The building of a former hospital

The municipal hospital was built gradually. Its oldest part was built in 1853. It was a hospital with only 30 beds, which soon turned out to be insufficient, because the town was in the middle of dynamic development, population was growing, and, in addition, there were frequent epidemics. In 1894, an additional infectious disease hospital was erected, and in 1904, it was decided that the hospital should be expanded so that it would be able to serve to the inhabitants of the town and nearby villages. That is why the object was built in several stages, and its appearance is diverse in terms of architectural forms and furnishings, which reflects the individual stages of the expansion of the building. The present central part of the hospital was built first. Originally, it was a small, one-storey building made of red brick, non-plastered – only at the triangular gable crowning the central avant-corps, there was an inscription “Krankenhaus” [hospital]. In 1894, the infectious disease ward was built, at that time as an independent, one storey building which was incorporated into the southern wing during the subsequent reconstructions. The western part of the hospital was erected in 1906 in the German historicist style typical of this region in that period. The author of the design was an architect by the name of Frantz. The building was made of ceramic brick and was ornamented with numerous architectural details both of brick and of stone. It had timber-structured roof extensions and a wooden veranda, which added variety to its appearance. This part of the hospital, added to the gable wall of the older building, took over the function of a main representative part of the hospital and had an imposing, ornamented entrance, which could have been accessed from a street (separated from the area of the hospital by a fence made of wood and bricks) by an equally imposing gate with an arched lintel.

Another extension was made at the turn of the 1920s and the 1930s. Then, the hospital was heightened by adding one floor of usable area and an attic with additional rooms. Also, during this reconstruction, the original arrangement of the rooms on the ground floor was partially changed and carpentry was changed. New elements from this period represent the modernistic style with characteristic regular connections between the brick and plastered elements. The individual parts of the hospital have been combined into one unit, the decorative gate, which functioned as a main entrance, was removed. Since that moment, the entrance gate to the hospital yard with a more modest gate has been located by the newest wing. The building has survived in this form to the post-war years. Later on, it was repeatedly refurbished and modernized, but the changes have not affected its external appearance. Currently, it is a building divided into several parts of various heights, covered with separate roofs.

After the end of the Second World War, the building – functioning as a hospital – was subordinate to different organizational structures – just after 1945, it was taken over by the State Treasury and became the Public Hospital with an Outpatient Clinic; in the 1950s, it was the Municipal Hospital, renamed as the District Hospital, and later on as the Health Care Complex Hospital. Nowadays, the building is subordinate to the District Office in Wałcz.