Vul. Heroyiv Maidanu, 4 – residential building ID: 2351

This three-storied residential building is located at the corner of Heroiv Maydanu (former Hvardiyska) and Brativ Tymoshenkiv streets. It was erected in 1906 as a residential townhouse under a project designed by Karol Skawiński and was owned by Henryk Osuchowski. The house is designed in the Picturesque Historicist style with some Neo-Gothic elements. Today it is used mainly as a residential building, with a pub restaurant "Chornyy Kit" (The Black Cat) occupying a part of its semi-basement premises.

Story

Kadecka (later Hvardiyska, now Heroiv Maydanu) street was laid in the 1890s. Before the construction of the present building number 4, there had been no housing on its site. In 1902 the parcel at the corner of Kadecka street and a new proposed (now Brativ Tymoshenkiv) street was purchased by Michał and Kazimiera Gross, intending to build a villa there. The project for the construction was designed by architect Kazimierz Rzeczycki. It was to be a single-storied house in Neo-Baroque style, which was to be adjacent with its southern side to a neighboring house number 6 (DALO 2/2/2280:76). However, the construction never started, and the Grosses sold the plot to Henryk Osuchowski. The present townhouse project was designed by Karol Skawiński, the husband of Aniela, who probably was the daughter and heiress of Henryk Osuchowski (DALO 2/2/2280:74).

The initial design of the house was somewhat different from the implemented one. Originally, the façades were to be designed in the Picturesque style combining Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque motifs (DALO 2/2/2280:75). However, in additional project drawings the style was changed for the Neo-Gothic one (DALO 2/2/2280:78). We can assume that this was due to the adaptation to the nearby Gothic-style building number 6, which is one of the best examples of this style in Lviv. According to the archival documents, the builders of the house were confronted with high levels of ground water and had to dry the semi-basement premises (DALO 2/2/2280:1).

In 1911 the house was owned by baron Albert Brückmann and his wife Ewelina. On 14 February of that same year there was a fire in the house, and it became known that three unauthorized accommodations with thatched walls had been arranged in the attic space; besides, the door to the attic was not fireproof (DALO 2/2/2280:68). During 1911 the house was reconstructed. The attic accommodations were eliminated, and the door was bound with tin, as required by the current building codes.

In the interwar period the building's façades (both the street and courtyard ones) and the staircases became very shabby. The house was then owned by Ewelina (Ewa) and Stanisława Brückmann. During 1928 the Magistrate constantly reminded them to carry out restoration works. Referring to the lack of funds and inability to get credit, Ewelina Brückmann asked the Magistrate for permission to postpone the repairs (DALO 2/2/2280:6).

Today the house is used mainly as a residential building, with a pub restaurant "Chornyy Kit" (The Black Cat) occupying a part of its semi-basement premises.

Architecture

The townhouse is a part of the block, whose front consists of three buildings: numbers 4, 6, and 8 on Heroiv Maydanu street. All of them are designed in different variations of the Neo-Gothic style. The corner house number 4 is notable for its Venetian Gothic elements, number 6 is patterned after the French High Gothic, number 8 is designed in moderate, modernized Neo-Gothic forms.

The corner house is L-shaped in plan, it has three floors, basements, and an attic over a part of the building. Due to a rather steep terrain of the area, the house has a high base. Its interior layout belongs to the single-section type. It has a small entryway and two-flight front stairs. On each floor, there are 2 apartments, each containing kitchens, bathrooms and toilets, typically of Lviv residential townhouses after 1900. The brick walls have stone decorative elements; reinforced concrete structures were used for intermediate floors. On the façades, open brickwork areas are combined with plastered ones.

The composition of both street façades is asymmetrical. The corner is accentuated by arcaded loggias on the second and third floors, topped with a triangular gable. The arcaded loggias are borrowed from the Venetian Gothic style: semicircular arches with Neo-Gothic trimming (profiled as a three quarter moulding) supported by Neo-Gothic columns on octagonal pedestals, whose capitals are decorated with floral ornaments. The loggias, as well as balconies on the main façade, are fenced by stone balustrades with tracery in the shape of "bladders" inscribed in circles. All windows are rectangular, chiefly two- or six-section, segmented with horizontal and vertical imposts. This division was typical of residential architecture in the late medieval period and later, during the Renaissance, when windows were glazed with stained or crown glasses. Above the second floor windows, there are linear pediments with denticles. The balconies, as well as the lateral façade's bay window, are supported by massive consoles, whose shape is inspired by medieval defensive architecture. The façades are crowned with profiled cornices. Today, the roof is covered with galvanized tin sheets, although, authentically, it was covered with ceramic tiles.

