The Jeżyce District

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The Royal-Imperial Route is the main tourist trail crosscutting Poznań. Take it to tread the paths of kings and emperors, who developed a particular fondness for this city. You will encounter historic sights of European class, see galleries and museums, take part in exciting events and learn about the history, tradition and culture of the place where Poland began.

Jeżyce is a unique area on the Royal-Imperial Route, a place which combines various traditions and architecture. A stroll down its streets will bring you face to face with sophisticated Art Nouveau townhouses and examples of Bamberger culture.
Do not miss this vibrant town which awaits tourists, Poland's only city to receive you both royally and imperially!

1. ART NOUVEAU TOWNHOUSES

The townhouses are Jeżyce's landmarks and its most valuable architectural features. Most of them date back to the early 20th century. They have been rendered in the Art Nouveau style which has left its most conspicuous mark on their ornamental asymmetrical façades with distinctive crownings and rich decoration featuring frequent plant motifs. Art Nouveau can also be seen in building banisters, gates, stained windows and polychromes.
The most valuable examples include:
1A - the Roosevelta Street townhouses which form a neighborhood of picturesque, richly ornamented detached villas. Their notable details include a tree-shaped ornament between the balconies on the building at ul. Roosevelta 5 and the female figure holding up a balcony at ul. Roosevelta 4. The charming houses form a screen which shields a ¬remarkably decorated Art Nouveau residential building behind them. The entire ¬complex has been designed by the Böhmer & Preul architectural office;
1B - a villa development at Krasińskiego Street, modeled on the English garden-city. Residential houses made up of garden-surrounded villas were increasingly popular with affluent burghers as they offered more comfort and a higher standard of living than townhouses. The neighborhood was set around a picturesque central open oval-shaped square. The villas came in sophisticated shapes and with scarce decorations;
1C - the Leitgeber townhouse at ul. Dąbrowskiego 35/37, an example of geometrically-stylized Art Nouveau architecture;
1D - villa townhouses at Słowackiego and Mickiewicza Streets;
1E - a townhouse at ul. Zwierzyniecka 20.

2. THE HALF-TIMBERED HOUSES

As much of Jeżyce lied within Poznań's fortified zone, only buildings which were easy to dismantle in a defense emergency were permitted. The architecture was therefore light-wooden-frame construction filled with brick. The technology was used to construct Poznań's first railroad station at today's Zwierzyniecka Street. Some of the notable surviving half-timbered buildings include:
2A - the former headquarters of the Agricultural Chamber (ul. Dąbrowskiego 17), dating back to 1895, rendered in the Swiss style;
2B - the ul. Dąbrowskiego 42 tenement house with a decorative sculpted porch;
2C - the ul. Dąbrowskiego 52 tenement house.

3. BAMBERGER HOLDINGS

Jeżyce has retained its 19th-century rural architecture. The holdings built there by the Bambergers combined living quarters with farm buildings set around a rectangular yard which was commonly paved.
3A - the Jeske family holding at ul. Dąbrowskiego 40;
3B - the Paetz family holding at ul. Kościelna 43, converted into a restaurant and a hotel.

4. THE NOWY THEATER

The Theatre is housed in a 1906 Art Nouveau tenement house topped with a distinctive mashwork lantern. The Theater has operated on the site since 1923. Its many outstanding directors turned it into one of the country's top playhouses. The Theatre is named after Tadeusz Łomnicki, an actor who died on stage while rehearsing for the play King Lear in 1992.

5. THE SOCIAL INSURANCE AGENCY BUILDING

Erected in 1931, the building is considered to be one of the most remarkable examples of modernist-style architecture. The edifice was Poznań's first building based on a reinforced-concrete frame. In the 1950s, the Communist authorities mounted a set of transmitters on its roof to jam foreign radio stations. Their destruction by demonstrators was one of the most significant episodes in the Poznań June 1956 worker protests.
Other notable examples of Jeżyce's modernist architecture include:
5A - the building at ul. Dąbrowskiego 8;
5B - a complex of buildings at Sienkiewicza and Kochanowskiego Streets.

6. THE JEŻYCE MARKET

Jeżyce's market square was opened in 1891 to accommodate the growing number of the merchants and residents who used it. The market assumed the role of a center of the rising suburb. The elegant, predominantly Art Nouveau tenement houses which surround it make it one of Poznań's most magnificent squares. The market itself remains in operation to this day.

7. CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS AND SAINT FLORIAN

Jeżyce belonged to Saint Adalbert parish whose church was inconveniently remote for its residents. They therefore strove to set up their own parish which was ultimately established in 1894. Three years later, the construction of a Neo-Romanesque church to a design by Jan Rakowicz took off the ground. Its original slender tower was destroyed during World War II. Its interior has been adorned with murals by Tadeusz Sulima-Popiel featuring traditional folk motifs. Featured in its altar is a figure of Jesus by Władysław Marcinkowski. The back of the church holds a grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes stemming from the Inter-War Period.

8. THE SŁOWACKIEGO STREET SCHOOL COMPLEX

This brick-façade school complex laid out in the pavilion style common for the period dates back to the early 20th century. A separate building was designated to house a gymnasium. Today, the complex holds a grade school and a junior high school.

9. THE OLD ZOO

This, one of Europe's oldest zoological gardens, started out as an unusual birthday gift for a regular customer of a railroad station restaurant presented by his friends. The birthday man became a happy owner of several animals, including a goat, a monkey and a bear. The bundle evolved to become a menagerie display and later, in 1875, turned into a regular zoo. Following the closure of the station, some of its grounds and buildings were used for the zoo's purposes. For instance, the locomotive house became an elephant enclosure. As the Zoo grew bigger, it increased the number of species it held and contributed to the protection of endangered ones. Following 1975, animals were successively transferred to the New Zoo which was established that year. The old one has been relegated to the role of a public park with a display of domesticated and cold-blooded species.

10. THE CONCORDIA PRINTING HOUSE

This 1910 building was constructed to serve as a printing house. Its style was reminiscent of Neo-Baroque architecture. Left vacant in the late 20th century, the building gradually fell into disrepair. It has recently been restored to house a design center.

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