Obrońców Bydgoszczy Street, Bydgoszcz

Obrońców Bydgoszczy street is located in downtown district, in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Many of the buildings along this axis are either registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list, or part of a historical ensemble of Eclectic and Art Nouveau architecture in the city.

Location
Located in downtown district, the street unfolds on an approximate south east - north west axis, parallel to Dworcowa Street, from Warmińskiego street on the east to Marcinkowskiego street on its western tip.

History
The first map of the city that references the street was issued at the outbreak of First World War: the path appears under the name Petersonstraße.

Nevertheless, the 1884 issue of Bromberg's Adressbuch mentions the street, albeit with only two registered names

Naming
The pathway, initially known as Petersonstraße, has kept this naming after the re-creation of the Polish state in 1920, as Ulica Petersona. Ernst Emil Peterson (1808-1867) and his son Julius (1852-1935) have both been mayor of Bromberg.

Even during German occupation (1939-1945), the axis preserved this calling.

At the end of WWII, the street name changed to Ulica Trzeciego Września (Street of the 3rd of September), in reference to Bydgoszcz's Bloody Sunday events of 1939.

The current namesake, Obrońców Bydgoszczy, commemorates all the heroes who defended the city during the Second World War.

Main edifices
Tenement house at 1, corner with Emila Warmińskiego Street

1884-1885

Eclecticism

The building has been one of the first erected in the street under Prussian rule, initially to house a private high school for girls, then registered at 9 Gammstraße. In the 1910s, the school received the namesake of (Margarete) Dreger, one of its headmistress and was later called Dregersche Schule. After the re-creation of the Polish state, the private high school kept working, for girls and boys, under the same appellation: ''Priwatne Liceum im. Drögera''. After the Second World War, the edifice lodged municipal Psychological and Pedagogical establishment Nr.1 (Poradnia Psychologiczno-Pedagogiczna). The institution moved out in the 2010s, and the ensemble has been proposed for selling to private owners by the city authorities in 2017. The intent is to  set up here various activities including a Social Services Center and a nursery.

The edifice comprises three buildings displaying various styles, the lowest one being the former school gymnasium. The tenement standing at street corner has the most elaborated facades, with eclectic features: sleek bossage on the ground floor, windows topped by heavy lintels on the first floor and triangular pediments on the second, belt courses separating each level and a simple corbel table crowning the elevation.