Bridge on the Bystrzyca river

Konstanty Kietlicz-Rayski (1868–1924) studied at the School of Fine Arts in Krakow, then in Warsaw, in the drawing class of the eminent painter Wojciech Gerson, and in the studio of Leon Wyczółkowski. In the first decades of the 20th century, he was one of the most active animators of Lublin's artistic life. He was a painter and ethnographer - the author of numerous studies of the folk types of the Lublin and Podhale regions, he was engaged in journalistic activity, he played in the theatre as an amateur. His work falls within the traditional current of art, which, according to Kietlicz, should be primarily understandable to the recipient. It was dominated by atmospheric watercolours and ink-washed landscapes and views of picturesque corners of Lublin, with which the artist connected his life after 1904.

Kietlicz's drawing shows the bridge over Bystrzyca at Zamojska Street in a wider perspective, with the towers of the cathedral and two Lublin gates - Trinitarian and Krakowska gates visible in the distance. The bridge, erected in 1909 using the pre-stressed concrete method, is one of the oldest reinforced concrete bridges in south-eastern Poland. It was built on the site of the former wooden bridge on the Bychawa and Uściługsko-Zamojski routes, leading south from Lublin. In 2012, it was named after the designer, Marian Lutosławski - engineer, inventor and social activist, author of the second Lublin bridge erected in 1908 in the Kalinowszczyzna region. Both structures, built in the technology invented by François Hennebique, on driven reinforced concrete piles, are among the only surviving bridges of this type in Europe. The neo-Gothic architectural costume was designed by Jan Heurich the Younger, following the example of the Saint Severin church in Paris. The Warsaw architect gave the concrete balustrades the form of openwork tracery with pillars topped with pinnacles in the shape of cones. The bridge was lit by lanterns placed on monumental vaults accentuating the extreme spans. Its erection was documented on a cast-iron plaque stored in the Museum of the History of the City of Lublin: "Most żelazno-betonowy systemu Hennebique’a zbudowany przez inżyniera M. Lutosławskiego [The Iron-Concrete Bridge of the Hennebique System Built by Engineer M. Lutosławski], Warsaw, Bohema 1".

Anna Hałata