public.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 10 April 2020

Bibliography

• Głowacki K., Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski - Kielce 1984.