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Vul. Fedorova, 12 – residential building

ID: 737

The four-storied building, earlier a residential townhouse, was built in 1906 in Historicist style with elements of Secession on the foundations and cellars of the Renaissance Krauzivska (Krauzowska) townhouse. According to the Lviv Region Executive Committee's resolution number 130 dated 26 February 1980, the building was entered on the List of monuments of local significance under protection number 353. Today the building's ground floor premises are occupied by a confectionery named Charivnyi Likhtar (The Magic Lantern).

History

17th century – the Krauzivska townhouse is built, in whose place the present house stands now.
1876 – the construction of a residential wing in the place of a stable.
1904 – the Renaissance townhouse is dismantled; it had white stone trimmings, interesting vaults in the entryway, a characteristic entrance gate and ceilings made of profiled beams.
1906 – a four-storied building is constructed (architect Artur Schleyen).
1907 – four-storied wings are built in the courtyard.
1930 – a restoration of the townhouse's façade is carried out (architect Oleksandr Pezhanskyi/Aleksander Peżański).

The house on vul. Fedorova, 12 is situated in the rear part of a parcel belonging to the eastern Rynok square quarter. The present building stands on the site of the old 17th century townhouse owned by the family of Krauze and therefore called Krauzivska (pol. Krauzowska) in old documents. On the long parcel, the Krauze had a front townhouse (pl. Rynok, 7) and a rear one (vul. Fedorova, 12) with a courtyard, where utility wings were located. In the mid-19th century the rear townhouse was owned by Józefa Jankowska. A 1864 construction commission informed the Magistrate that the wings were incomplete and in a very neglected condition and that there was a stable in the courtyard, which was to be dismantled. In 1875 new co-owners of the building, Józef Grunberg and Zille Katz, appealed to the building administration for permission to erect a two-storied wing in the place of the old stable and were given consent. Already in the autumn of 1876 the new wings were moved into. However, on 19 July 1893 the Magistrate convened a commission to examine the condition of the building. The commission's conclusion was as follows: to oblige the owner, merchant Rachmiel Merkel, to restore the whole townhouse, to arrange a fire-resistant roofing, to connect the building to the sewerage system and to pave the courtyard. Yet Merkel delayed fulfilling the Magistrate's requirements. Only in 1903 he commissioned a project of a three-window-axis townhouse, which partially reproduced the old one’s layout. Never starting the construction, in the summer of 1904 Rachmiel Merkel sold the townhouse to Bernard Frucht, who immediately asked the Magistrate's permission to reconstruct it and to build four-storied wings. On 25 November of that same year the new owner was given consent for adaptation works which would involve a reconstruction of the staircase, rafters and fireproof roof, as well as constructing a four-storied wing in the place of the dismantled two-storied one. Frucht, however, did not take into account these requirements and started dismantling the buildings. On 8 December 1904, when the buildings were still being dismantled, there was an article titled "Vandalism again" in the newspaper Kurjer Lwowski. Among other things, it said that the dismantled townhouse had white stone trimmings, interesting vaults in the entryway, a characteristic entrance gate and ceilings made of profiled beams. All these artistic elements were lost during the reconstruction. It was only after this article that on 9 December Bernard Frucht made a request to the administration for dismantling of the entire townhouse, which was consented. On 12 December the Grono Konserwatorskie instructed the owner to make photographs and measure drawings for the city archives.

The four-storied house was built in 1906 under a project designed by architect Artur Schleyen, who designed an additional project. The first project for the construction of the new townhouse was designed by August Bogochwalski. According to the latter's project, the new building retained some features of the previous one; in particular, it had three window axes. The construction was managed by architect Michał Fechter. The four-storied wings in the courtyard were built simultaneously with the main building and under the same project. In 1907 the building became home for the Polish J. Kiliński Society of the Handmade Youth. After the First World War the house became the property of attorney Filip Ewin. In 1930 he commissioned architect Oleksandr Pezhanskyi (Aleksander Peżański) to supervise the restoration of the building's façade. According to the Lviv Region Executive Committee's resolution number 130 dated 26 February 1980, the building was entered on the List of monuments of local significance under protection number 353.

Today the building's ground floor premises are occupied by a confectionery named Charivnyi Likhtar (The Magic Lantern).

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Architecture

The house is located within dense housing. The four-storied building is rectangular in plan and built of brick on stone foundations; it is plastered and covered with a high tin roof. The previous townhouse's brickwork has been preserved in the cellars and ground floor premises. In the architectural décor of the house's façade, the Art Nouveau (with certain Historicist elements) is reflected as the predominant style at the turn of the 20th century. The façade has no architectural clarity and expression, typical of the buildings erected in the first half and middle of the 19th century. This is caused by the accumulation of various decorative details. Horizontally, the wall is divided with cornices, which are crossed by vertical lines of pilasters and lesenes. The five windows on the three upper floors are symmetrical: two paired ones on each side and one in the middle, emphasized by pilasters. The ground floor, covered with horizontal banded rustication, contrasts with the upper ones. The horizontal cornices of the second and fourth floors are fractured in the middle, forming a semicircle above the windows filled with stucco cartouches among acanthus leaves. Small balconies are arranged on the edges of the third and fourth floors; the third floor balconies are supported by consoles and have Secession-style patterns on their metal railings. The recesses below the second floor extreme windows are filled with balusters. The entrance gate is arranged in the left part of the façade. The façade is crowned by a profiled cornice.

The walls of the wings are at all their height covered with continuous horizontal rustication; there are no horizontal cornices. The wing, situated on the right of the entrance, has balconies on all floors.

The building's present appearance corresponds to the 1905 project, except for minor changes in the façade décor.

Personalities

August Bogochwalski – architect who designed the four-story building
Artur Schleyen – architect who did the additional drafts for the construction of the townhouse 
Bernard Frucht – owner of the parcel since 1904 who dismantled the old house 
The Krauzes – a family who owned the house since the 17th century
Michał Fechter – architect who managed the construction works 
Олександр Пежанський – architect who supervised the façade restoration in 1930 
Rachmiel Merkel – a trader who owned the building in the late 19th century till 1904  
Filip Ewin – a lawyer who owned the house after the First World War 
Zille Katz – co-owner of the building in 1875
Józef Grunberg – co-owner of the building in 1875
Józef Katz – co-owner of the building in 1875
Józefa Jankowska – co-owner of the building in 1875 in the mid-19th century

Sources

  1. State Archive of Lviv Oblast (DALO) 2/1/446.
  2. Central State Historic Archives of Ukraine in Lviv (CDIAL) 186/8/629.
  3. Вуйцик Володимир, Leopolitana (Львів: Класика, 2013), 95-98.
  4. Капраль М., Національні громади Львова ХVІ–ХVІІІ ст. (Львів, 2003).
  5. Могитич Р., "Ліктьовий податок", Вісник ін-ту Укрзахідпроектреставрація, 2009, Ч. 19