Będzin houses and their stories is a project dedicated to the architecture and history of buildings erected in Będzin in the years 1870-1914. In this period of time town of Będzin belonged to the Russian Empire and whithin it to Piotrków Governorate where the construction of buildings was supervised.
Most of the information and architectural drawings published here comes from the State Archives in Łódź. These materials were supplemented with information from the Archives in Katowice, Piotrków Trybunalski, Kielce and the Archiwum Akt Dawnych. All content has been translated to Polish from hand written Russian.
How to read informations on this page?
Particular buildings are presented in the order of the historical (russian) names of the streets where they where located. Each house has a unified description containing:
- Investor’s name (polish: „Inwestor”)
- Adress (polish: „Adres”) historical and current (polish: „obecnie”)
- Description of the investment (polish: „Inwestycja”)
- Documentation’s year („Data sporządzenia dokumentacji”)
Despite the passage of over a hundred years, the history of many, if not most, buildings in Będzin is practically unknown. At that time, the city was inhabited by a large Jewish community, which is reflected in the archival documentation of many houses. The project will interest history and architecture enthusiasts, which, as we know, is among us a lot. The presented architectural plans are a real treasure, being an valuable source of knowledge about Będzin’s multicultural history, as well as an introduction to further searches for researchers.
In 2012-2013, the Brama Cukermana Foundation developed a similar project in the nearby post german town of Bytom (germ.: Beuthen) focused on prewar building documentations.
www.architekturabytomia.org
Query by Grzegorz Onyszko
Historical consultation, translation: Andrzej Ciepał
Concept, graphics, project coordination: Piotr Jakoweńko
All documents come from the collections of the State Archives in Łódź.
Project co-financed from the budget of the Śląskie Voivodeship