The building of the former District Starost Office in Bytom has gained neighbourhood monument status. The Provincial Conservator of Monuments entered the entire development complex of Jan III Sobieski Square and Andrzeja Hiolskiego Square into the register. This is a revolution, as one decision protected a dozen or so plots of land and historic buildings on ul: Smolenia, Żeromskiego, Korfantego, Sokoła and Żołnierza Polskiego.
The architectural map of Bytom has been supplemented with new monuments. These include the buildings of the Upper Silesian Museum, the Polish House “Hive”, a school, the former military barracks, a bourgeois tenement house and the building of the former Poviat Starosty.
The building of the District Starosty in Bytom (now a branch of the Upper Silesian Museum) was erected in 1897-1898 according to a design by the Wrocław architect Walter Kern. The architect gained experience working in Berlin, and his Bytom implementation is one of the most iconic in the city. The façade of the building is made of clinker and glazed bricks. The edifice is decorated with numerous details and is distinguished by gables, turrets and facades. The valuable building is now part of a larger historic establishment.
The proceedings conducted by the Provincial Conservator of Monuments covered the area of historic buildings around Sobieski and Hiolski squares, including properties that had been individually entered in the register of monuments for many years. Thedecision to enter them in the register of monuments testifies to the supra-local historical, architectural and spatial values of this area of the city, where at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the public utility buildings that exist today were built,” says Dominika Kścieczyk, the Municipal Conservator of Monuments in Bytom
The historic building complex is a monument identified as a homogeneous collection of buildings that stands out from the fabric of the village. (…) In the south-eastern and north-western part of the quarter there are two magnificent, multi-faceted, originally free-standing modernist edifices (the edifice of the Upper Silesian Museum – formerly a museum and a municipal savings bank, and a school edifice) of high historical value – justifies the Provincial Conservator of Monuments.
In total, 12 properties and numerous elements such as fences, walls and facades are protected. Fans of architecture should be interested, among others, in the building of the Upper Silesian Museum (Jana III Sobieskiego Square), the Polish House “Ul” (38 Korfantego Street), the building of the former guardhouse and detention centre (45 Korfantego Street), the former building in which barracks officials used to live (44 Żeromskiego Street) or the building of the former school and drill workshops (in Żeromskiego Street).
The conservator has also made three individual entries – a burgher tenement at the corner of 38 Korfantego Street/Sokoła 19, a school building at Jana III Sobieskiego Square and the former military barracks – now the Municipal Office building at 35 Smolenia Street.
Placing the entire area under protection means that the owners of the buildings located here are obliged to carry out conservation, restoration and construction works as recommended by the conservator. For residents, this means gaining a unique part of Bytom, which can become a valuable tourist attraction.
photos: Grzegorz Goik, source: Bytom City Hall Archives
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