Rudolf Kern Building
Tenement in Bydgoszcz, Poland
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Rudolf Kern Tenement is a habitation building located at 1 Mickiewicz Alley, in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It has been inscribed on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List.
Poland| Rudolf Kern Tenement | |
|---|---|
Polish: Kamienica Rudolfa Kerna w Bydgoszczy | |
Tenement from Gdańska Street | |
 Interactive map of the Rudolf Kern Tenement area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Tenement |
| Architectural style | Art Nouveau |
| Classification | Nr.601377-Reg.A/1086, 20 November 1995[1] |
| Location | 1 Mickiewicz Alley, at the intersection with Gdańska Street, Bydgoszcz, Poland |
| Coordinates | 53°7′55″N 18°0′36″E |
| Groundbreaking | 1903 |
| Completed | 1904 |
| Client | Rudolf Kern |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 5 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Rudolf Kern |
Location
The building stands on the eastern side of Gdańska Street at the intersection with Mickiewicz Alley.
It stands close to tenements in the same street:
- Alfred Schleusener Tenement at 62;
- Józef Święcicki tenement at 63;
- Eduard Schulz Tenement at 66/68;
- Tenement at 71 Gdańska street;
- Tenement at 75 Gdańska street;
- Ernst Bartsch tenement at 79;
- Paul Storz Tenement at 81.
History
On the plot, before the current building, there was a tavern (German: wirtschaft), managed by Emil Manthei[2]
This made the area prone to leisure, emphasized by the presence, since the end of the 19th century, of a theatre and a restaurant on the other side of the intersection (at 66-68 Gdańska street).
The house was built in 1903–1904, designed by the architect Rudolf Kern, a student of Józef Święcicki who also erected or redesigned other buildings in Gdańska Street:[3]
- August Mentzel Tenement at 5;
- Eduard Schulz Tenement at 66/68;
- Tenement at 71 Gdańska street.
Rudolf Kern originally erected the tenement for his own use, private and business. He lived there until 1922.
The building will soon accommodate a four-star hotel, including a gastronomic restaurant, with recreational and commercial areas.[4]
Features
The building has a decorative Art Nouveau facade. It has four main floors and one hidden in the upper roof. In a way its size balances the symmetry with the opposite building.[5]
It is characterized by an asymmetric arrangement of loggia and bays, typical decorative elements including leaf and tendril motifs, intertwined organic forms, mostly curvaceous in shape.[5]
Notable elements:
- low-relief adorned portal;
- large threatening masks on the facade;
- many interior design original elements such as staircase, stained glass, woodwork.
The building has been put on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Heritage List Nr.601377 Reg.A/1086, on 20 November 1995.[1]
Gallery
Frontage onto Mickiewicz alley
Art Nouveau detail
Masked faces on the facade
Detail of the portal
Detail of the carved door
Detail of a bow window
Detail of a motif
See also
