Azerbaijan's capital Baku is a city whose development was based on the oil extraction industry. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Baku transformed from a small settlement into an important industrial centre. Interestingly, Poles also played a significant role in this process. Their contribution to the architecture of the city is well known , but it is also worth mentioning their role in the development of the local economy. A memento of Polish activity in the Caucasus is the Rylski family townhouse - a building designed by architect Józef Płoszko for Baky oil tycoons.

An example of Bakyan Art Nouveau
. The four-storey building located on Mammadaliyeva Street is currently the headquarters of the Azerbaijani Central Union of Cooperatives. Its imposing 11-axis façade catches the eye with its orientalist decoration of window and door frames. The window openings of the second storey with a horseshoe arch closure and the third storey with a pointed arch are a characteristic feature of Islamic art. The building is topped off with a conspicuous cornice and a central oriel covering the second and third storeys. The front elevation of the Rylski family building is an example of Art Nouveau, fashionable in Baku at the beginning of the 20th century, spiced with influences from the native architectural tradition. The author of the project, Jozef Płoszko, was perfectly at home in this style and his versatile projects still form an important part of the architectural landscape of Baku.

The construction of the Rylski family tenement house dates back to 1912. Over the years, it served another important function - in 1919, the first Polish diplomatic representation in Azerbaijan was located there, headed, among others, by Stefan Rylski.

The oil fortune of the Rylski family
The senior of the family, Hipolit, was responsible for the beginning of the development of the Rylski family's oil power. He came to Baku from Siberian exile, where he ended up after the January Uprising. While there, he began by working as a railway trackman and later invested in the oil extraction industry.
The industrial activity brought considerable capital to the family, but it did not guarantee a happy ending for Hipolit Rylski. Accused of misappropriating oil from neighbouring oil pipelines, he was sent to prison on 19 June 1899, where he committed suicide the same year. At the time of his death, his estate was estimated at 10 million roubles.

The family business was taken over by one of Hippolyte's sons, Stefan. He decided to invest the inherited wealth in his homeland. Together with his siblings - Onufry, Leon and Maria - he purchased land on Firlejowska Street in Lublin, on which he established an eternit factory. Built in 1912, the industrial buildings together with the water tower were designed by the architect Jan Koszczyc-Witkiewicz. Earlier, Stefan Rylski had made attempts to start a similar plant in the Caucasus. He even purchased a patent and a licence for the production of eternit valid throughout the Russian Empire, but this investment failed there.

Stefan Rylski played an important role in the life of the Polish community in Baku. In 1903, he became chairman of the newly established Roman Catholic Charitable Society and the Catholic Polish Community, whose headquarters were located in a tenement house he owned. He was also involved in the construction of a Catholic church. In 1908 he donated 100,000 roubles to the parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The building was constructed under the leadership of Jozef Ploszko, and was completed in 1914. Unfortunately, it has not survived to our times - it was demolished in the 1930s. A new Catholic temple was built near the site where it existed in 2006.

Józef Płoszko in Baku
Józef Płoszko (1867-1931) was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Civil Engineers in St Petersburg, after graduating from which he worked in Kiev for two years. He arrived in the Azerbaijani capital at the instigation of Józef Gosławski, who had already been working there for a long time. In Baku, he initially found employment in the building department of the city council as a district architect. Favourable conditions for the intensive architectural development of the Azerbaijani capital combined with Płoszka's diligence allowed him to quickly make a name for himself in the local environment. He served as the city's chief architect from 1907 to 1910. After Józef Gosławski and Kazimierz Skórewicz, he was the third Pole to hold this position. Therefore, by the time he designed the townhouse for the Rylski family, Płoszko was already well-established in the community of Baky architects.

Płoszko was probably the most versatile Polish architect working in Baku. From his hand came designs for public buildings (the Puppet Theatre in Baku, the New Europe Hotel), palaces (the Ismailiya Palace in Baku), townhouses, churches and a mosque (the Mukhtar Mosque in Vladikavkaz). He worked for Azerbaijan's biggest oil magnates Martuza Mukhtarov and Agi-Musa Nagiyev. In 1925, he moved to Warsaw and then to France. He died in 1931.