Wawelberg Estate

Main data:

Year of construction: 1900
Designer: Edward Goldberg
Location: ul. Gorczewska 15, 15A, ul. Wawelberga 3

At Gorczewska street we do not have a plenty of historical buildings, or a valuable architecture neither. What is distinguishing at this street is a long, brick house which is situated at the southern side, between Mlynarska and Plocka streets. If we walk through the gate, to the backyard, we will see a second, nearly identical building, and further on one more. Today they are all in rather poor condition, also the quality of flats is rather low and the surrounding does not look very pretty. But we should remember that those buildings were constructed more than 100 years ago, in years 1898-1900 and they were one of the first settlements with cheap flats for manual workers.

Hipolit Wawelberg was the founder of the estate (also a neighbouring street was later named after him). He was, as we would today say, a businessman. But after he gained a fortune, he decided to do something advantageous for poor inhabitants of Wola, which was at that time typical workers' district. In order to do so, he established, together with his wife Ludwika, a foundation for cheap flats' construction. He allocated 300 thousand roubles in it. The idea was not only to construct flats, but also social facilities. School and baths were located in separate buildings, which today no longer exist. Later the foundation has completed some more buildings in different parts of Wola.

In the front of the building we can see an old-fashioned sing-board of a confectionary. It is Zagoscinski's shop, which was founded in 1925. Today it is the most popular place in the city to buy donuts on Fat Thursday. A queue which stands here on that day is as long as queues we used to see during communistic times. On the front wall there is also a plaque, which commemorates inhabitants of Wola who were executed here by Nazis - there are dozens of places like this in Warsaw, especially in Wola. And in the gateway it is worth to see a plaque which commemorates the founders of the estate.