Vul. Vynnychenka, 12 – residential building
Constructed before 1828, the building was related to the Pillers' printing house. It was in its courtyard that the printing plant of the Gazeta Lwowska (associated with Władysław Łoziński) was located, as well as those of the Grafia and Książnica-Atlas. Merchant Karl Werner, Schellenberg family, physician Edward Gérard de Festenburg owned the building in the 19th c. An example of neoclassicism, it is a monument of architecture (protection number 1019-M).
History
There were several wooden houses on this plot as early as 18th c. Due to its location between a semicircular bastion at the corner of present-day Pidvalna street and a bastion behind the contemporary Regional State Administration building, the plot has an irregular shape. Although these fortifications had been dismantled in the late 18th c., they defined the shape of the streets. Probably from the 1790s this place was connected with the Pillers, a family of printers, who in 1794 became the owners of the neighboring plot and built a printing house there. On the other hand, the building's history is related to the house of Franz Kratter, the founder of the Gazeta Lwowska (Ger. Lemberger Zeitung), which was located on the plot number 16 on this street, and subsequently, from the early 1820s, with the palace of the governor (later viceregent) of Galicia.
From the 1820s till 1871 present-day Vynnychenka street was called Herrengasse. Later, till 1939, it was called after Stefan Czarnecki, a Polish voivode of the 17th c.
The contemporary townhouse no. 12 appeared in the 1810s-1820s, as evidenced by the 1828 map. It is older than the neighboring building number 14, and this is noticeable due to the way the two houses are adjacent to each other.
The earliest written mention of this townhouse in the building file dates back to February 1851. It was owned by Anna Nostiz at that time, and the building administration demanded that she have two chimneys on the front house standing in this place remade (DALO 2/2/3452:26). Therefore, the building was no longer new at that time. Some 1852 correspondence has been preserved, in which August Schumann, who owned the adjacent townhouse number 99 4/4 (vul. Lychakivska,5), appealed to the Magistrate against the owners of this house, Karolina Stynzing, née Nostitz, Julia Frieben and Karl Dobrzański, concerning a common firewall (DALO 2/2/3452:28).
Next to the Governor's Palace
According to the city maps, the neighboring building no. 14 was constructed in the 1840s (now it is part of the Regional State Administration). To build it, it was necessary to wall up several windows in the north wall of the building number 12. A document from 1856 testifies that Karl Werner, a city merchant (ger. bürgerliche Handelsmann), who then owned the building number 12, was erecting a three-storied wing "on one side of the Governor's building which was being built" (zunächstdemausstossendenStatthaltereigebäude) while developing his plot (DALO 2/2/3452:40-41). As the building documentation for the Governor's Palace has not been preserved, this evidence is worthy of note.
After the death of Werner, the townhouse was inherited by his daughter, Karolina, who married August Schellenberg (1830-1894), a banker, in 1859. In 1892 a warehouse in the rear of the plot was reconstructed as a residential building under a project designed by Jan Schulz and commissioned by Karolina Schellenberg (DALO 2/2/3452:49-52). In 1894 the house was connected to the sewage mains on the street, which were being constructed at that time.
Till about 1911, the children of Karolina and August Schellenberg lived there, including, among others, Artur with his wife Augusta Welsch de Welschenau. Artur continued his father's business, the banking firm August Schellenberg and Son, founded in 1853. On 15 April 1908, he died at the age of 46, three days after the assassination of Andrzej Potocki, the Governor of Galicia. The obituary in the Kurjer Lwowski mentions a heart attack in connection with the shock caused by the Governor's death and their intimacy: they lived in neighboring homes and their children played together (Kurjer Lwowski, 1908, 26.04). The Gazeta Lwowska speaks of another version of death, which was due to a serious illness and an ineffective operation (Gazeta Lwowska, 1908, Nr. 88, 4).
