Teodor Talowski

Teodor Marian Talowski (born March 23, 1857 in Zasów, died May 1, 1910 in Lviv) was a Polish architect and painter. Because of his style, which combined late Historicism with Art Nouveau and Modernist influences, he has been described as "the Polish Gaudi". His works include apartment buildings, churches, chapels and public buildings in Kraków, Lviv and other cities throughout former Austrian Galicia.

Talowski was born in Zassów (now Zasów) near Tarnów, in Austrian Galicia, and attended a gymnasium in Kraków. Later he moved to Vienna, where he studied architecture under Karl König. After two years he moved to Lviv (Polish: Lwów, German: Lemberg), to study under Julian Zachariewicz at Lviv Polytechnic, from which he graduated in 1881. He came back to Kraków to be a professor at the Higher School of Technology and Industry (Polish: Wyższa Szkoła Techniczo-Przemysłowa). In 1901 he was appointed the chair of the Department of Drawing and later the Department of Medieval Architecture Composition at Lviv Polytechnic.

He died in 1910 in Lviv after five years of poor health and was interred at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków.

Residential buildings

Some of Talowski's houses at Retoryka street, Kraków. From the left - numbers 9th-1st

• Complex of apartment buildings in Kraków at 1,3,7,9,15 Retoryka street:

 • 1st Retoryka Street - Under the Singing Frog (Pol. Pod śpiewającą żabą), 1889–90

 • 7td Retoryka Street - Festina Lente, 1887

 • 9th Retoryka Street - Under the Ass (Pod Osłem), 1891

 • 15th Retoryka Street - Think Long, Act Fast (Długo myśl, prędko czyń), 1888

• Talowski's own house Under the Spider (Pol. Pod pająkiem) on Karmelicka Street, Kraków, 1889
• Apartment building at 18 Smoleńsk Street, Kraków, Under the Dragon (Pod Smokiem), 1887

Churches

Talowski designed over 70 churches, including:

Church of St. Elizabeth in Lviv

• Church of St. Elizabeth in Lviv, from 1903–11
• St. Mary of the Perpetual Assistance Church in Ternopil
• St. Elizabeth Church in Nowy Sącz
• St. Casimir Church in Nowy Sącz
• St. Nicholas Church in Przyszowa
• Parochial Church in Sucha Beskidzka
• Jesus' Transfiguration Church in Libiąż
• Assumption of St. Mary Church in Kamianka-Buzka
• The Polish church in Cacica, Romania

Other works

• Lubicz Street Viaduct in Kraków
• Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God Hospital in Kraków
• Kraków electric works building
• Żeleński's palace in Grodkowice near Kraków
• Talowski's family tomb at the Rakowicki Cemetery