Kamienica Hermana Konstadta

At number 53 on Piotrkowska stands a tenement building that merchant Herman Konstadt erected in 1885, following the dissolution of the joint partnership "Dom Handlowy J. Dobranicki i H. Konstadt". The façade in the style of French neo-Renaissance, decorated with atlantes and caryatids, is one of the more interesting on this stretch of the street.

The merchant who built his own house

Herman Konstadt purchased the plot at number 53 in the 1880s. He began construction of the tenement shortly after his trading partnership with J. Dobranicki collapsed. The design is cautiously attributed to Juliusz Jung or Hilary Majewski, builders associated at that time with industrial projects in Łódź.

Façade in the Francis I style

The elevation represents eclecticism with forms of French neo-Renaissance, known as the Francis I style. Above the entrance gate is a bay window supported on two atlantes, the upper storeys are adorned with caryatids, and the whole is crowned with a mansard roof with an iron balustrade and decorative plant friezes. This is one of the more sculpturally elaborate frontages on Piotrkowska.

Warehouses, agencies and offices

The tenement housed warehouses and agencies of various firms, including Krusche and Ender from Pabianice, the Joint Stock Company of Piotrkowska Manufactory, and Leonhardt, Wolker and Girbardt. A shoe warehouse for the St. Petersburg company "Skorokhod" also operated here, offering tens of thousands of pairs of machine-made boots. The 1920 house tariff lists Lucyna Krakowska, Dorota Frenkel and Anna Kopel as property owners. From 1918, the building also housed an association of municipal officials of Łódź.

A listed building in the centre of a commercial street

The tenement was entered in the register of immovable monuments of Łódź Voivodeship under number A/36, by decision of 20 January 1971, following an earlier decision of 18 March 1966. Today the building contains shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper storeys, and when walking along Piotrkowska it is easy to associate it with the neighbouring kamienica pod Gutenbergiem and the pałac Juliusza Heinzla standing somewhat further on, with Tuwim's Bench in front of it.

Practical information

• Address: ulica Piotrkowska 53, Łódź.
• Access: by tram or bus to stops in the centre of Piotrkowska, then on foot.
• What to expect: a residential and commercial building; the façade is viewed from the pavement on the opposite side of the street.