Žilina Gallery :: Fotogaléria mesta Žiliny

23 – Townhouse 32, Mariánske námestie

Turistická informačná tabuľka č. 23 s QR kódom na meštianskom dome č. 32
(Foto: 30. 5. 2008)

Townhouse 32: From the beginning of the eighteenth century until 1731 the house belonged to Matej Cepan, but his descendants Alojz Fluck and his sister exchanged it in 1788 with Jozef Karas, who also paid them another 200 florins. The latter had a dyeing workshop here which he sold in 1807 to his son Jozef for 3000 florins. The next owner, until 1848, was Anton Kalin, the mayor of Žilina from 1834 to 1838. After Anton Kalin, it was inherited by his son Ignác. He paid off all the other shareholders with the sum of 4,500 florins. Ignác Kalin too was mayor of Žilina from 1860 to 1866 and then from 1875 to 1877. In 1888 it was bought by the newly-founded bank, the Žilina pomocnica, accounting society. On December 11th 1920 it became part of Tatra bank in Martin. The original building was demolished in 1890 and rebuilt in its current form. The house was nationalised in 1955. Forty years later, in 1995, the building was completely renovated. It was given not only a mansard-style roof with two dormer windows on the sides of the original tympanum, but also dormer windows looking out on to Bottová street. The façade was also renovated and copies of the features found on the sides of the building were added.
It is a corner house built on a long plot of land with its front façade facing the square, the side façade looking on to Bottová street and with Makovický street at the back. It is the last building on the southern side of the square. It stands on the original, perhaps even Gothic, stone cellars. The basement under the front of the building is built along the whole width of the land and takes up almost one third of its length. The largest area of the medieval cellar is on the southern side, vaulted with a raised sharp-pointed arch. The whole basement is built of quarry stone and vaulted with unplastered arches. The entrance hall has bands of Prussian vaults and a load-bearing pillar divides it in two, along with other pillars. The two-storey building divided into three segments has a Romantic style façade. There is a massive triple-run staircase in the centre of the building with a skylight, cast iron banister and posts. The front wall of the staircase has generous proportions and windows set together with an architrave with a triangular extension. The first floor essentially has the same layout as the ground floor and has only been modified by changes made in the second half of the twentieth century when partition walls were added. The communicating corridor opens on to a gallery providing access to the wings of the building which make up a narrow courtyard.
The building’s façades are in a Neo-Renaissance style which best fitted its representative function. The front façade is lightened up by an arcade opening up on to the square. The side façade facing Bottová street gives an impression of massiveness and is reminiscent of Italian (Florentine) palaces, but with the difference that this building has local architectural features. The rear face giving on to Makovický street was conceived in a similar way. The building’s basement is Gothic-Renaissance; the ground floor and first floor date from the end of the nineteenth century. In 1963 the building was listed in the Central List of Heritage Monuments as KP no. 1416/0. The plans for the renovation in 1995 were drawn up by the architect Ľubica Koreňová. The building is used for commercial purposes, a travel agency and administrative space.

Source: Mgr. Jozef Moravčík, Mgr. Peter Štanský. Text prevzatý z webovej stránky TIK Žilina (kliknite): www.tikzilina.eu.