Jezuicka Street, Bydgoszcz

It ran in the western part of the city, connecting Długa Street and St. Martin and St. Nicholas Cathedral.

Rescue archaeological works have revealed the presence in the street of fragments of brick dating back to the 15th century.

[1] The history of this part of the city is related to the Order of the Jesuits, which owned a majority of the dwellings located between today's Farna, Jezuicka, Niedźwiedzia streets and the Old Market Square.

[2] On the first detailed plan of Bromberg, drawn in 1774 by Prussian geometer Greth, a number of empty plots are visible in Jezuicka Street: only existing houses were located in the central and western part of the street and in the eastern frontage (today's City Hall).

[3] From the cadastral plan of 1876, it appears that there are 19 tenements at Jezuicka street, of which 13 located on the western frontage, which survived until today.

In 1979, a renovation work started in the area, so as to order the old buildings of the Old Town, leading in the 1990s to the overhaul of most of the tenements at Jezuicka Street.

Today they house bookshops, restaurants, shops, art galleries and in particular:[4] In the 2010, street pavement has been renewed, as part of the Revitalization Plan of Bydgoszcz.

[5] Through history, the street bore the following names:[3] Current namesake refers to the Society of Jesus, which erected in the area a monastery (1619), a church (1638) and a college (1648).

The oldest and most distinctive building on Jezuicka Street houses today the City Hall (Polish: Ratusz).

The institution was established by Bishop Kasper Działyński and Jerzy Ossoliński, Bydgoszcz Starostwo and Crown Chancellor.

It struck less by the level of decoration than the quality of its various important guests: John II Casimir and his wife, together with Frederick William and his spouse in 1657,[2] officers and generals of the Swedish and Russian armies during armed conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries.

At that time, the school received the visit, among others, of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Tadeusz Czacki; Stefan Florian Garczyński Polish poet and friend of Adam Mickiewicz studied there.

[8] As a result of the reconstructions made in 1697, 1702, and during the 19th century, the edifice has gradually lost its original Baroque architecture to display Neoclassical features.

In the 1990s, moved there the Library of the History Department of Kazimierz Wielki University, the Department of Culture of the City Hall, the Office of the State Service for the Protection of Monuments (Polish: Państwowa Służba Ochrony Zabytków, PSOZ), and the Provincial and Municipal Office for the Protection of Monuments.

[4] The townhouse has two storey with an attic and eyelid dormers; its horseshoe-shape footprint has wings onto Jezuicka, Farna and Przyrzecze streets.

The upper part of the house displays an 18th-century Polish Baroque style, a passageway with an 18th-century preserved courtyard and an open wooden gallery.

The front elevation on Jezuicka street is adorned with medallion-shaped sgraffiti designed by Witold Wasik, representing five scientists and artists associated with Bydgoszcz and the region: Emil Warmiński, Jan Kasprowicz, Jan Śniadecki, Jędrzej Śniadecki and Leon Wyczółkowski.

[4] In 2015, a plaque commemorating the Polish pharmacist Ignacy Rochon, shot by the Gestapo in 1939, has been unveiled at the tenement, after his grandson funded the renovation of the house in 2014.

[16] The tenement architecture strikes by the bear figure set over the entry, symbol of the gone pharmacy, as well as by the eyelid dormers on the roof.

[4] Today, the tenement also houses the Association of friends of Bydgoszcz City (Polish: Towarzystwo Miłośników Miasta Bydgoszczy).

[4] House at 5 1850–1900[10] Eclecticism The present tenement had for first landlord Johann Sawiskowski, a barber, in the 1850s; address was then Neue Pfarstraße 18.

Main elevation displays typical eclectic features, with triangular pediments, decorative lintels and three large shed dormers.

Building at Nr.14 had housed for many decades a restaurant (from the early 1870s until the end of WWI), today it is the seat of Bydgoszcz Cultural Affairs (Polish: Biuro Kultury Bydgoskiej).

Main attraction of the facade is the elegant Art Nouveau portal, with curved shapes and a large transom light.

In the 1880s, the house at then Friedrich Straße 49, was owned by Mrs Flora Indig, managing a shop selling material for writing and drawing.

The street ca 1905