That’s what Brzesko looked like after the great fire of 1904. It’s when seeing these pictures, that one can really appreciate the work of the Mayor Henoch Klapholz and the members of the city council who took responsibility for rebuilding the town. Here is how the fire of 1904 was described in the report of the Municipal Council meeting on August 28, 1904: “A terrible catastrophe struck Brzesko on July 25, 1904. Almost the entire city, 228 houses and more than 400 farm buildings burned in flames with all property, this year’s crops, goods, equipment and real estate, so that currently 3,500 souls are left without clothing, roof and bread, wandering the streets, arousing pity and tearing the hearts of viewers…” Brzesko had to be rebuilt almost from scratch. And it is to the mayor Klapholz that Brzesko largely owes its current appearance: construction of new brick tenement houses instead of the old wooden buildings, power plant, municipal sewage system and cobbled streets.
Photos of the postcards come from the website https://picryl.com/search?q=Brzesko
© Anna Brzyska, 2021