Becker’s Palace

Eugeniusz Becker came to Bialystok shortly after the arrival of Ewald Hasbach. In 1883 he began to purchase land located between Brudska street and Brzeska street, and to construct factory buildings there. In 1895 the statute of the Bialystok Manufacturing Association “E. Becker and co.” was granted approval. The newly opened factory, Silk Plush, was part of the approved association.

In the years 1902 – 1905, another palace was built, meant to be the seat of the Association’s management. Its two-part building, created in the style of the French renaissance, which was then fashionable in Poland, was erected on Swiętojanska street. The whole factory complex survived World War I in a good condition. In the period of the Soviet occupation, the factory operated as the “BSSR State Plush Factory”. It later became a German factory (“Pluschfabrik Werk nr 31 – Bialystok”). By the end of the war, in July 1944, Germans destroyed most of the factory buildings with the exception of the palace. Upon the end of the war, the Association changed into the State Silk and Clothing Factory and then again – in 1950 – into the Bialystok Plush Factory. In 1975, the site was given a new name – the “Biruna” textile Factory, which has remained until this day. Throughout its whole history, the management of the factory have occupied the palace.