Stanisław Konarski street is a historical street of downtown Bydgoszcz.
Location
Father Stanisław Konarski Street follows a roughly north-south axis, from Piotra Skargi Street to Jagiellońska street. It runs parallel to the eastern edge of Casimir the Great Park.
History
While the main downtown () thoroughfare of Bydgoszcz, Gdańska Street, had a brisk expansion after the 1830s, collateral areas (Piotra Skargi Street, Kołłątaja street, Gimnazjalna, Libelta or Szwalbego Streets) developed at a more slower pace.
First reference of Father Stanisław Konarski Street in city address book of Bromberg dates back to the mid-1870s.
First map to mention the street bears the year 1876.
Through history, the street bore the following names:
1870s-1920, Schule straße (School street); 1920-1940, Father Stanisław Konarski street; 1940-1945, Schule straße; Since 1945, Father Stanisław Konarski street.
Actual namesake comes from Stanisław Konarski (1700–1773), a Polish pedagogue, educational reformer, political writer, poet, dramatist, Piarist priest and precursor of the Enlightenment in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Main edifices
Regional Office Buildings, at 1-/, corner with 7 Jagiellońska street
1962-1965 (building on Konarski street), by architect Jerzy Jerka, 1966-1969 (tower building), by architect Bronislaw Jablonki
Modern architecture
Both buildings, (14-storey tower and the long one on Konarski Street) are additions to the 19th century original edifice, where now seats the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship administration and leadership. They are connected to the historical house via a pedestrian covered bridge, crossing over an entry to the Casimir the Great Park.
Tenement at 8 Jagiellońska street, corner with Konarskiego Street
1877, 1901
Neoclassical architecture
The building was erected in 1872 on a design by architect Müller, so as to house the civic school for boys (). The school was initially located in the former Bydgoszcz's Carmelites monastery. It was an elite folk school, with a 9 years cycle, and pupils usually belonged to wealthy high society, rich enough to pay the high tuition fees. In the mid-1880s, the Bürgerschule moved further up in Konarskiego street, where is located today the Bydgoszcz School of Fine Arts (Nr.2), or, according to the Prussian street numeration, from Nr.8 to Nr.7. The edifice has been rebuilt in 1901 In the 1990s, the edifice housed the Foreign Language Teacher Training College, which then moved to Dworcowa Street. Since 2010, the seat of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Centre for Education and Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Marshal's Office in Bydgoszcz are located here.
On the sidewalk grows a ginkgo identified as Natural landmark of Bydgoszcz.
The building boasts historicism features, with a predominant Neoclassical architecture form. It has a "L" shape, with a prominent avant-corps in the middle of its frontage, with two storey, an attic and a basement. The entrance double portal is topped with a triangular pediment and a tympanum in which is placed a circular ornament. The facade is divided by horizontal cornices and a wide frieze on its top. The ground floor is decorated with bossage.
Bydgoszcz School of Fine Arts, at 2
Kuyavian-Pomeranian Heritage list Nr.A/743 & 158/A, 11 April.
1875-1878, by Heinrich Gruder & Carl Rose
Neoclassical architecture
The school building has been designed by engineer Heinrich Gruder who worked on the construction of nearby St Peter's and St Paul's Church, and executed by city architect Carl Rose, who realized several other edifices in Bydgoszcz, particularly in Gdańska Street. Once completed in 1878, the building housed the Town School for girls (), having its address at SchulStraße 7. In 1885, the School for girls swapped its location with the one for boys (Bürgerschule), between old Nr.7 and 8: girls moved to nowadays house at the corner with Jagiellońska street, boys to the present building at Konarskiego Nr.2. The school for boys operated there till 1911, when it moved again to today's Staszica street. From 1920 to 1935, the edifice housed the Faculty for boys, . Having accommodated a military hospital at the end of World War II, the building resumed its initial role in 1982, when the Bydgoszcz School of Fine Arts (established 1945 by Marian Turwid) moved from Pomeranian Arts House to the precincts. The edifice has undergone its last renovation in 2011, with a co-funding between European Regional Development and Polish State.