According to the original project, the building's façades were to be designed in the Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque forms; the building's corner was to be crowned with a small domed tower having a skylight, and the main façade's central part was to be emphasized by a protruded wall section with a faceted bay window, topped with a curvilinear attic having volutes. The façade surface was to be coated with broken stones at the high basement level. The windows were to have trimmings with an egg-and-dart ornament. There also was to be a wide frieze with Neo-Renaissance stucco arabesques below the crowning cornice.

In the late 20^th century a reconstruction of the attic floor was carried out, distorting the original composition of the façades. The main façade's gable was raised much higher, with three larger semicircular windows arranged there instead of the previous rectangular three-section one. On the lateral façade,  instead of a ribbon window segmented with vertical imposts, several windows of different widths were arranged. The appearance of the building before this reconstruction can be known due to photos taken in the interwar period.

In general, the building is a quite typical residential townhouse of the early 20^th century (Lewicki, 2005, 474); however, it is notable for its original decorative design with elements of Neo-Classicist and Neo-Gothic architecture.

People

Andrzej Arabski — resident of the building (1916).
Szczepan Bodzioch — railway employee, resident of the building (1913).
Albert Brückmann — baron, co-owner of the building.
Ewelina (Ewa) Brückmann — baroness, born in Stryi (1897), co-owner of the building.
Stanisława Brückmann — co-owner of the building.
Józef Budziński — trader, resident of the building (1935).
Karol Chomicki — seminary teacher, resident of the building (1909).
Marjan Chyliński — merchant, resident of the building (1935).
Emil Cyprjan — retired railway employee, resident of the building (1935).
Aleksander Czesnak/Czesznak — engineer, resident of the building (1909, 1910).
Janina Dunikowska — pensioner, resident of the building (1935).
Dr. Eugeniusz Futyma — trainee lawyer (Pol. koncypient adwokacki), resident of the building (1910).
Wojciech Górny — postal employee, resident of the building (1910).
Kazimiera Grossowa — co-owner of the plot.
Michał Gross — co-owner of the plot.
Józef Gwanicki — owner of the neighboring property on present-day vul. Brativ Tymoshenkiv.
Anna Kiss — municipal clerk, resident of the building (1935).
Jan Kowalski — railway office clerk, resident of the building (1910).
Włodzimierz Kowalski — technical school professor, resident of the building (1935).
Józef Kruczkiewicz — sculptor, resident of the building (1909).
Wacław Kruszewski — agricultural inspector, resident of the building (1910).
Jan Krzysztofowicz — railway inspector, resident of the building (1916).
Zygmunt Kubicki — engineer, resident of the building (1910).
Józefa Kulińska — seminary teacher, awarded the Gold Cross of Merit with the Crown (Cross of Civil Merit), resident of the building (1916).
Jan Lang — tramway employee, resident of the building (1909, 1910).
Władysław Lichoński — horticultural inspector, resident of the building (1910).
Edward Merson — engineer, resident of the building (1913).
Ignacy Mostowski — engineer, resident of the building (1913).
Jan Nowicki — accounting official, resident of the building (1910).
Antoni Okpisz — private-sector employee, resident of the building (1935).
Henryk Osuchowski — owner of the plot and the building.
Mieczysław Osuchowski — resident of the building (1910).
Dmytro Pachoda — merchant, resident of the building (1916).
Stanisław Parylewicz — employee of the Land Credit Society.
Piotr Peliszka — merchant, resident of the building (1935).
Jan Robak — joiner, resident of the building (1909).
Kazimierz Rzeczycki — architect, author of an unrealized design for the villa.
Wilhelm Schaefer — retired lieutenant colonel of the Polish Army, resident of the building (1935).
Aniela Skawińska (née Osuchowska) — co-owner of the building.
Karol Skawiński — co-owner of the building, architect and licensed builder who designed it; his office was at vul. Kurhanna, 8 (now vul. Kniazha).
Mieczysław Strzetelski — inspector (Pol. lustrator) of the Provincial Executive, resident of the building (1910).
Bazyli Szyszało — shop owner, resident of the building (1910).
Piotr Trojnar — teacher, resident of the building (1909).
Stanisław Trylski — engineer, resident of the building (1909).
Karol Volanik — engineer, resident of the building (1910).
Eugeniusz Wójcik — civil servant, resident of the building (1935).
Jadwiga Wójcik — teacher, resident of the building (1935).
Henryk Zbijewski — employee of the Provincial Executive, resident of the building (1913).
Helena Żmurko — property owner, resident of the building (1913).

Sources