ANDRZEJ LASKOWSKI

Architects, builders and engineers at the turn of the 19th century in many ways practiced to gain not only commissions, but also fame, prestige, public accolade and everlasting, eternal existence in people’s mind. In Galicia of that time the community of architects, builders and engineers was extremely at variance and that is why presentation and promotion was generally an individual matter. Using ways completely self-explanatory, like advertisements, representatives of this community reached for some new ways, which used the work of architecture itself as a new form of communication, addressed straight to the customer and which influence is permanent. That is why facades of buildings in Galicia (much more than their interiors) were covered by an appropriate inscriptions, sentences, initials and portraits of their creators, sometimes even by murals modeled as advertisements in the newspapers. At the same time representatives of the community carefully cared for all stationery and office supplies, used daily to keep in touch with their clients. All these endeavours were designed for letting an architect, liberated from anonymity, to be held in fame not only in contemporary but also in posterity times.

Keywords: architect, builder, engineer, Galicia, promotion, presentation, turn of the 19^th century