Powstanie i zabudowa „Nowego Miasta”, dzielnicy gubernialnych Kielc (cz. 1 do 1895 r.)

Anna Adamczyk (Voivodship Office for Monument Protection in Kielce) The Origins and Development of the „New Town” – a quarter of the Guberniya Kielce (part I covering the period until 1895) The present article discusses the origins of the Kielce “New Town”, a quarter situated in the vicinity of the Freedom Square (in Polish: Plac Wolności). After putting down the January Uprising, Russian policy aimed at unifying the Polish Kingdom with Russian Empire. In 1867, Kielce became the seat of the guberniya. Numerous offices as well as a garrison moved to Kielce together with the guberniya authorities. The Guberniya Government and the city authorities had to initiate activities in order to satisfy accommodation needs and set new directions for the spatial development of the city. The Guberniya authorities started their rule in Kielce with constructing a Catholic Orthodox church at the Palace Hill in Wesoła Street. In 1868, in its vicinity, an apartment for a pope and church service was built. It was designed by the guberniya chief constructor, architect Franciszek Kowalski. The fact that it was a corner house, with two front facades, testifies to the existence of a general development plan for a new quarter which was to be situated at the former Great Field. This land, east of Wesoła Street, was chosen by the Guberniya authorities due to its dry and upland location on a rocky substratum, close to the Palace Hill – the seat of the Guberniya authorities. The regular arrangement of fields made it easy to convert them into building plots. A committee for the construction of a new quarter was established. In spring 1868, some land in the area of the former Great Field which belonged to the government was given to the City’s Treasury in order to enable exchanging it with private owners of the fields. In 1868, following some negotiations, a “Declaration” was signed by them. The contents of the document confirm that at that time the layout of the main streets and the main square had already been drafted, although the first official plan of the new quarter dates back to 1870. The field owners committed themselves to giving some parts of their fields for free for the construction of streets. Those whose fields were to become the main square were to obtain compensation in the form of other plots situated in the new quarter. The plan of the new quarter, approved by the authorities in 1870, was prepared by architect Franciszek J. Kowalski. Traditional solutions were adopted, with a rectangular square with streets coming out of each of its corners. The market function of the square was to guarantee the quarter’s integrity. It was also why the new quarter was called the New Town by the Kielce newspapers. The central square was initially called the New Square, later the Market Square. At first, it was also to be much smaller (half of what it is today). One of the first city undertakings in the “New Town” was the construction of market halls by Chaskiel Landau. Soon, a tenement-house was built next to the halls and completed the entire north frontage of the square. Several other houses were quickly built

54 Studia i materiały by Jewish investors: Lejzor Piwko, Zelik Kestenberg and Szymon Rajzman in the square’s west frontage. On the east side, there was only one corner house of the Moszkowscy family. In the years 1885-1895, which were a period of a relative stagnation, only a well was constructed in the middle of the square but no new houses were completed. In 1874, the southern part of Wesoła Street started to be developed. One of the grandest houses was built there by Karolina Reichelt. In 1882, on a corner plot opposite the pope’s apartment, a tenement house later rented for the seat of the Kielce Treasury Chamber and the Guberniya Bank was built by Lejzor Piwko. Architect F. Kowalski, had his own house built in the vicinity. After 1885, only a few smaller houses were constructed in this street by Stanisław Taylor, Jan Życki and Karol Krajczewski. In 1886, a new street, presently called Czerwonego Krzyża Street, was marked out, joining St. Mary Square with Wesoła Street. In the area of the new quarter, several buildings were constructed for the purposes of army barracks. Present Słowackiego and Śniadeckich Streets ended just after Seminaryjska Street. Despite the fact that there was scarcity of apartments in Kielce, and the rents were high, not many people decided to have their own houses built mostly because of the lack of funds. In 1884, the railway line was constructed in the western side of the city which meant that the New Town suddenly became the peripheries of the Kielce’s centre. In 1888, a new development plan was drawn up by Karol Czaplicki in which Slowackiego, Śniadeckich and Żeromskiego Streets were extended reaching Wojska Polskiego Street.