From the city’s beginnings, its residents built their homes according to the generally accepted principles of medieval urban construction. The plots around the Market Square and along the main streets were owned by wealthy merchants and craftsmen, while the remaining streets were inhabited by poorer craftsmen, farmers and the urban poor.
The most beautiful houses stood in the Market Square, where the wealthy burghers sought to display their prosperity appropriately. The fact that the houses located there stood out for their size and variety of functions is demonstrated by chronicles from the mid-16th century, which mention several inns and lavish residences: “Under the Linden Trees,” “The Moon Inn,” “Under the Red Eagle” and “Under the Golden Angel.”
Today’s Sierpnia 80 and Bolesława Prusa streets formed the city’s main communication axis, and the buildings located there clearly corresponded in appearance to the townhouses around the Market Square.
A note from 1546 states that the future Emperor Maximilian II stayed in one of them while passing through Bolesławiec. The architecture of the secondary streets was correspondingly more modest, with one-storey or single-storey buildings predominating, unlike the three-storey townhouses along the main thoroughfares. Despite the destruction of all the medieval residential buildings, caused by fires in later times, the original free-standing plots, averaging 6–8 metres in width, were stubbornly retained.
The houses were built of stone supplied by quarries in Wartowice and Dobra, while brick was used for smaller structural elements. The elimination of wood as a building material resulted from strict fire-prevention regulations and was connected with the widespread granting of the privilege to brew beer in burgher buildings in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The historic part of the city was completely destroyed in 1945. During the comprehensive post-war reconstruction, the interiors of the buildings were modernised. The present buildings around the Market Square, painstakingly reconstructed, are maintained in the spirit of the Baroque, with a few examples referring to the Renaissance (Market Square 38, 29) and Classicism (Market Square 42, 19, 27, 3, 32). The designers’ use of historic-detail forms, as faithful as possible, creates the impression that everything is an authentic relic of bygone centuries.
In fact, no buildings from the Gothic or Renaissance periods have survived. An example of a preserved Baroque house is the townhouse at no. 6 in the Market Square. This relatively large house was built on two medieval plots. Its gable end faces the street. The façade of this two-storey building, covered with a tall, richly ornamented mansard roof, clearly demonstrates an aspiration to monumentality. This is conveyed both by the ornate, broad portal and by the elaborately designed two-storey gable, which resembles a smaller replica of the lower floors.
The building’s grandeur is enhanced by its lavishly applied decorative detail, which nevertheless does not disrupt the unity of the structure or its monumental character. The house at 1 Zacisze Street should be attributed to the Baroque period. The chronicles mention several times a refuge for the sick and poor, and somewhat uncertain records seem to point to the building in question. The house’s present appearance dates from the mid-18th century.
A representative of an equally lavish but discreetly opulent, later townhouse in the Classicist style is the house that once housed the Kutuzov Museum. It is a palatial-type corner building with two prominent façades. In accordance with the principles of the style, the building is characterised by perfect balance and symmetry in all its architectural elements, as well as excellently balanced proportions. A similar form is found in the Classicist house at 3 Kościelna Street.
Most of the remaining—now few—preserved burgher houses in Bolesławiec display the character of modest 18th-century Baroque or equally sparsely interpreted 19th-century Classicism. The abandonment of ornate façades and the austere treatment of detail characteristic of this period created a distinctive type of building that became widespread, particularly in poorer districts and the suburbs.
All these buildings, now being renovated through the efforts of the municipal authorities, are examples of the culture of bygone eras for the residents of Bolesławiec.