Józef Święcicki

Józef Święcicki (Polish pronunciation: ; 9 March 1859 – 3 November 1913) was a designer and builder of Bydgoszcz, under Prussian rule. A vast majority of his eclectic-style works can still be found all around the city. Józef Swiecicki was part of architects and builders who gave a characteristic shape to the city at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, dominated by eclectic buildings with various styles, including Art Nouveau or Modernism.

Life Józef Stanisław Święcicki was born on 9 March 1859 in Bromberg. He was the son of Franciszek (1810–1863), a shoemaker and Michalina (1827–1912). He had four brothers and three sisters, all born and baptized in Bydgoszcz. His mother left Franciszek, his father, who had turned alcoholic and died at 54 from delirium (7 December 1863). Michalina took for second husband Anton Hoffmann (1823–c.1904), a city master bricklayer, who taught young Józef construction rudiments.

Around 1881, he graduated from secondary construction school and passed the state examination to become a builder . He performed professional training with Anton Hoffmann. He started to co-run with his stepfather a large design and construction business, Święcicki-Hoffmann studio, during a couple of years (from the mid-1880s to 1887), before taking the lead of his own firm until 1903. This decision to preside over his personal company is linked to his marriage in 1888, and his subsequent leaving the family home, a rented flat at 26 Gamm straße, today's 8 Warmińskiego street, near Focha street.

His most productive period as a designer in Bromberg was in the 1890s. He designed over 60 tenement houses in downtown district among which 21 projects on Gdańska Street, the main city thoroughfare. He also designed a number of other buildings in various places around the city, as well as outside Bydgoszcz. He set up in 1892 a stucco ornament factory , to help out poor but talented students of Bydgoszcz.

In the autumn of 1913, he went on a journey by train to rest in the Western German Empire. On the way back, he fell down while climbing in Berlin underground train, and suffered concussion. This injury caused his death, on 2 November 1913, at Berlin's St Hedwig hospital. His body was transported back to Bydgoszcz and buried in the Nowofarny cemetery in Bydgoszcz.

Personal life Józef Święcicki from 1888 was married to Maria Henrietta Ehrlich (born in 1865 in Chełmno). On 30 April 1895, they adopted Hugo Rudolf Fiedler, an abandoned boy from an orphanage, born 1892 in Berlin.

His favorite pastime was chess, which he played during most of his free time. Logically, he co-founded the Bydgoszcz Chess Society in 1886, to which he belonged as an honorary member till 1910.

In November 2018, the city of Bydgoszcz honored the memory of the architect by dedicating a mural to Święcicki and his works, on a wall located at the corner of Gdańska and Cieszkowskiego Streets, in front of his former house

Works in Bydgoszcz

+ Main preserved buildings by Józef Święcicki in BydgoszczYearEdificeRemarksPicture 1882 Tenement house Located at 46 Śniadecki Street. Earliest surviving project realized in cooperation with his stepfather Anton Hoffmann. center 80px 1886 Hugo Bille Villa Located at 3 Piotra Skargi Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1889 Tenement house Located at 64 Gdańska Street. The first house built under his own name. center 80px 1889 Hugo Hecht tenement house Located at 92/94 Gdańska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1892 Carl Peschel tenement Located at 101 Gdańska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1893 Tenement houses Located at 1/3 Stary Port Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1893 Hotel "Pod Orlem" Located at 14 Gdańska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1895 Józef Święcicki tenement Located at 63 Gdańska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1895 Carl Bradtke Tenement Located at 93 Gdańska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1896 Tenement house Located at 48 Pomorska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1896 Albert Voigt Tenement Located at 5 Pomorska Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1898 Gustav Reschke's house Located at 11 Cieszkowskiego Street. Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list center 80px 1899 Tenement house Located at 4 Cieszkowskiego Street. Project by Józef Święcicki, realized by Rudolf Kern. center