Alfreda Jarischa Villa

At Kościuszki Avenue 88 stands an eclectic urban villa built in 1923-1925 for Alfred and Bodo Jarischa, sons of Austrian manufacturer Florian Jarischa. The building was constructed at the rear of the family property, which had the number 153 on the Piotrkowska side, so the villa is essentially the rear part of a larger residential and garden complex.

Villa in the depths of the garden

Why does the villa stand deep within the plot rather than on the street? The Jarischa family owned an extensive property stretching from the tenement house facing Piotrkowska 153 all the way to what is now Kościuszki Avenue, then called Nowo Spacerowa. Between the villa and the street lay a garden, and the front tenement house itself was already built in 1892 according to the design of Gustav Landau-Gutenteger. The estate remained in the family's hands until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Design by a Viennese architect

Who designed the building? The author of the project was Viennese architect Karl Seidl, and the villa's style is described as eclectic, combining various architectural orders within a single volume. From Kościuszki Avenue, you can see the more modest rear elevation of the former residence, as the representative part of the complex was located on the garden and Piotrkowska side.

Wedding palace and today's office

What happens in the building today? For many years it housed an office of the Civil Registry, popularly called the wedding palace, where residents of the Śródmieście district were married. Currently the building is owned by the city of Łódź and serves as a Residents Service Centre for the Śródmieście district, a public institution handling administrative matters.

Listed heritage

The villa is entered in the heritage register under numbers A/75 and B/30, with entries from 20 January 1971 and 10 December 1970. It is one of the few buildings on this stretch of Kościuszki that has preserved a clear connection to the former buildings of Piotrkowska, even though today it functions as a separate address.

Surroundings

In the immediate neighbourhood stand further manufacturers' residences, including the palace of Gustav Adolf Kindermann and the palace of Julius Kidnerman. A few hundred metres further on, at Piotrkowska, you can also see the palace of Ewald Kern, another trace of Łódź's industrial bourgeoisie from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Practical information

• Address: Tadeusz Kościuszki Avenue 88, Łódź, Śródmieście district.
• Getting there: by tram or bus to stops on Kościuszki Avenue, then on foot.
• What to expect: an office building viewed from the outside; entry inside is connected with an administrative matter, so it is worth checking opening hours before visiting.