RESTORATION WORKS

Restoration works, lasting for over two years, begun in spring of 2015.

The restoration works included draining of the damp underground floor walls, foundation walls underwent comprehensive drying from the outside the year before that. Cracks and damages to the brick façade were repaired including reconstruction of damaged or lost ornamental elements.

 Planning of the main building’s renovation relied on conducted surveys and research including, among others, archival query, description and inventory  of building’s elements and condition, geotechnical and civil engineering expertise, ventilation check and structure elements dampness check. In the course of geodetic measurements, conducted over a year, it was concluded that deformation process of the structure was not significantly active.

After the damaged lintels were stabilized and fastened with stainless steel rods,  the brick wall façade  was repaired, respecting the historical value of the building. The decorative elements destroyed during the war were restored and supplemented with details referring to historical ones, including tracery and sandstone balcony based on iconography, brick tops of the summit over the entrance portico. Contractor completed the walls and finishes with brick shapes and patterned terracotta, specially made  based on existing original elements.

 An example of reconstructed elements could be the openwork sandstone traceries, reproduced relying on a photograph, with vesica piscis motifs in the eastern balustrade and four (inverted four elements of the circle) in the west.

Carried out was also a thorough renovation of balconies of the main building, which were supplemented with a new contemporary pattern, referring to the historical divisions of the façade. A massive balcony slab was reconstructed in the eastern wall of the kitchen annex. The latter, called the “Marconi” balcony, had one of the two slabs broken in a way that prevented its repair as a structural element.  The slab was exchanged for a new one, rigorously made with the preserved slab as a reference. The historical iron railing with a three-leaf motif was also carefully raised to the required height of 1,20 m, so that safety requirements are maintained.

Cornice crown and all peaks on the facades were repaired, replacing damaged and restoring lost ceramic shapes of decorative profiles around the whole perimeter of the building.