Villa 'Wanda', Piotrków Trybunalski

On Dombrowski street is one of the most interesting and mysterious buildings in the city, built in the early 20th century in the Art Nouveau style.

There is a legend that the Villa in the art Nouveau style was built for the Governor's mistress, who, however, no one has seen or knows her surnames, only the name "Wanda" inscribed on the pediment is known.

It is assumed that the figure crowning the facade also represents the favorite of the Tsar's official.

In fact, everything is much more prosaic, the mansion was built in 1904 and its first owner was an engineer józef Pętkowski, the founder of the Petrków power plant construction consortium and the Provincial credit Association. In addition, he owned the Comfort hotel, located opposite the Villa.

Rumors about the involvement of the Governor in this building are explained simply: the city Council discussed the construction of the Governor's residence and the house of the provincial Council on this street, but did not approve it. And, most likely, one of the Polish patriots started a rumor about the Governor's mistress, and since the poles for the most part were extremely negative about the Russian Empire, the rumor discrediting the tsarist regime fell on fertile ground.

The author of the project is a well-known Piotrków's architect Felks Nowicki, who was educated in St. Petersburg. According to his projects, the District court building, the chapel of the Holy Trinity hospital were built and the fortress walls were reconstructed. The construction of the villa cost the customer about 20 thousand Czar's rubles.

In the refined forms of Windows, flexible lines and freedom of composition of the facade, you can see the features of the Barcelona house Casa Battlo, created by the great Antonio Gaudi. But the most amazing thing is that Gaudi started working on the world-famous house at the same time that Novitsky was designing the Villa "Wanda"! This house has the same significance for the architecture of Poland as Gaudi's works have for Spain.

Pętkowski lived in the villa "Wanda" until the early 20s, then sold it to the workers 'society, which opened a"People's house" here. In 1935, the society went bankrupt, and the house was put up for auction and purchased by the national defense Fund. In 1939-1945 the building was occupied by the Hitler Gestapo.

After the war, the building belonged to the Ministry of defense, it housed the district headquarters. Now (in 2019) the house is in the process of restoration.