Poznan’s Jeżyce district is home to a striking complex of Art Nouveau townhouses of inestimable architectural and historical value. The city has announced in 2023 that they will become more beautiful year by year. The works have so far managed to renovate the roofs, facades, as well as the stained glass windows and architectural details. Almost PLN 3 million has already been spent on this in eight years. The burning problem remained the tenement at 8 Roosevelta Street, which belongs to a private investor. Yesterday, cracks and structural changes were noticed on the wall of the abandoned late 19th century property.
Firefighters evacuated the residents of the neighbouring buildings and the street was shut down. Due to the real threat of a structural catastrophe, the District Building Inspector decided that the tenement had to be demolished immediately. The decision was communicated verbally to the owners’ attorney. On Monday, the decision will be confirmed in writing.
The tenement house at present. Photo: Municipality of Poznań
The tenement house at 8 Roosevelta Street, owned by a private investor, has been in a bad technical condition for years, as its inhabitants were evicted from the building long time ago. As Jacek Olech, the investor’s attorney, points out, the owner had been striving for a long time to renovate the building, but the structural materials were in such bad condition that a general renovation became impossible. The owner called for the demolition of the building and its re-construction, claiming that the building had no exceptional architectural value.
The problem that prevented these plans from being realised was the inclusion of the tenement in the register of historical monuments. The decision to preserve the building met with resistance from the investor, who sought to have the property removed from the register. Although the Provincial Administrative Court agreed with the owner, pointing to a security risk, the Minister of Culture refused to remove the building from the list of monuments, filing a cassation appeal. In his opinion, the building retained its legible mass, architectural expression and form, which define the building as a document of architectural history and as its material witness. This halted the possibility of demolition and larger-scale activities.
In the meantime, over the years, the tenement had fallen into increasing disrepair. In 2021, the Municipal Conservator of Monuments fined the owner 40,000 zloty for failing to properly secure and maintain the building. However, this decision too was challenged in court, which slowed down any further action. According to Article 5 of the Act on the Protection and Care of Monuments, it is the owner who should ensure conditions in terms of securing and maintaining the monument in the best possible condition, carrying out conservation, restoration and construction works and using the monument in a way that ensures the permanent preservation of its value.
Yesterday, the situation reached a critical point when, most likely as a result of heavy rainfall, serious cracks and other structural changes appeared on the wall of the building. Alarmed residents and services responded immediately. The current situation leaves no illusions: Poznan is about to lose another valuable element of its architectural history. Recently, a tenement house on Kraszewskiego Street was destroyed in a tragic fire, the remains of which are now being demolished.
Source: wpoznaniu.pl, poznan.pl, radiopoznan.fm
See also: Architecture | Elevation | Tenement house | Poznań | whiteMAD on Instagram
