Krahnstöver Villa in Szczecin

The villa at Ludwika Solskiego 3 is an Art Nouveau house in the Pogodno district of Szczecin, built from 1902 for the wine merchant Eduard Julius Krahnstöver. In sources it is also known as the Krahnstöver Villa. It is entered in the heritage register, and today it houses offices, so it is viewed from the outside.

For whom and by whom it was built

The building stands in the block of Solskiego, Krasickiego, Traugutta and Tetmajera Streets, and at its western corner it adjoins Jakub Wujek Square. According to the Wikipedia entry, the design was prepared by Rudolf Rahustover and construction began in 1902. The investor was a Szczecin merchant dealing in wine. After his death the villa was inherited by his son Rudolf Krahnstöver, and after him by his widow Gertrud.

Alterations

In 1914 the house was extended to a design by Frantz Plotz: the tracts in the cellars, on the ground floor and on the first floor were widened. The extension is best visible in the central avant-corps above the first floor. In July 1924 the front and side façades were rebuilt, and the layout of the walls in the cellars and the entrance were also changed. In 1935 a garage was built by the property to a design by Gunter Wendorff, with an entrance from today's Tetmajera Street, and it has survived to this day.

In 1935 the new owner became Kurt Ranjott, who ran a firm trading in coffee, tea and chocolate. According to the Wikipedia entry, the villa did not suffer in the wartime operations.

After the war

Shortly after the war a secondary school was set up in the building, and at the end of the communist period an art school operated here. In the 1990s it housed offices and flats, which were devastated. Then the villa was taken over by the Provincial Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, which has its seat here to this day. The building was fully restored in 2011. The heritage register describes it as brick, in the Art Nouveau style, dated 1902.

Nearby

It is about half a kilometre from here to the Rose Garden (Różanka), and Kasprowicz Park lies at a distance of about a kilometre. Nearby, at Wojska Polskiego Avenue 160, stands the other historic villa of Pogodno, the Martin Quistorp Villa from 1899.

Practical information

• Address: Ludwika Solskiego 3, Szczecin (Pogodno estate).
• Visiting: from the outside only, the building houses the offices of an institution.
• Protection: heritage register entries from 1996 and 2011 (numbers A-1315 and A-838).