The postcars shows some houses on the western side of the Ringplatz (after the Polish “Rynek”) in Chernivtsi, called Piata Unirii in the Romanian times, Red Square in Soviet times and Central Square today.

The first stone houses were built on the Ringplatz in the late 1790s.

The buildings shown on the postcard already represent the second generatation of houses, built in the second half of the 19th c.

The corner building on the left was built in 1901 as Sparkasse (Savings Bank) by the architect Hubert Gessner, a student of Otto Wagner, in Viennese Jugendstil (Secessionist style). Its facade is decorated with a mosaic of Zsolnay majolica tiles showing the Bukowina being welcomed by the other lands of the Habsburg Empire. Today it houses the Art Museum. The house next to it was built in the 1850s and became the Rumänisches Nationalhaus (Romanian People’s House). In the 19th c. it also served as home of the Landespräsident (the Austrian governor), Emperor Franz Joseph stayed here during his visit in 1855. Today it is home to the Mihai Eminescu Romanian Cultural Society. The house shown on the right side of the postcard was an appartment building and in the time between the wars seat of the Anglo International Bank.

The statue of the Pieta in front of it was erected in 1827 and removed in 1923.

Helmut Kusdat