Warsaw is facing another loss of a historical building – the Abram Włodawer tenement house standing at 8 Łucka St. The Ministry of Culture’s decision to remove it from the register of historical monuments has cleared the way for the owner to demolish this oldest surviving tenement house in the Wola area. The building is the last relic of late nineteenth-century tenement housing in this part of the capital, and its history dates back to 1877-1878, when it was erected to the order of a well-known Warsaw entrepreneur, Abram Włodawer. A new development will be built on the valuable property, located in the vicinity of the service and office complex in the former Norblin Factory, and Warsaw will lose another element of its historical identity.
The tenement house standing at 8 Łucka Street is a one-storey building with a mansard roof, in which an additional storey has been concealed. In its courtyard was an additional five-storey outbuilding, demolished years ago. The building survived both World War II and the Warsaw Uprising without serious damage. After the war, it was used for communal housing. In 1992, appreciating the historical value of the building, it was entered in the register of monuments. The building is a valuable example of older buildings that preceded the intensive development of metropolitan rental housing in the 20th century. Unfortunately, through years of neglect it has fallen into increasing disrepair, left without sufficient conservation care.
In 2011, the last tenants left the building due to its poor state of repair. A year later it was returned to the heirs of the pre-war owners. In 2016, a private investor took it over, but the tenement continued to deteriorate. Neglect and a series of fires in 2016 only accelerated its deterioration. The district authorities and the conservation officer repeatedly appealed to secure the building, but to no avail. Despite the warnings, the tenement fell into disrepair, awaiting decisions that were to decide its future. In 2023, the Mazovian Voivode Tobiasz Bocheński, contrary to earlier announcements, refused to allocate funds for securing the building requested by the Mazovian Voivodeship Historic Preservation Officer.
Years 1996 and 2023, Łucka 10 and 8. Source: Social Archive of Warsaw, https://www.tubylotustalo.pl/spoleczne-archiwum and whiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski
Now the Ministry of Culture has decided to remove the tenement from the register of monuments, arguing, among other things, that it is in a catastrophic technical condition. In practice, this allows the owner to demolish the building, which is possible after obtaining permission from the District Building Control Inspector. Warsaw is therefore facing the prospect of yet another irreversible loss of a historic building that survived the destruction of war and the communist period.
2015 and 2023, Łucka 8. Source: fotopolska.eu, authors: Mariusz Brzeziński and whiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski
The tenement standing at 8 Łucka Street had a chance to remain a testimony to the pre-war history of Wola, showing the old life of the district. Its fate is yet another example of how much Warsaw loses due to the lack of effective protection and conservation of historical monuments, despite the fact that the number of buildings from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries drastically decreased as a result of the war and subsequent demolition for new investments.
Source: warszawa.wyborcza.pl, warszawyhistoriaukryta.blogspot.com, wawalove.wp.pl, tubylotustalo . pl
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