Szczepanik's House at Sowińskiego Street 11, Tarnów
ul. Sowińskiego 11, 33-100 Tarnów
Tourist region: Tarnów i okolice
The beautiful villa was designed by August Tarnowski and built in 1907. It was the first home of the family of Dr Zygmunt Dzikowski, Jan Szczepanik's father-in-law, after he moved from Przemyśl to Tarnów. Mr and Mrs Szczepanik lived here between 1907 and 1914. In the attic of the tenement house, the brilliant inventor Jan Szczepanik had a workshop where he worked on impressive patents in the field of colour photography and slides, including the 'fade' method, which allowed photographs and photographic prints to be made in colour rather than black and white. Furthermore, the ‘Polish Edison’ was also the forerunner of television and constructed the first cameras for taking photographs and projecting colour films, which gave rise to modern cameras. The attic of the Art Nouveau building, reminiscent of a richly ornamented palace, was decorated at the owner's request with a carved stone head representing his daughter Wanda, who later became the wife of Jan Szczepanik. The building had rich Art Nouveau ornamentation, soaring turrets, cupolas, walls faced with glazed bricks and colonnaded porches. The building today has a different look to it than it had in the past. It was severely damaged during the war and later housed council flats for years without any renovations to the building. Nevertheless, it is still captivated by its preserved Art Nouveau decorations. Between 2003 and 2019, the Treasury and the former owner's heirs disputed the building’s ownership. Ultimately, the tenement house has remained the property of the State Treasury and today it is administered by the city. The only reminder of the famous Tarnów resident is a plaque standing next to the house.