One of the most striking buildings in Ostrava is the Polish House. Construction began in 1899 and finished at the close of the century. The building’s relatively innovative character, markedly at odds with contemporary Ostrava architecture, provoked controversy and criticism, though some predicted it would be a “very decorative building”. Sceptics, however, feared it would be all too ostentatious.

WIFE, LOVER, PROSTITUTE AND GRAND EMBEZZLEMENT 
It was not only the building’s form that stirred debate. Its designer, Stanisław Bandrowski (often reported as Bandrovsky), soon fell foul of the local press. He had appeared in Ostrava before the Polish House rose, yet his notoriety peaked after completion and his abrupt departure for Vienna. The press, briefed by activists, alleged that he had fled after embezzling funds intended for the project. Reports claimed he was driven by private difficulties, including debts and affairs. Rumours of factional conflict within the Polish community also circulated: it was said he had urged local Poles to vote for Germans in the forthcoming elections.

Further accusations followed: he was said to have been seen in Ostrava with a prostitute, even to be living with her. The morality scandal soon collapsed: the alleged courtesan proved to be Bandrowski’s wife, who promptly demanded a correction from the editors. Another thread appeared: that his real name was Stefan Badowski, allegedly a Russian subject who had fled conscription.

The case – above all the embezzlement claim – was treated seriously. A warrant was issued and he was returned to Ostrava after arrest in Vienna, said by hostile sources to have occurred during a tryst. He spent several months in detention awaiting trial. During the investigation it emerged that he had faced an accusation of forging bills of exchange in 1893; before the Ostrava court, however, he was acquitted of embezzlement. The Supervisory Board of the Polish House Building Society likewise concluded that the building fund had not been violated. Only the charge of using a false name was upheld, for which Badowski received several days in jail.

STANISŁAW BANDROWSKI VEL BADOWSKI 
The trial furnished biographical details. He came from Baków near Kalisz and was said to have studied at the Warsaw Polytechnic; a claim doubtful given that the Emperor Nicholas II Warsaw Polytechnic Institute was founded only in 1897. It is more likely that he acquired experience as a draughtsman, including in Ljubljana and Zagreb. He then opened an independent practice in Tarnów, where he reportedly designed a villa for Stanisław Podolecki. In the wake of the accusations, he left Tarnów for Ostrava, where he worked as a designer in Bohumil Židlický’s firm before opening his own practice. Beyond the Polish House, he designed the house and sanatorium of Václav Seidl.

WHERE DID THE POLISH HOUSE IN OSTRAVA COME FROM? 
At the end of the nineteenth century, increasing numbers of Poles came to Ostrava “for bread”. It was the city’s “golden age”, when Ostrava ranked among the most important industrial centres of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The ambitions of the growing Polish population are evidenced by the establishment of a Polish school in 1898, which required its own premises. The educational purpose was stressed most strongly in the campaign to secure permission to found the Polish House.

A German House and a Czech House already stood in Ostrava. There was, then, not only a need but also a fashion – and an ambition – to possess one’s own national home. Such institutions mattered to national communities: they fulfilled social and educational functions and, above all, helped sustain national consciousness.

The organising committee included Dr Václav Seidl, Eng. F. Brzezowski (deputy mayor of Přívoz), Eng. H. Schrott (mining supervisor) and Dr Knapczyk. In 1899, they founded the Society for the Construction of the Polish House in Moravian Ostrava; among its members was Stanisław Bandrowski. A plot was soon purchased, albeit slightly outside the centre. Owing to close links between Poles in Ostrava and Kraków, a Kraków delegation inspected the site in July 1899. At the same time a competition for the design was opened. Not all Poles supported the project: some saw it as a threat to the Polish House in Cieszyn, and disputes descended at times into antisemitic slogans used to question opponents’ Polishness. By January 1900, the building had reached shell stage; in August the works were accepted, followed by the ceremonial opening.

HISTORICISM, ART NOUVEAU AND NATIONAL MOTIFS, OR TEODOR TALOWSKI (ALMOST) IN FOCUS 
Any passer-by literate in Polish would have known the building’s identity: the façade bore a Polish-language inscription. Local tradition claims that bricks and stones from the walls of Kraków were incorporated to recall ties with the motherland. The tale is doubtful, since Kraków’s city walls were demolished in 1817. What is certain is that construction relied heavily on contributions and donations from Kraków’s citizens. In that sense the “bricks” were the money. A symbolic stone may indeed have been brought and built in; whether, as tradition insists, there were two wagonloads – there is no evidence.

Other Polish accents are unquestionable, above all the Piast eagle crowning the building. The composition clearly draws on the designs of Teodor Talowski, whose work Bandrowski likely knew from Galicia. Like Talowski, he introduces Art Nouveau elements into a picturesque-historicist framework, notably the openwork metal dome that recalls Viennese Secession solutions. The alternation of plaster and bands of red brick, together with historicising detail, yields a picturesque eclecticism. Yet Bandrowski handles these motifs somewhat mechanically; the finesse characteristic of Talowski’s Kraków designs is missing.

Despite its modest scale, the architect sought monumentality. The mass of the building evokes castle architecture: like a castle, the Polish House was intended to defend Poles and Polishness in Ostrava.

It is a two-storey, L-shaped building with an oval corner tower joining the two wings; the main entrance is set in the tower. The dominant compositional accent is the cupola and the third storey crowning the avant-corps. The composition is completed by an attic and a wrought-iron grille encircling the dome. The street façade alternates bare brick with rendered surfaces enriched by ornament. Alongside Art Nouveau elements, the detail mixes Classicist and Neo-Romanesque motifs in eclectic fashion. The longer wing features a striking tripartite “thermal” or Diocletian window: a scheme of three lights set within a single arch, the central light wider. Above it were placed the Polish inscription and eagles. Inside, the chief features are the grand staircase and the ballroom.

THE POLISH HOUSE AND ITS PROBLEMS 
At the opening of the Polish House, Adalbert Johanny, the Mayor of Ostrava, delivered a speech advocating openness to different nationalities, which Ostrava’s Germans took as betrayal. Many people anticipated a bright future for the Polish House. It housed a Polish school of the People’s School Society, a Polish library, a savings bank and Polish organisations.

In 1912, however, press reports already suggested that the outlook had never been entirely rosy. Local Poles struggled to meet running costs. That year, the Polish school even sought to take over the building and adapt it to its needs, but its own finances prevented the move. Nor did matters improve greatly after the First World War. In 1917, plans were mooted to rebuild the interiors, presumably to introduce further activities that would allow the House to finance itself. The Polish House’s operations were interrupted only in 1938, when it was rebranded as the Federal House and later served as the headquarters of the Hitler Youth. After the Second World War, the building was reclaimed by Polish organisations, specifically the Polish Cultural and Educational Association in the Czech Republic. Under socialism, this association remained the principal state-sanctioned representative of Poles in the country. Ideas for its future were explored, including a hotel extension in the 1960s, but without success. In 1979, amid continuing financial problems, the Polish House lost its distinct identity and became part of a larger structure in which Polish organisations also held a stake. After 1991, with privatisation, ownership disputes multiplied. By 2023, the building had stood unused for several years and was slowly falling into ruin.

OBJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DATABASE OF POLONICA IN THE COMPETITION ORGANISED BY THE INSTYTUT POLONIKA IN 2023