Tenement building of the Phoenix Life Insurance Company (Feniks)
Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz
41 Rynek Główny Sq. / 2 Św. Jana St.
1932
- m2
The competition entry for the house in the – decidedly – most exposed location in Kraków, was prepared by Szyszko-Bohusz for a Viennese insurance company. It also fuelled the greatest controversy linked to architecture between the two World Wars. Instead of a historicising variation of the design, a Modernist one was completed. It had the stylised, bold form of a high parapet wall with vertical division. Henceforth, the popular name of the house: „Under the chimneys”. It also had vertical bands of large glazing. Elegant boutiques at the ground floor, a club at the piano nobile, luxury apartments with air condition – the Feniks was truly exceptional. Unfortunately, the German Nazi occupiers rebuilt the edifice in 1941.