Genesis

The garden city movement was embodied by Ebenezer Howard, as this urban trend took off in the second half of the 19th century. The concept of garden city assumed the construction of urban bodies located around a centre harbouring a public recreational green area, with rings of housing estates comprising small plots with single-family houses, the outer rings hosting public utility buildings and further out production plants. Howard's idea was especially described in his book Garden Cities of To-morrow published in 1902. The first garden city was located in England (Letchworth-1903), with examples of such planning soon following suit in Poland: Ząbki near Warsaw (1912), Podkowa Leśna (1925) or Gdynia (1925).^[3]

At the beginning of the 20th century, the municipality of the then Prussian Bromberg had a vast area completely undeveloped, located between Braesicke-Schiller straße (Staszica and Paderewskiego st.), Fröner straße (Markwarta st.) and Hohenzollern straße (Ossolińskich Av.).

Despite the 1903 decision to erect the complex of the Institutes of Agriculture in the northern part, the district remained by and large bare from construction. Seeking development, the municipal authorities reached out to the urban engineer Josef Stübben with hopes of developing a concept layout of this city sector.^[4]

Stübben (1845–1936) was a German architect, graduated from the Berlin Building Academy, who worked at the Technical Council of the Prussian Ministry of Finance (1904–1920) and had chaired the Poznań expansion commission. At the time, he was a regarded urban developer, having devised many plans for important cities such as Aachen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Luxembourg City, Madrid, Rostock, Warsaw. Josef Stübben won the first prize in the international competition for the urban planning of the greater Vienna. In Prussian Poland, he also worked in Poznań, Głogów and Wałbrzych.^[2]

His sketch, delivered in December 1912, became the blueprint for the project drawn up by Heinrich Metzger, the Bromberg city construction adviser, seconded by engineer Bernhard Hirsch. Following the garden city principles, the scheme planned constructing a green square at its centre and at each corner of the triangular area. Although the core plaza still exists at Turwid square, only one out of three others was achieved (today's Leszek the White square).

Metzger and Hirsch worked on the parceling of the land, establishing the size of each of the plots, the regular width of the front gardens, prohibiting the building of any workshops in the backrooms of the villas and dramatically limiting commercial and manufacturing activities within properties. Eventually, around 50 plots were laid down and approved for house construction.

Period before WWI

In the first Prussian documents, the area was called Gartenstadt (English: garden city); the name Eigenheimviertel (English: Home district) was also used to describe the entire domain. Once the building phase started, the first specific names appear to designate the places:^[5]

Villa at 14 Sielanka st.

• Eigenheimplatz, renamed Mackensenplatz (today's Turwid square, Sielanka and Wyspiańskiego streets);
• Eigenheimstrasse A, later Hindenburgstrasse (today's Kopernika street);
• Eigenheimstrasse B (today's Asnyka street).

In 1914, the city office began to allocate plots to owners by the means of private selling. The first houses were erected on parcels located on both sides of Turwid square at 4, 6, 8 Wyspiańskiego street and 14 Sielanka street. Another house was also built, albeit with a different interior layout, at 5 Kopernika street.

Villas of this time were characterised by complicated details: numerous turrets, bay windows and intricate roof structures. They generally refer to neoclassical and neo-baroque styles, as part of the historicizing period. At the outset of WWI, only 5 villas have been realised.^[6]

Construction during interwar period

After the end of WWI, there was a ten-year stagnation period associated with the political situation (rebirth of the Polish state) and the low economic activity. The resuming of construction in this part of the district is inextricably linked with the April 29^th 1925 Act on the expansion of cities, which imposed an obligation on municipalities to improve the housing situation and created preferential finacncial conditions for the development of villa-type accommodations.^[3]

Villa at 5 Kopernika st.

New constructions set off in 1927, with the particular support of architect-engineer Bogdan Raczkowski, who had been appointed in December 1922 as deputy chairman of the urban management committee. Strict regulations were issued for the future buildings. Some of these limitations include:

• villas could be equipped with a maximum of two full floors (i.e. ground floor and first floor) and a Mansard roof;
• future accommodations in the basement would require have a special sanction from the Municipal Office;
• the accommodations must not be used for renting purposes;
• constructing stables was prohibited.

Such constraints allowed buildings to maintain their character, even though the City Development Committee was inclined, when possible, to promote the construction of multi-apartment villas.

During this period, 18 new villas were built from 1927 to 1930, 17 new ones from 1930 to 1933 and 4 more shortly before the outbreak of WWII.^[3]

Markwarta street

Named after Ryszard Markwart (1868–1906), a Polish priest, who was a nationalist activist and head of the Bromberg parish from 1899 till his death, the street delineates the southern border of Sielanka estate, with most of its northern side features villas dating back to this project.

• 
  Villa at Nr.7 by Józef Grodzki (1927–1928)
• 
  Villa at Nr.9 by Józef Grodzki (1927–1929)
• 
  Wacław Millner villa at Nr.11, by Jan Kossowski (1937–1938)

Ossoliński avenue

Laid out in the early 1900s, it marks out the eastern border of the Sielanka estate. To the east, most of the plots belong to the buildings of the Institute of Agriculture, established in 1903–1906. A significant share of the western frontages display functionalist or Polish National style features.

• 
  Villa at 7, by Bronisław Jankowski (1927–1929)
• 
  Villa at 11 by Henryk Misterek (1932-1933)
• 
  Villa at 21 by Bolesław Polakiewicz (1932–1933)

Józef Weyssenhoff Square

The plaza is located at the northern tip of Sielanka area. Due to its earlier development, only the southern frontages are related to the project, the others having been erected at the beginning of the 20th century.

• 
  Building at 2, by Bogdan Raczkowski (1927)
• 
  Tenement at 4 by Eugeniusz Wellman (1933)
• 
  Villa at 6 by Konstanty Dzielinski (1934-1935)

Sielanka street

Sielanka Street is a small and twisty road, laid in the mid-1910s: consisting of a series of villas, each of which is unique in its architectural concept.

• 
  Villa at 2 by Bronisław Jankowski (1927–1928)
• 
  Villa at 3 by Bronisław Jankowski (1934–1935)
• 
  Villa at 10 by Bronisław Jankowski (1927)

Kopernika street

Short street where several villas are registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List. The street is named after Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543).

• 
  View of Kopernika street
• 
  Villa at 7a by Bolesław Polakiewicz (1933–1933)
• 
  Villa at 5 by Rudolf Kern (1914–1916)

Adama Asnyka street

Stanisława Wyspiańskiego Street

Jana Kasprowicza Street

Władysława Reymonta street

This short street path is located between the Leszka Białego Square on the south and Bydgoszcz University building Copernicanum on the north.

Czesława Miłosza street

Initially named "Wilsona street" in reference to the American President Woodrow Wilson, this tiny path is bordered on its western flank by the Copernicanum and the Kopernika Square, while its eastern side stems from the Turwid Square and crosses Sielanka street to end at Kopernika street.

Squares