Vul. Kravchuka, 10 – residential building ID: 2471

One of the former houses of the engineer Franciszek Goląb (architect Andrzej Goląb’s son), built simultaneously with house 8 on vul. Kravchuka by the architect August Bogochwalski in 1906-1907. The general design of the Historicist façade is marked by some Secession details of stucco, wrought iron details and unique thematic Secession paintings of the vestibule and staircase that have been preserved. The building is an architectural monument (protection number 1074-M).

Story

1900 — vul. Kravchuka (ul. Bonifratrów) is laid out.
3 February 1906 — the owner Franciszek Goląb requests permission to build according to the submitted drawings.
27 February 1906 — approval of the building's design drawings.
19 July 1907 — the owner Franciszek Goląb requests permission to use the building.
27 July 1907 — the magistrate certifies the completion of the construction.
1920s-1930s — redevelopment of the second and third floors with three apartments on each floor (instead of two).

Vul. Kravchuka, vul. Sevastopolska and vul. Verkhratskoho appeared at the turn of the 20th century due to the work of architect and entrepreneur Andrzej Gołąb (Melnyk, 2011). For example, on the detailed 1892 map of Lviv by J. Chowaniec, the area behind the former military hospital appears undeveloped and planted with trees; on the 1895 map by J. Chowaniec, the laid-out ul. Hoffmanna (now vul. Patriarkha Yaremy) is already marked. Only the 1900 map shows three still unnamed parallel streets (present-day vul. Kravchuka, vul. Verkhratskoho and vul. Sevastopolska) branching off from ul. Hoffmanna. The parcellation of these streets was not yet shown.

Thus, vul. Kravchuka was laid around 1900 right behind the former military hospital, which had been added to the former Bonifratres’ monastery. Accordingly, until 1946, the street was named after the Bonifratres’ order and was built up in line with the designs of August Bogochwalski in 1900-1908. However, Andrzej Goląb, who died in 1903, was not directly involved in the design of vul. Kravchuka architecture, as stated in some sources (e.g. Melnyk, 2011). Perhaps Andrzej Goląb's role was to lay out the plots in accordance with the neighbouring streets. So, as evidenced by archival files and the monogram ‘GF’ on the cartouches of house 4, the buildings on vul. Kravchuka were commissioned and owned by the architect's son, Franciszek Goląb, an engineer.

In 1946, the street was renamed in honour of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the founder of theoretical cosmonautics. In 1993, its name was changed in honour of the mathematician Mykhailo Kravchuk, a full member of the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences who was repressed in 1937.

The history of house 10 on vul. Kravchuka begins on 3 February 1906, when the owner Franciszek Goląb, a senior engineer at the governor's office, asked for permission to build a three-storey building (conscription number 909 4/4) on a ground parcel 6459/8. At that time, the street had no name, so Goląb describes its location as being a side one of ul. Hoffmanna behind the military hospital. In his application, Goląb states that he is the owner of the neighbouring parcels on this street and that Jakub Silberstein is the owner of the parcel with conscription number 857 4/4 (ground parcel 6459/17) adjacent from the south (i.e. from vul. Verkhratskoho). At the time, house 8 had not yet been constructed; the approval of the design drawings for houses 8 and 10 was taking place simultaneously (ДАЛО, 2/3/595:1-30). In an attempt to speed up the approval of the project, Franciszek Goląb notes that the layout of house 10 is identical to the houses on the neighbouring parcels (i.e. at vul. Kravchuka 8 and at vul. Verkhratskoho 10), the difference being that the wing (a projection in plan) is now located on the left, and the façade has one central avant-corps instead of two side avant-corpses (ДАЛО, 2/3/595:3). The latter change was not implemented.

All design drawings were approved on 27 February 1906 and signed by A. Bogochwalski (without the designation ‘architect’ or ‘constructor’), Franciszek Goląb, and Jakub Silberstein (ДАЛО, 2/3/595:11-14).

On 19 July 1907, the owner F. Goląb requested permission to use two houses at once in one document: number 8 (conscription number 908 4/4) and number 10 (conscription number 909 4/4) on ul. Bonifratrów (ДАЛО, 2/3/594:13).

On 27 July 1907, the magistrate certified the completion of the building (ДАЛО, 2/3/595:8).

In the 1920s and 1930s, two apartments on the second and third floors were redeveloped into three smaller and less comfortable ones. This fact is not confirmed in the archival file, but it can be confirmed by field research. All three entrances have identical trimming with an overdoor, but the central (new) entrance does not have Secession details that are present on all other doors in the house, such as mailboxes and small windows. Therefore, it can be argued that the redevelopment took place after the Secession period and before the Soviet period, namely in the 1920s and 1930s, when craftsmen could professionally make a portal in the style of the interior withhout duplicating the exquisite Secession details, probably considered unnecessary in a cheaper house.

Today the house remains fully residential. It is included in the list of architectural monuments of local significance (protection number 1074-M).

Architecture

The townhouse was originally built as a tenement house, where the apartments on all floors were rented out exclusively for residential use. It has retained its function.

The house is located in the middle of the row housing on the even-numbered side of vul. Kravchuka, whose façades show the transition from late Neo-Baroque Historicism to early Secession. The house is adjacent to houses 8 and 12 and borders on the plot at vul. Verkhratskoho 11 from the rear. On the other side of vul. Kravchuka there is the large green complex of the Central Military Clinical Hospital, which was added to the military hospital after the reconstruction of the Bonifratres monastery in the 1970s.

The building’s four-window and three-storey façade has a symmetrical composition, with a slight deviation due to the leftward shift of the entrance portal. The main axis is accentuated by the side two-window avant-corpses, typical of the architecture at the turn of the 20th century. The metricity of the façade is somewhat damaged by the variable width of the windows: two narrow ones on the side avant-corpses and two wide ones on the recessed part of the façade.

The façade’s Neo-Baroque style was somewhat transformed under the influence of Secession, which manifested itself in the flatness and certain stylisation of the architectural decor, as well as in certain elements of stucco and wrought iron. The ground floor is traditionally paved with a slightly embossed plank rustication and separated from the other floors by a small stringcourse. The entrance portal is flanked by hermes supporting stylised Ionic capitals. A round overlight trimmed with palm fronds is inscribed in the tympanum of the Neo-Baroque pediment above the portal. The cornice of the pediment is supported by stylised cartouches.

People

August Bogochwalski (1864–1909) — Lviv architect who designed a number of buildings in Lviv in the late historicist and Secession styles, including residential buildings at 4–14 Kravchuk Street.
Andrzej Gołąb (1837–1903) — Lviv architect and owner of a large construction company who was actively involved in the construction of historicist residential buildings in the Lychakiv district of Lviv between 1887 and 1903.
Jakób Silberstein — owner in 1906 of a plot of land (cadastral number 857 4/4) on Verkhratskogo Street, bordering on the rear side with house number 10 on Kravchuk Street.
Franciszek Gołąb — son of Andrzej Gołąb, senior engineer of the governorate in Lviv, project customer, and first owner of the house.

Sources