Willa Leopolda Kinderman - a villa located at ul. Wólczańska 31/33 in Łódź and originally owned by Leopold Kinderman. One of the best examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Poland and Europe. Stylish exterior and interior (stucco, stained glass).
It was designed around 1901 by one of the outstanding architects in
Łódź, the main promoter of secession in Łódź - Gustaw Landau-Gutenteger.
It was established in the years 1902–1903, on the plot of the wife,
Laura Eliza, née Feder. Due to the political situation (including the
outbreak of the revolution in 1905), the couple did not live in a villa
until 1908. After L. Kindermann's death it became the property of Emil
Eisert (hence it was sometimes called "Eisert's villa"), after the widow
of Leopold Kinderman remarried with him. After his death (September 24,
1939), the widow lived there until the end of the German occupation in
Łódź during World War II (January 19, 1945), when in the face of the Red
Army approaching the city, she left for Germany.
After the Second
World War, the building housed a kindergarten. Since 1975, the villa
houses a branch of the Municipal Art Gallery (Willa Gallery). There is
an idea, especially promoted by Łódź tourist guides, to place in it,
instead of a gallery of fine arts, the museum of Łódź Art Nouveau. In
2010–2013, the building underwent a major renovation.
The façade of the building is richly decorated with floral elements.
There is an entrance to the villa with a portico supported by carvings
of two apple trees. Hence its other name - "villa under the apple
trees".
The ground floor consists of a study and two exhibition
rooms, the interiors of which are decorated in the Art Nouveau style
with stucco decorations in the form of chestnut leaves, rose flowers,
apple trees, poppies and a music corner with smaller multi-colored
stained glass windows.
Original stained-glass windows have also
been preserved: in the staircase window, showing a barefoot woman in a
green tunic and with flowers in her hair, as an image of the goddess of
mornings - Dawn, as evidenced by the morning star shining above her
head, and a stained glass window in the ground-floor living room with an
artistically processed view of the lake and castle near Montreux in
Switzerland.
The windows of the villa, in line with the
principles of Art Nouveau architecture, have different shapes, no two
are alike, some of them are covered with decorative gratings with wavy
arches. Particularly rich is the framing of one of the windows on the
ground floor, showing two trees with lush crowns and tangled roots, in
which a fox hides.
From the garden side there is a "kitchen"
staircase in the shape of a round turret. In one of the corners there is
a sculpture of a dwarf-Atlantean.
Villa on the Iconic Houses list
In 2015, the building entered the world list of Iconic Houses. The list
includes the best objects of modern architecture that meet certain
criteria: a famous architect who influenced the architecture of the 20th
century, renovation that does not interfere with the architecture of the
building and the purpose of the building for public purposes.