He was the architect behind the original design of St Joseph’s Church in Yekaterinoslav . Like other local architects, he worked in various styles – Neoclassicism, Eclecticism and the ‘Neo-Russian style’ . He became the founder of a dynasty of Polish architects in Yekaterinoslav , and the entire Brodnicki family, who were actively involved in the city’s social and cultural life, are counted amongst its most distinguished families of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fate of the Brodnicki family following the Bolshevik occupation of Yekaterinoslav remains unknown, but ‘to this day, this family – in the persons of Albert and his children Sergei, Leonid and Nina – is remembered with particular respect amongst the inhabitants of the former Yekaterinoslav’.

Childhood and youth

Albert Brodnicki’s ancestors came from Volhynia, from the small settlement of Kopaczówka (now in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine). His grandparents – Bartłomiej and Agnieszka Brodnicki – belonged to the minor Polish nobility who founded this settlement and played an active role in the social life of the region. It is worth noting that the Brodnicki family possessed an ancient Polish noble coat of arms – Łodzia – mentioned in the oldest surviving Polish armorial, compiled by the historian Jan Długosz between 1464 and 1480. Łodzia is one of 47 coats of arms adopted by the Lithuanian boyars under the Union of Horodło of 1413. The Polish genealogist and heraldist Kasper Niesiecki (1682–1744), in the pages of his most famous 5,463-page edition from 1839–1845 of the volume *Herbarz polski Kaspra Niesieckiego, expanded with additions from later authors, manuscripts and official documents, and published by Jan Nep. Bobrowicz’ (Volume 2), he included the entry ‘Brodnicki of the Łodzia coat of arms’.

In 1797, a son, Wincenty, was born into the Brodnicki family. In the mid-1820s, he married Apolonia Tuńska. The couple moved to the village of Karpyłówka Kamień in the Kaszyr County (now the Volyn Oblast, Ukraine). They had two children – their daughter Justyna was born in 1825 , and their son Albert in 1830 . After some time, the family moved to the village of Rastów ( now Turysh District, Volyn Oblast, Ukraine). There, they had two sons: Tomasz and Stanisław ( who died at the age of one). Unfortunately, this is all the information we have about the family. Nor is it possible to determine what led the young Albert Brodnicki, who was living with his parents in the countryside, to choose a career as an architect. It can certainly be said that his parents ensured their son received a secondary education that enabled him to undertake higher education in the northern capital of the Russian Empire. The boy probably attended some sort of grammar school.

It is known that 15-year-old Albert left to study in the distant and unfamiliar St Petersburg , where for seven years he studied at the School of Civil Engineering , the main educational centre of the Russian Empire, which trained construction professionals. Upon graduating from this school, he was awarded a degree in civil engineering. From 1852 onwards, his life was forever linked to Yekaterinoslav , where, after completing his studies, he was appointed to the post of assistant to the Yekaterinoslav Provincial Road and Construction Commission. This was standard practice for graduates of this institution, who were sent to provincial capitals throughout the empire. Małgorzata Omilanowska rightly observed that: “After graduating, they began their careers as civil servants—as architects or engineers—across the whole of Russia, and very rarely in the Polish territories. Some of them went on to have distinguished careers”.

Yekaterinoslav

It is worth noting here that a young Pole, Albert Brodnicki – then aged twenty-two – found himself in a town where there was a small Polish community . It is worth noting that as early as 1842, the local Catholic community had submitted a request to the Russian authorities for permission to build a church. This meant that the Polish population was fairly well-organised, whilst at the same time functioning as a self-sufficient and economically strong unit, as it was able to build and furnish the church at its own expense . Although this permission was granted as early as 11 May 1844, the establishment of a Catholic parish in the town also encountered considerable difficulties. It was therefore only after several years that the architect Albert Brodnicki designed the original layout of the church . It is precisely this fact that confirms historian Zygmunt Łukawski’s thesis that Polish diasporas within the Russian Empire sought out architects from within their own communities for such tasks . “It hardly needs explaining that, during the construction, Catholics sought to make the most of their own professional expertise. In most cases, the design of the church was drawn up and the building work supervised by a local architect – a Pole.”

At the end of the 19th century, according to the first census of the Russian Empire conducted in 1897, 3,418 of Yekaterinoslav’s 112,800 citizens were Polish. Among them were doctors, lawyers, teachers and railway workers, but the majority were military personnel who belonged to local units of the Russian army. Poles were also actively involved in the city’s public life. A telling example of a family that played a major role in the life of Yekaterinoslav was the family of Albert Brodnicki.

It should be emphasised that our protagonist climbed every rung of the career ladder to become a provincial architect . Until February 1860, he worked as an assistant architect at the Yekaterinoslav Provincial Roads and Construction Commission. Between February and April 1860, he acted as Yekaterinoslav’s provincial architect. From 1861 to 1864, he carried out work as an architect for the Yekaterinoslav Provincial Road and Building Commission. In 1865, a reform of the administration dealing with construction matters was carried out in the Russian Empire: the provincial road and building commissions were abolished, and construction departments were established within the structure of the provincial administrations. Consequently, in 1865, Albert Brodnicki became a member of the newly established Construction Department of the Yekaterinoslav Provincial Administration. For ten years – from 1865 to 1875 – he worked as the provincial architect of Yekaterinoslav.

