During the Second Polish Republic, Nowogródek evolved from a provincial town into a provincial capital. This city is of great significance to both Polish history and culture.

The administrative structure of the Second Polish Republic was flawed and came in for heavy criticism throughout the interwar period. The press spoke, amongst other things, of ‘artificial provinces’. Most provincial capitals were situated in the largest urban centres, but this role was also entrusted to medium-sized towns – those with populations of several tens of thousands – and even a town with a population of merely a few thousand was included in this group. One such town was Nowogródek, a town of great significance to Polish history and culture, primarily due to its association with Adam Mickiewicz. During the Partitions and after the First World War, however, Nowogródek was merely one of many provincial towns in the north-eastern Kresy region.

The seats of provincial authorities were usually located in large, stately palace buildings or imposing public buildings dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. There was no such building in Nowogródek, which is why it was decided to construct a purpose-built building. This is worth bearing in mind, as new buildings for provincial authorities were a rarity in the interwar period. Apart from Nowogródek, they were erected in only three other towns – Brest-on-the-Bug, Katowice (where the office shared premises with the Silesian Sejm) and Toruń (ultimately, this building housed the Regional Directorate of the State Railways).

The Provincial Office Building

Certain details regarding the Provincial Office building in Nowogródek are missing; neither the architect nor the exact date of construction is known. However, the architectural style suggests it was built around 1925, as it was based on the most widespread model of traditionalism at the time. In this case, the architect chose to incorporate motifs of modern origin, specifically the characteristic elements and details of the Polish provincial Renaissance and Baroque styles.

In accordance with the architect’s vision, the two-storey building is topped by a fairly high hipped roof. In the centre of the façade stands a substantial projecting section (a part of the façade protruding beyond its main line), which is crowned by a two-storey volute gable whose form alludes to the Baroque style. The ground floor within the projecting section takes the form of an arcaded colonnade with pillars supported by buttresses (placed in an unusual manner at the front of the pillars). The windows are set within panels surmounted by arcades.

Through these design elements, the architect clearly emphasised the Polish character of the architecture, a feature highly desirable for a building representing Polish authority in the Eastern Borderlands. By incorporating motifs typical of the province’s historical architecture, he also ensured the building blended seamlessly into the small-town landscape of Nowogródek.

The Voivode’s Residence

Next to the Provincial Office stood the residential house for the Voivode of Nowogródek. Its construction was based on a typical design for residential buildings for district administrators (the so-called Type IIC), drawn up in 1924 by Jerzy Beill (1885–1976) as part of a scheme to build houses for civil servants in the Eastern Borderlands. This design was used, amongst other places, in Nesvizh, Baranovichi, Drohiczyn and Stolpce.

This detached, single-family house, with a rectangular floor plan approaching a square, was topped by a high hipped roof with dormers aligned with the centreline of each façade. In the basic version of the design, the façade was distinguished by an enlarged dormer. The façade was further adorned by four pilasters positioned along the building’s axis, running the full height of the structure (in the so-called ‘grand order’), which were topped by a triangular pediment. This created a kind of portico, giving the whole building the characteristics of the so-called ‘manor house’ style. A slightly modified version of the design was used for the house of the Voivode of Nowogródek, in which the portico’s pilasters were replaced by full columns. This lent the architecture a more monumental character.

The same design was realised as the house of the district administrator in Słonim. It may be surmised that the designer sought to draw an analogy between the representation of Polish administrative authority and the Polish nobility of the borderlands from the pre-partition era. The functional layout included four rooms (a bedroom, a study, a dining room and a sitting room), a kitchen and a bathroom with a toilet. The dining room featured a terrace for leisure activities on the side facing the façade.

Both buildings have been preserved in good condition. The Provincial Office building currently serves as the seat of the local authorities of Nowogródek – the District Executive Committee. In the post-war years, the ground floor of the former voivode’s residence was extended.