Vul. Slovatskoho, 04 – residential building
The former Bard’s house designed and built by architect and constructor Józef Awin in 1912-1913 is one of the impressive monuments of Lviv post-Secession architecture whose design combines transformed antique forms and the late Secession motifs. Symbolic reliefs on the façade made by sculptor Zygmunt Kurczyński deserve special attention. Now the structure is used as a residential apartment building with commercial and office premices located on the ground floor.
Architecture
A massive five-storied townhouse is a component of the continuous row of houses on Słowackiego street and forms a notable accent of the street’s perspective against the background of the neighbouring houses which, for the most part, have three or four stories. The façade is oriented according to the regulation line. The wing’s back wall adjoins the firewall of the townhouse no. 30 on Kopernika street.
The symmetrical façade compositional structure is dominated by low projections of two prismatic bays; there are balconies between the bays on the second and third floors. The bays have three narrow window openings on the each floor’s level which are divided by stripes of lesenes; loggias are arranged on the last floor. Above, there is a massive four-sided pediment with an oval window. The house is covered by a roof with lucarnes.
The former Bard’s townhouse attracts attention due to its sculptural décor. The pediment is decorated with a stylized sculptural depiction of eagles; there are putti figures astride fantastic animals on the portal located in the center of the façade. Three-section windows on the bays are flanked with symmetrical compositions which are united into a frieze: we can see a depiction of a funeral procession consisting of a bas-relief group of naked figures with wreaths. The author of this depiction is Zygmunt Kurczyński, a symbolist sculptor.
The moulded décor consists of modified antique forms (stripes of denticles, garlands, palmettes, symmetrical sprouts, volutes) stylized in the spirit of the late Secession tradition, geometrized and transformed into crystal-like blocks.
The building has a T-shaped plan. The main building, a frontal block with two rows of residential premises, is perpendicularly adjoined by a wide three-tract wing flanked with narrow courtyards. There are kitchens in its first and third tracts and two staircases in its second tract; a small courtyard, which lights the stairs, is located between the staircases. An entryway, covered with coffered plaffond, leads to the stairs along the frontal block’s central part on the ground floor level.
The original project, designed by Józef Awin, specified that two large apartments should be arranged on each of floors 2-4, as well as four shops with warehouses in the ground floor premises (DALO 2/2/4288:57). The use of metal frame in floor bridgings enabled designing spacious interiors, divided by light partitions, and large shop windows.
Now the premises of the townhouse, located on Slovatskoho (Słowackiego) street 4, are still residential, for the most part, though the large old apartments of the former Bard’s townhouse were replanned after the World War II.Related Places
Personalities
Henryk Bard – an
owner of the parcel under conscription no. 12 2/4 who commissioned the
construction of an elite five-storied townhouse instead of an old two-storied
building.
Herman Axelbrad – an owner
of the Bard’s townhouse after the World War I.
Zygmunt Kurczyński – a Lviv
monumental sculptor who created sculptures on the façade of the Bard’s
townhouse.