A hotel in the market square remains in the planning stage, just like the swimming pool and commercial centre on Father Popiełuszko Square. A tender for this plot has not yet been announced. "The hotel will make the market square more attractive," argues Bolesławiec Mayor Piotr Roman. "If the Market Square is to be a meeting place, a magical place where residents come, it would be good to have a hotel here," he adds.
The planned building would, obviously, obscure the Sanctuary of the Assumption of the Mother of the Church from one side. It turns out, however, that this is not a problem for the church custodian. "Dean Andrzej Jarosiewicz did not object," Piotr Roman points out. – "But the dean has a deep knowledge of history."
It is precisely concern for the historic character of the market square, among other things, that city authorities cite as the reason for their actions. Older people will certainly remember that the plot was once built up and... a hotel stood there. However, as Piotr Roman admits, "year by year, there are more and more people who do not remember what it looked like before the tenement buildings were demolished."
A little history
Sources state that tenement buildings had stood on the site where the hotel is to be built as early as the 16th century. Only their owners changed. In 1825, a new representative hall was opened, and the newly opened hotel—Kronprinz ("Crown Prince")—was one of the more frequently visited establishments. Among its guests were Prince Wilhelm and the Saxon princess Augusta, King Frederick William III himself, and Frederick William IV. After World War II, the "Piast" Hotel operated here, but it gradually fell into disrepair. As Mariusz Olczak writes in "Bolesławiec. A Historical Guide": "During a visit by one of the communist dignitaries of the Polish People's Republic, Wojciech Jaruzelski, the condition of its [hotelu] was so embarrassing that it was decided to cover it with military camouflage netting." The tenement building was finally demolished in the 1970s.
That is why experts on the city's history also do not object to the authorities' decision. "The idea of developing the plot is entirely justified," comments Tadeusz Orawiec, an employee of Bolesławiec's Museum of Ceramics. – "Restoring the original historic urban layout is very important. If the plot was built up, it should remain so."
As it turns out, however, the idea of returning to the historic urban layout is by no means new. Councillors considered building a tenement house here as early as the beginning of the 1990s. "There was not yet such a rush for plots then," the mayor explains. – "Nor was there any hope of attracting a decent investor." Now it is important to promote the idea properly—to attract serious and well-known companies to the site.
What next?
In the authorities' view, the investor must be selected carefully. As Piotr Roman emphasises: "We must create safeguards guaranteeing that the hotel will be built. There is a risk that someone will buy it and wait until land prices rise, and that is not what we want." After all, there is a shortage of hotels. "Sometimes a potential investor comes here and we have trouble finding a room in a hotel," the mayor says. Another argument for rebuilding the tenement buildings is the money obtained both from selling the plot and from property taxes. It is to be allocated to renovation work.
It is important that no architectural monstrosity be built here; the heritage conservator must approve the project. "The fundamental and necessary condition will be the reconstruction of these façades. The façades should resemble what stood here," Piotr Roman states. "If it turned out that someone bought it, built it, and did it beautifully, these tenement buildings could become a model for the others in the old town," the mayor adds.
This is not the end of the changes in Bolesławiec market square, either. Plans include further stages of illumination and a fountain. There is also thought of making the old town refer more strongly to the city's ceramic traditions. Whether we like it or not, Bolesławiec will change. Hopefully for the better.
(GA report)