According to the Dnipro-based historian Maksym Kavun, Brodnicki’s career was aided by the fact that he married the sister of the local architect Dmytro Savitsky and consequently became his assistant . An interesting description of Albert Brodnicki was provided by Andrei Dostoevsky ( brother of the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky), who worked as the provincial architect in Yekaterinoslav from 1860 to 1865. He wrote the following about his successor: “He was a highly skilled and experienced engineer… As a man, he was a very kind and wise gentleman, and, moreover, a natural comedian and a good storyteller… After my departure from Yekaterinoslav in 1865, he took my place; that is to say, he was appointed provincial architect of Yekaterinoslav.” It should also be borne in mind that Albert Brodnicki was one of the youngest provincial architects in the Russian Empire.

His determination, a very important trait of his character, is also evidenced by the following telling fact: After graduating from the School of Civil Engineering, Brodnicki was awarded the lowest – XIV – civil rank in the Empire’s table of ranks: collegiate secretary (collegiate registrar); and, after years of professional service, he was awarded the high title of 5th class – Councillor of State (statskij sovetnik) . Holders of this title held positions in the public administration such as deputy director of a department, deputy governor, and head of the finance department within the provincial administration.

Albert Brodnicki’s duties as provincial architect included a wide range of tasks: drawing up façade plans, drawings and cost estimates for all government construction projects, as well as the reconstruction and renovation of buildings belonging to the Main Directorate of Communications (Glavnoe Upravlenie Putey Soobshcheniy) and public buildings. He supervised works carried out at the state’s expense, managed construction workers and drew up numerous technical reports.

He supervised the refurbishment and reconstruction of public buildings. In the late 1850s, he carried out the refurbishment of the Provincial Post Office on Ekaterininskaya Avenue (the city’s main street, now 62 Dmytro Yavornitsky Avenue), In 1860, he carried out the renovation of the building of the Provincial Assembly of the Nobility. Originally, this was a Potemkin palace, built between 1786 and 1791, namely the palace of Prince Grigory Potemkin-Tavriysky, a statesman and military figure in the Russian Empire. The palace was designed by the architect Ivan Starov ( 1745–1808), one of the founders of Russian Classicism. He erected the building in strict Classicist style. Today, it is the Students’ Palace of the Oles Honchar National University ( 1 Shevchenko Avenue), which has been included on the list of architectural monuments of national importance and is considered one of the oldest buildings in modern Dnipro.

Brodnicki also designed a number of public buildings erected within the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. In 1857, he carried out a survey of the prison castle in Bakhmut. In the late 1850s, he drew up plans for the Volosko-Khutorskaya post station. In 1861, he supervised the construction of a prison castle for 300 inmates in Rostov-on-Don. Between 1857–1861, he drew up three versions of a design to convert a two-storey production building of the former Yekaterinoslav State Cloth Factory into barracks for the Garrison Battalion ( now 106 Dmytro Yavornitsky Avenue). This building, constructed in the early 1790s in the Classical style, is also considered one of the city’s oldest buildings. In 1863, he worked on a design to decorate the Great Hall of the Nobility’s Assembly for a ball held to mark the arrival in Yekaterinoslav of the heir to the Russian Imperial throne.

Bridges

He was involved in the construction and repair of bridges in Yekaterinoslav and throughout the Yekaterinoslav Governorate; unfortunately, most of these have not survived to the present day (1855: design for a bridge over the Orel River near the village of Pereshchepino, Novomoskovsk District, Yekaterinoslav Governorate (the town of Pereshchepino, Novomoskovsk District, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast); In the mid-1850s: a design for a bridge across the Mokra Sura River on the Yekaterinoslav–Nikopol postal route. 1859: a design for a bridge across the Mokra Moskovka River in the town of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporizhzhia). 1860: plans for the repair of the bridges over the Zherebets and Ovrag rivers in the Aleksandrovsk district at the Kichkas crossing over the Dnieper. 1860: design for the repair of the bridge over the Kilchen River in the village of Podgorodne (town of Podgorodne, Dnipropetrovsk Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). Between 1869 and 1871: a design for a stone bridge in Yekaterinoslav between Nagornaya Street (now Patorzhinsky Street) and Kozatskaya Street (now Starokozatska Street). During the Crimean War – 1853–1855 – he oversaw the construction of temporary bridges for military purposes in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. It is worth noting that during the Crimean War, the city served as an important logistical base and transit point, and the eminent surgeon Nikolai Pirogov worked at one of the local hospitals.

Between 1872 and 1874, Brodnicki was a member of the building committee and the site manager for the construction of the teaching block at the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary ( 35 Dmytro Yavornitsky Avenue).

