Drukarnia Dom Mody

ul. Jagiellońska 1 (+48) 52 321 38 08 more than a year ago

Drukarnia Dom Mody (English: Fashion Printing House) is a new shopping centre in central Bydgoszcz featuring 50 stores within a stonethrow of the Rynek. Shops of note include the excellent Bomi supermarket, and big brands like Max Mara, Marionnaud, Monnari, Furla and Trussardi.

The **Drukarnia Dom Mody** Printing machine, c1907.
Picture from "Industrie und Gewerbe in Bromberg"

The site, as the name may hint at, used to serve a very different kind of commerce. The first printing houses here were established in 1814 by a Mr. Andrzej Friedrich Grüenauer, who already owned his stepfather's printing business south of the river on Poznański 35. The original site became famous for printing the official documents of the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw, where Napoleon implemented social and political reforms in Poland. The new site, however, would make its own mark. Bydgoszcz's first city newspaper was published here as well as society's all-important train timetables! The plant was modernized in the mid 19th century, opening a lithography section and being fully steam-powered by 1875. Around the turn of the century, a three-story factory building was added on the northern side, designed with the intention to expand into bookbinding production.

Up until 1920, despite multiple changes in ownership,

**Drukarnia Dom Mody** after further expansion in 1912.

the printing plant was still known in German as Grunauerische Buchdruckerei (English: Printing House Grüenauer). With the formation of the Second Polish Republic in 1918, the plant was renamed in Polish: Zakłady Graficzne w Bydgoszczy (English: Printing Plant Institute). In 1920, the plant was bought by a Pole, Mr. Wladyslaw Kościelski . The new owner's goal was to issue textbooks, scholarly works, fiction, Polish and foreign scientific journals, art reproductions, maps, and other publications. Further modernization saw offset printing and zincography technology introduced to the factory, making it one of the most advanced in Poland. Up until the start of WWII, around 600 employees worked in the Printing House, accounting for 60% of the relatively-small printing industry in Pomerania.

Following the Nazi Occupation in WWII, German troops destroyed 44 of the plant's machines and repossessed over 20 of the most valuable ones. Printing activity was limited to newspapers and other ephemeral publishing. After the war, a commemorative brass plaque was placed on the printing house's Gdanska street side: it mentions the names of Bydgoszcz printers, booksellers, librarians and journalists murdered by the Nazis during World War II.

After the liberation of Bydgoszcz in early 1945, the facility provided military printing and published the first new city newspapers. At the same time it started to issue its first textbooks, teaching aids, maps and other school documents. Amid further expansions, its first colour manual was published in 1949. At that point, the print house became the largest one in Poland for textbooks and educational magazines. Approximately 20 million books and teaching aids were issued every year: more than half of all Polish-printed textbooks. Even in the 1980s, these printing plants provided over 40% of national production of textbooks (18 million units per year).

**One of the printing house buildings** **from the original 1814 construction** has been incorporated
into the Shopping Centre building. You can view this feature on **ul. Jagiellońska**.

Economic circumstances would progressively worsen over the 80s and 90s, and the site ultimately ceased printing activities in 2005, 191 years after the site had first gone into operation. The site was immediately bought by an investment group who announced the construction of the 'Astoria' Shopping Centre on the site, which would eventually be completed in 2007. At this point, it was renamed 'Drukarnia' in honour of the area's history. Fortunately, one of the main buildings from the original 1814 construction still exists and has been incorporated into the Shopping Centre, encased in glass like a museum display.
You can see this feature on the ul. Jagiellońska side!

Bydgoszcz

Drukarnia Dom Mody

Website

Open

Comments

Please share your location