History of the construction of a housing colony in Antokol

The housing cooperative of employees of the Ministry of Public Works office was established in Vilnius in the first half of the 1920s. The colony of houses was initially to be built in the Ponarsky district, in the area of Good Council, Spruce and Peace Streets; the oldest plan of the housing estate, drawn up in 1923, marked 39 properties. The location was soon changed - the cooperative acquired a new area for development located in Antokol, in close proximity to St Peter and Paul Church, between Tadeusza Kościuszki, Holendernia and Przejazd Streets. It was a state-owned land sold to the Vilnius City Municipality for housing development. The first plan of the housing estate in this area dates back to 1926, but another, slightly corrected division into plots was submitted for implementation, approved by the Technical Bureau of the Municipal Office in 1928. In the same year, construction work began, led by architect Franciszek Wojciechowski, an employee of the Building Department of the District Public Works Directorate of the Provincial Office and also a member of the cooperative. Wojciechowski's signature appears on one of the design drawings, but there is no certain confirmation of his authorship.

The investment could have been realised thanks to a loan from Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, but disputes over the correct estimation of costs caused delays in the implementation. The first houses were handed over for occupation at the beginning of 1931, and by the following year all the buildings were settled.

Architecture of the complex

The design of the housing colony of the Ministry of Public Works in Antokol envisaged the construction of terraced houses, situated along the streets marking out the triangular plot, and at its apex, at the junction of Holendernia and Przejazd streets, two detached buildings. The houses were designed as double segments juxtaposed in mirror image, in the first design version - single-storey with a usable attic. During construction, the concept was changed and all the buildings were erected as two-storey buildings with a high basement. The ascetic architectural form was built from simple, geometric blocks covered with flat roofs, with facades devoid of detail apart from the concrete flat roofs connecting the pairs of entrances to the residential segments and the quarter-circle iron railings at the entrance stairs. The rhythm of the frontage development was defined by the façade faults of each segment, and regular rows of large, multi-quadrant windows. From the courtyard, the exits and terraces overlooked the courtyard gardens and the green common recreation area. The whole formed an intimate housing estate in a picturesque location on the edge of the "Antokolski Grove" forest complex and in the immediate vicinity of the pearl of Vilnius Baroque - the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

The stylistically coherent complex of buildings of the housing colony of employees of the Ministry of Public Works created a homogeneous and coherent example of modernist functionalism in multifamily architecture, representing the realisation of the postulates of the functionalist avant-garde; far ahead of other modernist realisations in Vilnius.

Historical address: T. Kosciuškos Street - Holendernia - Przejazd

Contemporary address: T. Kosciuškos g. - Olandu g. - M. Dobužinskos g.