Type Villa Country Poland Opened 1899 Construction started 1898 | Architectural style German Historicism Completed 1899 Floors 4 Architect Karl Bergner | |
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Classification N°601312-Reg.A/1079/1-2, 13th December 1994 Location Gdanska street 84, Bydgoszcz, Poland Similar Villa Fritz Heroldt in Bydgoszcz, Hugo Hecht tenement, Villa Heinrich Dietz in B, Mix Ernst tenement in Bydgos, Villa Hugo Hecht in Bydgoszcz | ||
The Villa Carl Grosse is an historical house in downtown Bydgoszcz, registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage list.
Contents
Location
The building is somehow setback on the eastern side of Gdanska Street (N°84), at the intersection with Zamoyskiego street.
History
The villa was built in 1898-1899 by architect Karl Bergner, following an order from Carl Grosse.
Mr Grosse ran in Bydgoszcz a cork factory (German: Ostdeutsche Kork-Fabrik), with the company seat here (Danzigerstrasse 127).
A subsequent owner - wood wholesaler Otto Schmidt - in the years 1918-1920 enriched the villa: it is the decor that is still preserved today.
The building has undergone many renovations with succeeding owners and users. For many years in the 1920s, rumor went that the villa belonged to actress Apolonia Chalupiec, aka Pola Negri, from which it had been purchased by industrialist Jan Kłossowski, called "cardboard king", who lived there with his family in the 1930s. In reality, Jan Kłossowski bought the villa from the Bank Ludowy (German: Volksbank) in Bydgoszcz and Pola Negri's house was located at Zamoyskiego street 8.
Between 1962 and 1992 the building was the headquarters of the Civic Militia (MO), with a factory shop and a cafeteria.
Architecture
The tenement is decorated in a style referring to German Historicism. The villa is separated from the street by a garden. Its facade has an asymmetric block, adorned with decorative bays, avant-corpss, loggias and post-and-plank structures.
The interior is designed in art deco style, by Johanna H. Fricke. In addition to the stuccoes, worth noticing are stained glass, wooden reliefs (animal and plant motifs) and handrail stairwell. In the ballroom overlooking the garden is placed a fountain decorated with a sculpture of a woman washing her hair.
The building has been put on the Pomeranian heritage list (N°601312-Reg.A/1079/1-2) on December 13, 1994.