Downtown Widok Street is hidden in the shadow of post-war buildings. Its tenement houses were quite lucky and mostly survived the war and the uprising. However, in the post-war years, some of them were demolished to make way for new buildings in the spirit of socialist realism. The northern frontage of the street has survived to this day in much better condition than the southern part. Noteworthy among the pre-war buildings is Aleksander Lednicki’s tenement house at Widok 16
The three-storey tenement house with annexes was built in 1885 to a design by the architect duo Jan Hinz and Anzelm Dobromir Krysiński for Aleksander Lednicki, a barrister and philanthropist known for his close cooperation with Józef Piłsudski. The property had a richly decorated Art Nouveau façade with two risalits in the outermost axes and a receding central section. After the war, the building was stripped of most of its ornamentation, which caused it to lose much of its charm
Photo: whiteMAD/Mateusz Markowski
Its situation changed a few years ago, when the housing community decided to carry out a general renovation with the reconstruction of the original appearance. The building was restored to its former glory. The façade of the entire building was renewed, the decoration of the front part was restored, the asphalt in the courtyard was removed, paving blocks were laid, and the bumpers and sprinkler system were renovated. The interiors have also been cared for. The original design elements of the staircases have been preserved. The representative staircase features, among others, the original door and window woodwork, wrought-iron balustrades and ornamental niches. The same is true of the smaller, poorer side staircases. During the renovation, old advertising signs in Polish and Russian were preserved on the wall of one of the annexes. This is a real rarity in the whole of Warsaw
Source: fotografiawarszawy.com, czmurek.com
Read also: Architecture | Tenement | City | Warsaw | Architecture in Poland
Subject: View 16 – Warsaw townhouse with a unique souvenir from long ago
