Fränkel's villa in Prudnik, Classicist villa at Tadeusza Kościuszki Street, Prudnik, Poland
Fränkel's villa is a classicist brick residence at Kościuszki 1A in Prudnik, built on a rectangular plan with projecting bays and four storeys under a hipped roof. Its plastered elevations carry rustication and stucco work, and English metal windows fill the loggia arcades. Inside, rooms are arranged around a ceremonial vestibule.
Hermann Fränkel, son of Samuel, co-owner of the S. Fränkel textile firm later known as Frotex, had the villa built in 1883. It was first remodelled in the early 20th century, and in the 1920s metal English windows were added to the loggia arcades. After 1945 it housed the district starosta's office, then a kindergarten, and later became Frotex's Dom Włókniarza. The gmina took it over in 2006 and restored it between 2010 and 2011.
Since 2011 the villa has housed the Prudnicki Ośrodek Kultury, the town's cultural centre. Its garden hosts an international jazz festival every year on the first weekend of August, started in 2014. The building also appeared in films, including scenes shot on 19 October 2018 for Lech Majewski's "Brigitte Bardot cudowna".
The residence is located in central Prudnik at an easy-to-find address and can be reached conveniently by public transport. Visitors should check with the Prudnicki Ośrodek Kultury for current opening hours and ongoing exhibitions.
The staircase holds an 1886 fresco by Eugen Hanetzog showing the Finding of Moses (Exodus 2:4-6), paired with a fountain whose figure represents Hermann Fränkel's wife, Flora Alexander. A fireplace, a secessionist fountain and a large skylight in the same house stand for fire, water and air.
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