Prusa 5 house, Wrocław

Prusa 5 house is a residential building in Wrocław built in 1902 in the Art Nouveau style with an unusual curved floor plan instead of a sharp corner. The five-story structure features two entrances, vertical bay windows with decorative iron balconies, a wide gable with colorful murals of the sun and ivy, and carved plant motifs on doors and windows.

The corner house was built in 1902 for the architect Bruno Löffenholz, with the facade designed by Wilhelm Heller, who also supervised construction. After 1945 it deteriorated, losing much of its plaster and facade ornament. It was entered in the register of monuments on 21 February 1972, and a general renovation in 2006 restored its original appearance.

The corner building carries two addresses, Prusa 5 and Świętokrzyska 53/57, on streets that were Lehmdamm and Kreuzstraße before 1945. Its Art Nouveau ornament is concentrated on the upper floors: plant motifs and, at attic level, a polychrome of a rising sun with ivy tendrils. The ground floor was built for shops, and two staircases serve the flats above.

The building sits at a corner location near the city center and is easy to reach on foot; its position makes the unusual curves and facade details very visible from the street. You get the best view of the entire structure from across the way, where you can see the full height of the bay windows and upper ornaments.

The facade's attic level carries a polychrome of a rising sun with ivy tendrils, a detail easily missed from street level. The rounded cornice projects well beyond the facade line, and the ground floor is rusticated while the upper storeys are not. The building was entered in the register of monuments on 21 February 1972.