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Former secondary school building in Lutsk - present-day view, photo Michał Pszczółkowski, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Tadeusz Kosciuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk
Tadeusz Kosciuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk, exterior view, 1931, Public domain
Źródło: NAC, sygn. 1-N-2042
Fotografia przedstawiająca Tadeusz Kosciuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk
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ID: POL-002129-P

Tadeusz Kosciuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk

Łuck | Ukraine
ukr. Łucʹk (Луцьк)
ID: POL-002129-P

Tadeusz Kosciuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk

Łuck | Ukraine
ukr. Łucʹk (Луцьк)

In the interwar period, a co-educational secondary school was established in Lutsk. It was established thanks to social involvement. As a state gymnasium, it was one of the best secondary schools in Poland at the time. Initially it operated in a former monastery building, but soon a Polish architect designed three variants of the new building.

A brief history of the secondary school in Lutsk
. The Tadeusz Kosciuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk was one of the best secondary schools in interwar Poland. It was organised while the war was still raging, by social forces with the support of the Polish Educational Society. In the summer of 1918, a headmaster was elected, Aleksander Ostromęcki, and in July the first enrolments in the secondary school began. A solemn mass in the cathedral church opened the new school year on 1 September 1918, and in 1921 the institution was nationalised.

The Lusk Lower Secondary School was co-educational, which was not common in the inter-war reality. The school was housed in an empty, two-storey post-convent building on the corner of Dominikańska and Katedralna (now Drahomanova and Katedralna) Streets. The building was unsuitable for the school's needs, not least because of the amphitheatre layout of the rooms (the rooms designated as classrooms were passable). In addition, as the number of pupils and classes increased, the building became too cramped, so in 1921. - after an unsuccessful attempt to create an afternoon shift, some of the classes were moved to the former convent of the Daughters of Charity on Castle Square. However, the building was poorly heated and lacked toilets. No other accommodation options were found in the city. All these circumstances led to the decision to build a new building.

New secondary school building in Lutsk - architecture
Kazimierz Tolloczko (1886-1960), a well-known Warsaw architect and professor at the Warsaw Polytechnic, was asked to create an architectural concept. Tolloczko presented three variants of the design. In the most splendid version, laid out on an E-shaped plan, he proposed a representative façade with a central risalit crowned with a tympanum. Unfortunately, its realisation was out of the question due to the lack of sufficient funds offered by the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment.

The cheapest project was selected for realisation, with a final cost of 800,000 zł. The relatively modest concept was based on a scheme of two interlocking cuboidal volumes at right angles, with a rather monumental façade. The ground floor was shaped in the form of a plinth, while the upper storeys were rhythmically divided by large lisens. The building was topped off with a simple attic bearing the name of the school.

Memories of the construction of the secondary school in Lutsk
. As early as 1930, news circulated among the pupils that a new gymnasium building was being constructed, and we were all curious to see what it would look like. One day, when we had fewer lessons and the weather was great, we went with the whole "gang" of boys from our class to inspect the new school. We were led by Bolek Kacperek, who lived close to the construction site. The construction site was located in the new part of town, on Piłsudskiego Street, not far from the barracks of the 24th Infantry Regiment and the railway station. Our chatty bunch marched [...] and after quite a long march we found ourselves in front of the school under construction. The building was almost finished in its shell and, compared to the old "shed", it looked impressive. It was a large three-storey L-shaped building with large Venetian windows and a flat roof. It was situated on Piłsudskiego Street, at the corner of Gimnazjalna Street, leading to the clerks' colony. Quite large pine trees grew in front of the school, but what was most important to us: there was a huge playing field, and we looked forward in advance to the fun and sports games that would be played there. This is what Adam Peretiatkowicz, a pre-war graduate of the secondary school in Lutsk, wrote (A. Peretiatkowicz, The Tadeusz Kościuszko State Gymnasium in Lutsk 1918-1939, Katowice 1996).

Interior of the new building of the secondary school in Lut sk
. The new school building stood at the corner of Pilsudski and Gimnazhna Streets (now Vynnychenka and Nestor Burchak Streets). Construction work was carried out in 1929-1931, and the school year of 1931/1932 was already inaugurated within the new walls. Compared to the previous school, the learning conditions were luxurious, as the building was designed in accordance with the current guidelines for school buildings. It had spacious classrooms and well-equipped classrooms with facilities for teaching materials, appropriately sized recreational areas, a doctor's surgery and a modernly designed cloakroom. There was even thought of a room where members of the Parent Committee prepared sandwiches and milk and tea for the second breakfast.

The school was electrified (e.g. the caretaker used an electric bell), had central heating and was connected to the water and sewage system. There were toilets and washbasins with running water on all floors. Each floor was equipped with a 'watering hole', from which one could drink water by pressing a lever and putting one's face to a special support.

Educational conditions for physical education, an important subject in the interwar school, were also greatly improved. The school had a large and well-equipped gymnasium with changing rooms and showers, as well as a spacious schoolyard with a complex of jumps, running tracks and pitches for various games.

Lutsk Gymnasium after 1939
In 1939-1941, the Soviet occupation authorities placed a Ukrainian and a Polish ten-year school in the gymnasium building. The Polish school was attended by several hundred pupils from the pre-war Polish schools of Lutsk and other regions of the country, who, as a result of wartime wanderings and migrations, found themselves in Volhynia.

After the German army entered the city, in the summer of 1941, the building was taken over for a military hospital. During this time it underwent reconstruction and at the same time devastation, including the destruction of the library collection and teaching equipment. From 1944 to 1946, the Polish Secondary School No. 3 existed here, but its activities ended with the end of the "repatriation" action of the Polish inhabitants of Lutsk.

Currently, the building is the seat of the Faculty of Law of the National University of Volyn. In the post-war years the building was slightly reconstructed, the texture of the façade was changed and the crowning attic was transformed, replacing it with a prominent cornice with obelisks.

Related persons:
Time of origin:
1929-1931
Creator:
Kazimierz Tołłoczko
Publikacja:
31.07.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
31.07.2024
Author:
Michał Pszczółkowski
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