Unfortunately, the fate of Albert Brodnicki’s architectural legacy in Yekaterinoslav is tragic. Almost none of the buildings he designed have survived to the present day. This was due to the Second World War, as well as destruction and alterations in later years. However, a few buildings have survived, albeit in a modified form.

St Joseph’s Church

The great trust and esteem in which Albert Brodnicki was held as a talented architect was evidenced by the fact that the local Polish community commissioned him to design the church. He thus became the architect of the original design for the future Church of St Joseph, built in Yekaterinoslav between 1869 and 1877 with funds from the local Catholic parish. The plot of land for the church’s construction was situated along Yekaterininsky Prospekt, within the grounds of the municipal park. Albert Brodnicki designed a small church in the Gothic style, featuring traditional architectural elements whilst remaining inspiring . The main façade facing the avenue was adorned with two tall bell towers, a magnificent entrance portal and an angel holding a cross above the nave. As the local Polish community was not particularly large, the church was designed with a single nave, lit by tall, soaring windows and ending in a massive altar apse. Above the altar, on the roof, a tall, openwork tower was to be situated. Brodnicki’s design for the church , submitted to the Technical and Construction Committee of the Ministry of the Interior , was not approved. In addition to reservations regarding the architectural solutions, serious doubts were raised about the structural integrity of the building.

As a result, the design was significantly altered by a member of the Committee, the architect Piotr Mierkułow . The width of the church was increased slightly, whilst the height of the bell towers was reduced (the total height, including the spires, remained unchanged). The height of the nave was also reduced. The decoration of the church façade was altered, simplifying it considerably, bringing it closer to the Romanesque style. On 16 July 1869, the new architectural design for the church in Yekaterinoslav was approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire. Construction of St Joseph’s Church began on 17 June 1872, was completed in 1877, and the church was consecrated in 1878. For the architecture of provincial Yekaterinoslav at that time, the church’s architectural form was quite unusual. A mighty structure rose amongst the two-storey buildings, and its two massive towers were visible from several blocks away. The church immediately became the centre of Polish community life, and also brought together local Catholics of various nationalities.

Personal life

The architect’s personal life was more successful than the fate of his projects. Albert Brodnicki married a local noblewoman, Irina Sawicka ( 1837–?), daughter of Vasyl Sawicki, a representative of a well-known and distinguished Ukrainian Cossack-Starshina family from Left-Bank Ukraine. The couple had two sons, Leonid ( 1864–1907) and Sergei ( ?–?), and a daughter, Nina ( 1867–?). Leonid Brodnicki, like his father, became a well-known architect and public figure in Yekaterinoslav.

Sergei Brodnicki, after graduating from the local Classical Gymnasium in 1878, undertook studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Kharkiv, obtaining a law degree. For a long time, he served as chairman of the Yekaterinoslav District Council and as a town councillor. He headed the People’s Reading Commission and possessed considerable artistic talent. A well-known and talented reciter of Russian and Ukrainian poetry, he often performed at charity evenings organised to raise funds for poor pupils at the local Mining School. He was friends with the eminent Ukrainian historian Dmytro Yavornitsky ( 1855–1940), for whom his brother Leonid designed a two-storey building in 1905 (now the historian’s museum). In 1902, Sergiej Brodnicki supported the idea of opening a historical museum in Yekaterinoslav under the leadership of Dmytro Yavornytskyi. He later became chairman of the museum’s board himself. Together with his wife Sofia, they were also active in the field of public education .

Nina Brodnicka, like her brothers, was an active social activist in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. From 1893, after graduating from the St Petersburg Conservatoire, she worked as a music teacher at the Yekaterinoslav Diocesan School for Girls. She was married to the civil servant Boris Hochgejnem ( from 1896). Their fate following the Bolshevik occupation of Ukraine is unknown.

Final years

As noted by local researchers of Dnipro’s history, the exact date of Albert Brodnicki’s death remains unknown . Unfortunately, the Yekaterinoslav press of the time, namely the *Yekaterinoslavskaya Zemskaya Gazeta*, is not yet accessible to the author – it is likely that its pages would contain an obituary for the architect and social activist, who was highly respected in the city. At this point, it remains only to note that Gawryło Baranowski, a civil engineer of Polish descent born in Odessa (1860–1920), author of a unique bibliographical publication from 1893 containing information on 1,024 graduates of the Institute of Civil Engineers – and, during Albert Brodnicki’s studies at the School of Civil Engineering — in Saint Petersburg between 1842 and 1892 and their professional careers—summed up his biographical note on Albert Brodnicki as follows: ‘At the time of writing, Albert Wikentievich is retired’. This means that the architect died after 1893 .

Albert Brodnicki is remembered by his contemporaries as a provincial architect who carried out his administrative duties with diligence . He was undoubtedly a skilled professional, leaving behind a variety of buildings, none of which have survived to the present day. He was also a good father to his three children, who went on to become respected residents of Yekaterinoslav. Together with his eldest son, Leonid, they established an architectural dynasty in the city that was respected and held in high regard.