The history of the most beautiful avenue

In 1792 the huge fire has devastated the city. A year later, Kalisz, as a result of The Second Partition of Poland, was within the Prussian partition. Contemporary urban planners decided to make far-reaching changes and marked an avenue outside the city limits. It was created in 1800, on the so-called Rembowszczyzna, in the suburbs of Wroclaw. The alley stretched along north-west south-east axis, partly parallel to the river. It was the one of the firsts urban fruitions, after Poznan, in that part of Europe. The avenue consisted of two same length parts: north-west with one roadway, which was 24 metres wide in the middle, and south-east with two roadways and the avenue in the middle, lined with four rows of Italian poplars. The narrower parts had a communication function and the wider was for walking and recreation.  

First, the avenue was named after Frederick William, the third king of Prussia. This name was approved on 27th May 1801. However, in the short time, the alley received the name after King’s wife- Luisa Prussia. That change gave a rise to the new trend in the alley’s history. The names were to change couple of times, which reflected the changing history of Kalisz and Poland, too.  The avenue was patronized by women, for a very long time. Moreover, these times were beneficial for its and its urban development. Before 1808 cobbled pavement has appeared. The avenue was connected with the town only through the Młyński Bridge, which was replaced by the Kamienny Bridge in the years 1825-26. Its another end reached the road towards Rypinek and the park, which had been marked in 1798. A wooden bridge passed from here to the city garden. 

During the Duchy of Warsaw, the alley was named after Józefina- the wife of Napoleon. She was commonly called “Józefinka”. That change was an expression of a support for the Polish nation. This name survived until 1934, but even today it is called like that by the oldest generation of Kalisz citizens. The first and the most representative building on the Józefina Alley was the tribunal from 1821 which determined the scale of the local development. Then, next to the junction of the alley and the Wrocławska Street (Śródmiejska today), the Woelff Hotel was built. And on the opposite side, in 1829, the theatre was rised. The bridge next to the tribunal to Sukiennicza Street caused that the new avenue was gained another connection with location city, as well as the attractiveness. Her character changed from the walking to representative. At that time, the poplars were replaced by chestnuts and partly acacias. The trees secured a lot of greenery. At the end of the 19th century the construction movement significantly increased in the alley. The north-west frontage was completely built-up, and the south-east front enriched by home gardens.  

The important architectural elements of the avenue were also Rephan Folusz and two factories- Handke smyrna carpets and R. Franekl lace and curtains. Culture and entertainment developed here, too. In the second half of the 19th century, when the building of the theatre had been destroyed in 1858, the former riding school at number 12, was adapted the theatre hall. In that place, light repertoire dominated with a para-scientific, illusionist and acrobatic shows. In the 80s of the 19th century  the summer theatre-Wypiszczyki Garden performed at  number 17. It was also called Variete or Warsaw Garden- the place of mass entertainment, with a light cabaret repertoire, concerts and various shows. On undeveloped plots there were circus shows. Everything influenced the popularity of the Kalisz “corso” and the availability of entertainment was so large that they were called Kalisz “prater”. However, there was a lot of merriness in a character of the alley.  

The beginning of the 20th century brought new changes. The largest investment was the theatre building raised in 1900 according to the Józef Chrzanowski design. The avenue’s  cultural and entertainment traditions were also upheld by the opening the city's first permanent Oasis cinema in 1901. The presence of banks also testified to the high rank of the street - it was here that one of the first counting house has appeared. In 1872 it was a branch of the Polish Bank, and in 1913 the building of the Kalisz Mutual Credit Society was erected. The tenement house at number 3 was the seat of the Bank Handlowy in Warsaw. Before World War I, the avenue was the credit and financial center of Kalisz. 

1914 brought the destruction of the Polish theater and the hotel at the current Złoty Róg.  In the interwar period, a new, neoclassical building was erected in the place of the destroyed Melpomene house. In 1936 the theater was named after Wojciech Bogusławski and was put into use. A group of  the Bank of Poland buildings stood next to it. The alley gained the original axis closure, and it was then decided to expand the square in front of the theater and the bank - a fragment of chestnut avenue was cut out.  

Between the World War I and World War II, the avenue also played the most important role next to the market in service and entertainment space. In the house at number 5 there was the most elegant hotel "Europa" with a restaurant and cafe. The Wypiszczyk Restaurant at number 17 and "Bagatela" at number 8 were slightly less elite. Next to the Hotel Europa was the Post Office and Telegraph Office. In addition, in the avenue editorial offices and printing houses of "Gazeta kaliska" and "Kurier kaliski" were located. The former fuller house was converted into a power station. There were also three out of seven Kalisz photo factories in Kalisz.  

In 1930, because the chestnuts trees froze up, President Mieczysław Szarras decided to replace them with lime trees and to change the greenery in the alley. On a wider section - from the theater side - instead of the previous four rows of trees, two were planted. In the central part a green belt was fenced with low bushes and grass instead of a walking path. From the Kamienny Bridge side, instead of a single avenue of trees on the river side, two rows of trees were planted, separated by a wide roadway. The street surface was converted into a stone-concrete cube, and gas lamps were replaced with electric ones. 

In the years 1934- 1939, in the independent Poland, the avenue was named after Aleksandra Piłsudska, who was the independence activist and wife of Józef Piłsudski. During World War II, the Germans renamed it to Hermann Göring Straße and even symbolically “degrading” from the name of the alley to the street. In the years 19 45-1956 she become the Józef Stalin avenue, and then the Avenue of Freedom (Aleja Wolności), which it remained until today.