, image = File:Bdg Copernicanum nar 1 07-2013.jpg , image_size = 300px , image_alt = Corner view , image_caption = View from street intersection , coordinates = , building_type =

Gymnasium (school) ''Gymnasium'' (and variations of the word) is a term in various European languages for a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university. It is comparable to the US English term '' preparatory high school''. Bef ...

, architectural_style =

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

, classification = Nr.601363, Reg. A/784 (May 5, 1992) , location = 1 Kopernika Street,

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, client = UKW in Bydgoszcz , groundbreaking_date = 1905 , completion_date = 1906 , renovation_date = , material = , size = , floor_count = 5 , architect = Carl Zaar & Rudolf Vahl , website = The Copernicanum is a historical building in downtown

, which had been designed as a scholar building: initially a realschule, it then took the purpose of a city sciences high school and technical railway institutions. Registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List, it is nowadays the location of a junior high school. Copernicanum 1910

In 1923, to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic Church, Catholic cano ...

, the newly created junior high school adopted his name, ''Copernicanum''.

History

In the beginning of the 20th century, Prussian authorities of

Bromberg Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

decided to have a realschule built on the outskirts of then city downtown. The commissioned architects, Carl Zaar and Rudolf Vahl, had just completed together in 1901 the Słupsk Town Hall in the nearby

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n Province of Pomerania within the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. Carl Zaar (

Köln Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

, 1849-

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

1924), was a pupil of architect Julius Carl Raschdorff, one of the leading German architects of the second half of the 19th century. He was a supporter of German

historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

and designed the Berlin Cathedral. Rudolf Vahl had a construction engineer background and came from Berlin. In the late 1910s, the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

onto Paderewskiego street has been rebuilt. The building housed the city realschule from its inception till October 15, 1921, when it housed the Polish Municipal High School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences ( pl, Miejskie Gimnazjum Męskie Matematyki i nauki przyrodnicze), then at Paderewskiego street. The edifice housed in 1925, the Municipal Music Institute, newly established, and headed by the Poznań pianist Zygmunt Lisicki. In the 1930s, it became a High school for boys, pl, Miejskie Gimnazjum Męskie. During

Nazi occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

, the building served, among others, as a military hospital. After the war, the edifice housed vocational schools: * The Technical school of the Posts and Telegraphs Ministry; * The Technical railway school - ''School Group Nr.13'' pl, Zespół Szkół nr 13, which was disbanded in August 2007. Since 2005, the Copernicanum building has been the property of Bydgoszcz University, or UKW pl, Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego. Between 2005 and 2007, heavy restoration works, including upgrades to current standards, were performed over the facility, allowing UKW to house the Institute of Mechanics and Applied Informatics, pl, Instytut Mechaniki i Informatyki Stosowanej.

Architecture

Exteriors

The edifice has an L-shaped footprint boasting

style, registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List. Architectural details flourished on both facades of the building:

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s, motifs,

ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

, festoons are everywhere to be seen.

Facade on Kopernika Street

The elevation of the facade on Kopernika Street displays two

avant-corps An ''avant-corps'' ( it, avancorpo or , plural , german: Risalit, pl, ryzalit), a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the ''corps de logis'', often taller than othe ...

on its extremities. The left one, bearing a large

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

, houses long and tall windows of the main hall. It is adorned on the top with owl shapes -symbol of knowledge- flanking a decorative

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ribbon, crowned by the date of completion of the edifice (1906). The left avant-corps, although less majestic, is topped by a large round observation tower overhanging the mansard roofs. The massive

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

, flanked by

s, displays a curved

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

ornamented with

ribbon motifs. On top of the transom light are visible

and

coats of arm.

Facade on Paderewskiego Street

This frontage, albeit less decorated, offers more uniformity as far as architectural details are concerned. Facade shows high openings at each floor, topped by

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s with various shape: kernel, semi-circular with

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

or even grand ogee model. One can also make out some decorative rosettes.

Backyard

In the backyard of the building grow two large silver maples (330 and 430 cm diameter), identified as Natural landmarks of

Interiors

In addition of all the renovated class and experiment/technical rooms, a refurbished concert hall has been unveiled in 2010. Comprising a recording studio, it is at the disposal of the Institute of Music Education. The concert hall, originally an assembly room, still displays two preserved and restored large

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent li ...

s and original floors.

Gallery

File:Bdg Copernicanum fr 1 07-2013.jpg, Facade onto Kopernika Street File:Budynek Uniwersytetu im.Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy.JPG, Right

File:Bdg Copernicanum szcz 3 07-2013.jpg, Detail of the

File:Bdg Copernicanum szcz 5 07-2013.jpg, Main

File:Budynek w stylu secesji Uniwersytetu im.Kazimierza Wielkiego.JPG, Observation tower File:Bdg Copernicanum tl 2 07-2013.jpg, View from the backyard File:Klon srebrzysty 382cm pomnik przyrody na dziedzińcu Copernicanum w Bydg.jpg, First silver maple, Bydgoszcz Natural monument File:Bdg Pomnik przyrody na terenie Copernicanum 2.jpg, Second silver maple, Bydgoszcz Natural monument File:Interiors copernicanum 2.jpg, Concert hall File:Interiors copernicanum.jpg, Concert hall

References

External links

*
Page of Bydgoszcz University

Bibliography

* {{Bydgoszcz notable buildings Cultural heritage monuments in Bydgoszcz Schools in Bydgoszcz Art Nouveau architecture in Bydgoszcz