Dom Śląski, Modern architecture building in Kraków, Poland.
Dom Śląski is a five-storey building at the corner of Królewska and Pomorska streets, with four wings around an inner courtyard and two front elevations. Its early functionalist form has a rounded corner marked by setbacks, a ground floor clad in dark clinker brick with a pillared arcade on Królewska, and upper windows set in horizontal clinker bands. The first-floor corner loggia was walled up after World War II.
The building was initiated by the Union for the Defence of the Western Borderlands, with the plot donated by the city of Kraków and funds left over from the Upper Silesian plebiscite campaign. Architect Józef Rybicki designed it in 1931, and it was erected between 1932 and 1937 under site manager Ludwik Wojtyczko. On 13 September 1939 the German occupation authorities seized it for the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst, setting up a temporary Gestapo arrest in the cellars and interrogation rooms on the first and second floors. After the war it housed the League for National Defence, a cinema and a student hostel; since 1981 it has held the "Ulica Pomorska" branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków.
Since 1981 the building has housed the "Ulica Pomorska" branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków, devoted to the Gestapo detention site that operated here from 1939. A memorial plaque to the Gestapo's victims was unveiled on the Pomorska Street facade in 1975. The building also long held a student hostel for art academies and, until 1994, the Wolność cinema.
The site is located at 2 Pomorska Street in the city center and is easily accessible on foot. Plan extra time to explore the basement areas thoughtfully, as the experience can be emotionally demanding.
The building was erected in 1932–1937 to a design by Józef Rybicki, while the construction was led by Ludwik Wojtyczko, often mistakenly named as the architect. The city of Kraków donated the plot free of charge, and the funds came from money left over after the Upper Silesian plebiscite campaign.
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