However, while many have welcomed its looming destruction, others have lamented the imminent loss of another uniquely Polish landmark. According to its defenders, few structures better captured the aesthetics and atmosphere of Poland’s post-Communist transition.
Located in the north-east of the Silesian city, the site had initially been earmarked in the 1980s to serve as the home of a textile factory, but the country’s financial instability led to these plans being shelved with only the foundations completed.
The political transformation of 1989 ushered in a new era of unfettered capitalism, and the plot was purchased by the local Mining Housing Cooperative in the 1990s. A 10-storey housing block was envisaged, but this too was abandoned after just five floors were built.
There, the story would have ended were it not for the intervention of a locally-born, Hamburg-based private detective by the name of Jerzy Godlewski. Buying the entire top floor in the 1990s, Godlewski set about reinventing the address with unrestrained vigor. What had been an unremarkable apartment block would soon become one of the country’s most talked about buildings.
As if inspired by a Bond villain’s lair, Godlewski’s plan included the addition of two floors built in the shape of an airplane - among other things, these would feature a helipad, a garden filled with exotic plants, a swimming pool, a terrarium for iguanas and, even, a 56,000 liter, glass-bottomed aquarium occupied by a shark.
It was not so much a penthouse as it was a concrete palace that had been whacked incongruously on top of a mundane housing block. Gaudy and ostentatious, it defined the “anything goes” spirit of 90s Poland.
In keeping with the attitudes of the time, much of it, however, had been erected without the requisite papers and permits. Despite reputedly receiving approvals from both the mayor and the residents living downstairs, Godlewski’s masterpiece had not been greenlighted by several administrative bodies and work was halted.
Over the following years, embellishments were added, but the superstructure was never fully finished. Caught in a merry-go-round of grinding appeals and court orders, it wasn’t until 2014 that the Supreme Administrative Court in Warsaw passed a death sentence and ordered its demolition.
With fears that part of the building was sinking due to Godlewski’s top-heavy addition, work on dismantling it has now finally begun. But while locals have hailed the news, architecture buffs have been left mourning the destruction of this one-of-a-kind landmark. Although almost catastrophic in its ugliness, Godlewski’s ‘villa on the roof’ will forever be remembered as an eccentric champion of the post-Communist style.
