Vul. Konovaltsia, 21 – an abandoned house

As early as the 18th century (1766 map) this part of Lviv was divided and built up with indiviadual houses, the street network being planned. The names of ul. Murarska (today, vul. Yefremova), ul. Krzyżowa (now vul. Henerala Chuprynky) and ul. Krzyżowa boczna (today, vul. Melnyka) are mentioned in documents from 1863.

This villa is located in a neighborhood which in the 19^th century was called Franzówka, within the so-called Nowy Świat (The New World). The Franz family who gave the name to the neighborhood, owned gypsum quarries near the end of the present-day Konovaltsia street. And it was the construction of their luxurious villa  in 1892 that a part of vul. Konovaltsia itself was laid, on its part from modern vul. Melnyka to vul. Kyivska. It received the name ul. 29 Listopada.

Joanna Lorenz's villa was built on an elongated rectangular plot between 29 Listopada and Murarska streets in 1898. The plot was composed of two parcels with conscription numbers 791 and 794 ¼ (allocated from the plots with cadastral numbers 2819/9, 2819/10, 2819/11). Joanna Lorenz commissioned architect Władysław Rausz to design the villa; it was Rausz who was at the same time constructing the pompous villa of count Dunikowski at modern vul. Drahomanova 42, where the Andrey Sheptytskyi National Museum has been functioning since 1911.

The villa with a high basement and an attic, as well as a large wooden veranda, was built in accordance with the then regulations of the city building administration. The house was placed parallel to the defined regulation line; the basement room, which was intended for a laundry, was vaulted with the use of metal channels; the premises intended for servants in the basements and in the attic complied with the building norms; the house was provided with gutters, and a sidewalk was arranged around it. In July 1899, Joanna Lorenz received a permit to live in the villa, which was signed by the then commissioner of the magistrate construction department Krzyżanowski. The villa consisted of 3 rooms, a kitchen, a laundry, 2 cellars, an entryway, a corridor and a bathroom; on the ground floor, there were 5 rooms, a kitchen, an entryway and a bathroom.

Quite shortly after that, on May 7, 1900, Joanna Lorenz sold the property to the director of the regional railway bureau, Kazimierz Załeski, and his wife, Felicia. It is known from the construction file that the new owners immediately started to improve their plot, which was wet and neglected. The parcel number 791 ¼ was drained under a project designed by engineer Robert Sobel in 1900. At that time, there was a drainage water collector at the gate leading to ul. 29 Listopada; in 1906 it was connected to the newly constructed canal on ul. 29 Listopada.

In 1908, however, Felicia Zaleska sold the property to the Rudky-based Dairy Union (Spółka Mołoczarska), whose representative at that time was Karol Sewrowski (the contract of sale was signed on July 31). The Union continued to improve the site. In 1909, sewerage was arranged on the parcel number 794 ¼ facing ul. Murarska (now vul. Yefremova). The works were carried out under a project designed by Jan Noworyta, a Lviv engineer and architect, known for designing mostly tenement houses in the styles of modernized neoclassicism, Art Deco and functionalism in the interwar period.  

The Dairy Union rented the apartments out; in particular, in 1910 the villa was inhabited by Jan Iżycki, a court clerk, and Józef Stocka, a merchant. In 1911, the Union had stables and apartments for drivers built on the parcel facing ul. Murarska (now vul. Yefremova) under a project also designed by Jan Noworyta. This single-story building consisted of a stable (in the courtyard), a hall and an apartment in the front part, i.e. facing the street. It enclosed the courtyard from the west and south, forming a stylistically integral economic block, which resembled a fortress: this impression was emphasized by the open masonry of the walls, elongated loophole windows, segmented window arches; apart from that, from the side of ul. Murarska, which had a wide arch gate leading to the courtyard, the building was topped with a kind of "battlements." In 1928, the Małopolska Dairy Union built a dairy factory on the parcel number 794. The project was designed by Paweł Rehorowski, an engineer at the reinforced concrete works department. A small industrial building made of reinforced concrete structures adjoined the villa’s southern façade.

In the Soviet times, the villa housed a KGB branch; the dairy factory became the property of the Lviv Dairy Plant. Until 2013, the villa was owned by the open joint-stock company "Lviv City Dairy Plant."

In 2012, the Lviv City Council attempted at transferring the plot at vul. Konovaltsia 21 to the permanent use of Lviv Polytechnic National University for the construction of an apartment building. So, in 2013, the villa became the property of the territorial community of Lviv; the outbuildings and the dairy factory building were dismantled; in 2010, on the side facing vul. Yefremova 30 a new apartment building was erected with a wide gateway to the courtyard.

A historical and architectural reference plan, developed in 2019, defines the villa at vul. Konovaltsia 21 as an object proposed for inclusion in the list of cultural heritage sites. In March 2019, the Department of Historic Environment Protection prepared documentation as for a newly discovered monument. The villa has received the status of a newly discovered architectural monument.