Leopold Schellenberg, another son of August and Karolina, a gynecologist and a member of the Chamber of Doctors, having returned from practical training in Vienna and Wrocław in the late 1890s, had a reception room in the same building for some time. His professional and, perhaps, friendly affinity with Edward Gérard de Festenburg, also a gynecologist and president of the Chamber of Doctors (Izba Lekarska), was one of the reasons the latter became the next owner of this building between 1908 and 1911, though he lived on Dominikańska (today, vul. Stavropihiyska).
In 1911, a minor renovation of the building commissioned by de Festenburg was carried out (DALO 2/2/3452:11). After his death in 1914, it was owned by his wife, Helena de Festenburg, née Sawicka. Their daughter Stefania (Łobaczewska) became a well-known Polish musicologist.
Książnica Polska and Grafia — Książnica-Atlas
About 1920 the townhouse became owned by the organization "Książnica Polska" Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych (Polish Bookstore of the Higher School Teachers' Association), engaged in the publication of educational literature in Polish and located on ul. Zimorowicza, 17 (today Dudayeva), probably in collaboration with the facilities of the Słowo Polskie newspaper located there, as well as the Grafia Graphic Facility, a printing plant and a bookbinder’'s shop. In the early 20th century, these two organizations worked closely together and later merged. Also, in 1921, the Atlas joint stock association specializing in map printing and headed by Dr. Eugeniusz Romer was founded in Lviv. Together, these organizations formed the Książnica-Atlas Association. It was located in Lviv at two addresses: on ul. Czarneckiego,12 (connected to the building on Lychakivska,5) and on ul. Zielona, 20 (today, Zelena).
In 1922 a minor project, commissioned by the Grafia, was implemented, thus defining the present-day appearance of the townhouse's façade. It was then that the entrance to the courtyard was arranged where it is today. The window was transformed into a wide gate; the second floor balcony, which had previously been placed on the façade's central axis, was to be moved over it, but as a result the balcony was abandoned altogether. The project was designed by Edmund Żychowicz, an architect and builder (DALO 2/2/3452:8-12).
New printing house
In 1924 a project was designed for the construction of a new printing facility in the courtyard of this townhouse. Architect Edmund Żychowicz prepared the project in two versions differing in scale. According to the first one, to build a U-shaped (in plan) printing plant with auxiliary premises it would have been necessary to demolish some of the existing wings. Thus, the second one was implemented, according to which the plant was placed in the middle of the courtyard. The calculation of reinforced concrete structures was carried out by professor Jan Bogucki of the Lviv Polytechnic (DALO 2/2/3452:76-93).
Among documents, the Magistrate's demand from 1938 has been preserved, stating that the owners should have the building’s shabby façades repaired (DALO 2/2/3452:38).
After the Second World War, the Książnica-Atlas Association's facilities were passed to the Lviv Polygraphic Institute (now the Ukrainian Academy of Printing). In the place of the former reading room, there was a coffee and book shop called "Kabinet" there in the 2000s; today (2018), these premises are occupied by an establishment with the same name. The building also houses a variety of public organizations, the City Planning and Architecture Department of the Lviv Regional State Administration, and, from 2017, the Honorary Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
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Architecture
The shape of the plot, where this townhouse is located, has not a single right angle. The plot itself was formed in the 18th c., at the time when the city fortifications still existed, between a round bastion (now on Pidvalna street) and a bastion behind the contemporary Regional State Administration building. The place was built up with wooden houses. From 1794, the neighboring plot became the property of the Pillers, a family of printers, and it is since that time that it has been associated with printing. The plot of the building number 12 was assigned number 95 (4/4, Lychakivske suburb).
The building's style can be defined as restrained neoclassicism. Though, since its construction in the 1820s, the townhouse has been reconstructed many times, the renovations did not bring mucheffect on its exterior. The façade's ground floor is rusticated, all windows are rectangular with trimmings. The townhouse is built of brick, with stone vaults over the basement and with wooden bridgings between the floors. The roof is covered with sheets of tin and has dormer windows. Since recently, the ground floor has been painted cold bright green, incompatible with the original style .
When this townhouse was erected in the early 19th c., the neighboring plot no. 14 had not yet been built up. This is the reason for the characteristic junction of the two houses: the window of the house no. 12 almost faces the building of the Regional State Administration. It was in this narrow façade that the entrance to the courtyard had been arranged initially, which was moved to where it is today in the 1920s.
