Farna Street is a street located in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Many of its buildings are either registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list, or part of Bydgoszcz local history.
Location
The street is located in the north-western part Bydgoszcz Old Town. It runs roughly along an east–west axis, connecting the Old Market square () to Przyrzecze Street near Mill Island. It is about 110 m long.
History
Farna Street was laid out in the middle of the 14th century, during the formation of Bydgoszcz Old Town. It connected the north-western corner of the Old Market Square to the parish church () and to the streets: Jezuicka and Przyrzecze.
The current architecture of the church dates back to the 15th century. In the vicinity of the edifice a cemetery had been standing until 1809, which gate and fences gave stood Farna Street.
The history of this part of the city is related to the Order of the Jesuits, which owned a majority of the dwellings located between today's Farna, Jezuicka, Niedźwiedzia streets and the Old Market Square. In 1619, the Society of Jesus erected a monastery here and around 1640, the construction of two Jesuit buildings on the Market Square closed one side of this quadrangle area: St Ignatius of Loyola Church (); Jesuit College (). During the Swedish Invasions (1660), most of the buildings were burned down, and many others were emptied by their inhabitants before the plague. Properties were then managed by churches, monasteries and hospitals: they were then called tagged as Jesuit.
The structure of the street did not change through time, until the outbreak of the Second World War and the Occupation of Bydgoszcz by Nazi forces. In 1940, Werner Kampe, NSDAP Kreisleiter in the city, ordered the following buildings to be razed: the western frontage of the Old Market square; St Ignatius of Loyola Church; the tenement house at the corner of the Old Market and Farna Street, which had been housing the Municipal Museum. Nazi authorities had planned to construct a new city hall, but never completed it. Since that time, Farna street never had houses on its southern frontage, the northern side (even numbers) being visible directly from the Old Market square, as it is today.
In the 1970s, Polish authorities started to revitalize fragments of the Old Town, including Farna Street.
Final modernization of the street (pavement) was included in the Revitalization Plan of Bydgoszcz.
Naming
Through history, the street bore the following names:
16th century - 1st half of 18th century, (Latin: Parish street) 1750–1816, Pfarrstraße (German: Parish street) 1820–1920, Alte Pfarrstraße (German: Old Parish street) 1920–1939, Ulica Farna (Polish: Parish street) 1939–1945 - Alte Pfarrstraße Since 1945, Ulica Farna
The street name refers to St. Martin and St. Nicholas Cathedral located at Nr.10.
Main places and buildings
House at 2
1775-1776
Eclecticism
Earliest registered reference tells that in 1855, landlord of then Alte ßfarrstraße 7was August Berndt, a rentier living in Wilhelm Straße (today's Jagiellońska street). In the 1930s, it belonged to the Jesuit church of Bydgoszcz. Today, the tenement house belongs to Bydgoszcz parish church. This frontage was facing another one (bearing odd numbers) before the destruction of 1940.
The facade, although influenced by neoclassical architecture, displays a nice frieze with stuccoed vegetal motifs. In addition, one can highlight the superb decoration of the main entrance portal, with stuccoes, festoons and a niche overlooking the street.
House at 4
Registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage list, Nr.728854 Reg.A/1539 (October 28, 2009)
1776, 1865-1868
Eclecticism
Initially at Alte ßfarrstraße 6, first known owner was a locksmith, August Sedelmeyer, in 1855. This frontage was facing another one (bearing odd numbers) before the destruction of 1940.
The tenement house has been rebuilt and elevated at the end of the 18th century, then rebuilt again in the second half of the 19th century.
House at 6
1866
Eclecticism
On the plot is proved to stand there in 1555 a house owned by a tailor, Wawrzyniec Klẹk. A new house was set up in 1593: grand with deep basements, one storey and an attic under a Mansard roof. In the 19th century, Friedrich Krüger, a tailor, owned the building at then Alte ßfarrstraße 5 before it was reconstructed in the 1860s.