Villa at Józefa Hoene-Wrońskiego 1 in Szczecin

The villa at Józefa Hoene-Wrońskiego 1 in Szczecin's Pogodno was built in 1910-1911 for the merchant Fritz Lenzner. It was designed by the Dresden architectural firm Lossow und Kühne and built by the Szczecin architect Gustav Gauss. In 2020 the villa was entered in the heritage register together with the brick fence of 1910 and the garden. Today it houses the management of the Municipal Public Library, so it is a building to be viewed from the outside.

The villa of a paper-mill merchant

Fritz Lenzner was a merchant and the owner of a paper mill founded in 1847 on what is today Wojska Polskiego Avenue. He bought the plot from the city on 18 February 1910. The building permit was issued on 7 March 1910, and work was completed on 29 March 1911. During the acceptance inspection defects were found and repaired by mid-1911. In 1912 Lenzner bought from the city a further 502 square metres of land to enlarge the garden north of the villa.

A chicken coop of 1916, to a design by the Szczecin architect Karl Kelm, and a garage of 1934, to a design by Kurt Bromba, were later added on the property. In the mid-1930s the villa was taken over by the owner of a department store on what is today Wyszyńskiego Street, who probably held it until the end of the war.

The building and the garden

The building is of masonry and plastered outside and inside. The roof is covered with plain tiles laid in a "crown" pattern (koronka), and wooden ceiling beams are exposed in the hall. The cubic capacity of the building is 410 cubic metres, and the usable floor area 343.7 square metres. The grounds are surrounded by a historic brick fence of 1910. The garden, of 502 square metres, laid out in 1910-1911, was also entered in the heritage register.

After the war: office, nursery, library

After the Second World War the villa served the city authorities as a representative building, and then it housed Municipal Nursery No. 5, which operated here until June 1995. In July 1995 the building was taken over by the Municipal Public Library, and its management was later placed in it.

Practical information

• Address: Józefa Hoene-Wrońskiego 1, in Szczecin's Pogodno.
• The villa is the seat of the library's management, not a facility for visitors, so most can be seen from the street.
• A walk can be combined with the Rose Garden (Różanka) (about 600 metres) and Jan Kasprowicz Park.