In plan, the townhouse had the shape of an irregular quadrangle; in the 1920s the back wing was dismantled, and a separate building of the printing plant was erected in the courtyard. The building also had two balconies on metal brackets, one in the main façade’s center and the other above the entrance, on the narrow façade with three windows. They were removed in the course of the building reconstruction for the Książnica-Atlas Association.
Personalities
Dr. Jan Bogucki — engineer, professor of
the Lviv Polytechnic, who carried out the calculation of reinforced concrete
structures for a new printing plant in 1922.
Karl Dobrzański — co-owner of the townhouse
in 1852.
Helena Festenburg, née Sawicka — wife of Edward de Festenburg, who was descended from an Armenian
family, owner of the townhouse.
Dr. Edward Gérard de Festenburg (1843-1914) — obstetrician gynecologist, president of the Lviv Chamber
of Doctors, founder of the first mutual aid fund for sick physicians in
Austria-Hungary, owner of the townhouse in 1908-1914; descended from a French
family, he was a Lvivite in the third generation.
Julia Frieben — co-owner of the townhouse
in 1852.
Leopold Karasiński — author of the
reconstruction of a single-storied book warehouse on this townhouse's plot in
1937.
Stefania Waleria Joanna Łobaczewska, née Gérard-Festenburg (1888-1963) — daughter of Edward and Helena Festenburg, owners of this townhouse,
a well-known musicologist, professor, rector of the Academy of Music in Krakow,
lecturer at the Jagiellonian University after the Second World War.
Władysław Łoziński (1843-1913) — Polish
journalist, local historian, politician, member of the Conservators' Circle (Koło Konserwatorów), collector, editor
of the Gazeta Lwowska (1873-1883) and
manager of the printing plant located on this plot.
Anna Nostiz — owner of the townhouse in
1851.
Dr. Jan Piątek — representative of the Książnica Polska.
Pillers — family of printers in Lviv, who purchased
in 1794 a plot on present-day Vynnychenka street and built a residential townhouse (number 8) and
a printing plant there.
Andrzej Kazimierz Potocki (coat of arms Piława) (1861-1908)
— count, Polish politician, governor of Galicia in 1903-1908.
Dr. Eugeniusz Romer (1871-1954) — Polish
geographer, founder of the Atlas association, head of the Książnica-Atlas association.
August Ernst Leopold Schellenberg (1830-1894) — banker, founder of the firm August Schellenberg and Son, owner of
the townhouse.
Artur Leopold Karl Schellenberg (1862-1908) — banker, deputy curator of Lviv’s evangelical community,
owner of the townhouse.
Karolina Maria Werner Schellenberg (1843-) — daughter of Karl Werner, owner of the townhouse.
Dr. Leopold Schellenberg — doctor of medicine,
obstetrician gynecologist, son of August Schellenberg, who lived in this townhouse
for some time and saw patients there.
August Schumann — owner of the neighbouring
townhouse number 99 4/4 (Lychakivska street 5) in the 1850s.
Jan Schulz — architect, who designed a
project for the reconstruction of the rear wing premises in 1892.
Karolina Stynzing, née Nostiz — co-owner of the townhouse in 1852.
Dr. Theodor Torosiewicz — owner of the neighboring townhouse
number 10 in 1854-1876.
Karl Werner — city merchant, the
townhouse owner in 1856.
Augusta Welsch de Welschenau — wife of Arthur Schellenberg, co-owner of the townhouse.
Maria Wronowska — resident of the townhouse
in 1925-1926, who had to move out due to the poor technical condition of a part
of the townhouse.
Stefan Zaleski — administrator of the Książnica-Atlas in 1938, who resided on
Lychakivska street 5.
Emil Żychiewicz — lecturer at the Trade
Academy in Lviv and representative of the Książnica
Polska.
Edmund Żychowicz — architect and builder, who
designed a project for a new printing plant and the townhouse reconstruction in
the interwar period.
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