Alongside large factory complexes, the city of £ód¼ is home to many lavish mansions and villas that were built by factory owners and other industrialists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The size and design of the buildings were aimed at displaying their owners' social status. Many of these luxury houses, especially those located outside the city center, had large yards around them. Around 50 such villas were built in £ód¼ at the turn of the 20th century. They did not form a residential quarter, though, but were usually located in the vicinity of factory buildings.

One such house is the Ziegler Villa at 11 Marii Sk³odowskiej-Curie St., built in 1895-1913. The building is officially registered as a historical monument. It was originally owned by Izydor Meyer and after 1913 its owners were Oskar and Amanda Ziegler, after whom the building was named. Shortly before World War I, the mansion was redeveloped according to a design by Henryk Brzozowski, who gave it its present form. The building gained a third floor under a mansard roof. The interior was redesigned as well and adapted to the house's moderate size. The Ziegler Villa became a post-Art Nouveau modernist building.

In 1926, Marta and Alfons Gregor bought the building along with the plot of land it stood on. They lived there until the end of World War II. In 1945, the villa went to archeologist Prof. Rajmund Gostkowski, one of the founders of £ód¼ University. After Gostkowski was detained under the communist regime, his family had to leave the building, which in 1950 became home to a £ód¼ University faculty. Seven years ago, the faculty moved to a new address and the villa was rented by the £ód¼ Science Association, established in 1936. The building needed major renovation, and the city authorities managed to secure funds for the purpose. The £ód¼ Science Association contributed money from special donation certificates it had issued and distributed. The renovation work was carried out to a spectacular effect as last year the Ziegler Villa won the Best Interior of the Year competition in the Historic Reconstruction Project category.

The diversified shape of the building is best represented by its eastern side, which opens onto the garden. Some of the most remarkable features inside the building include a vast, two-story-high lobby with a decorative staircase leading to the second floor and a gallery. There are large stained-glass windows in the lobby, the vestibule, the entrance hall and the top wall. All were made at the Adolph Seiler Stained-Glass Window Institute in Wroc³aw, established by the Germans in 1846.

After the renovation, the academic community of £ód¼ gained a new center for the city's intellectual life. The villa can host lectures and scientific conferences, as it comprises two conference rooms for 70 and 40 people, a library, a kitchenette and a secretarial office. The building is surrounded by a beautiful garden that the authorities of the £ód¼ Science Association have been seeking to find good use for.

M.S.