Blue palace

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Blue palace
Aerial view

Aerial view

Creation time : before 1700
Castle type : palace
Conservation status: Reconstructed
Place: Warsaw
Geographical location 52 ° 14 '32 "  N , 21 ° 0' 18"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 14 '32 "  N , 21 ° 0' 18"  E
Blue Palace (Lesser Poland)
Blue palace
The palace with a baroque facade at the beginning of the 18th century after a drawing by Johann Sigmund Deybel
The palace in the famous painting by the painter Bernardo Bellotto from 1779
The inscription on the main building: “In the year of the restoration of the kingdom” (Polish: Roku Przywrócenia Królestwa ) connects the date of the completion of the renovation with the restoration of Poland in 1815 agreed at the Congress of Vienna

The Blue Palace (also known as the Zamoyski Palace , in Polish: Pałac Błękitny or Pałac Zamoyskich ) is a classicist building complex in Warsaw that is steeped in history .

location

The property is located on Ulica Senatorska 37 in the Warsaw inner city district . The grounds of the palace border on the west of the Marszałkowska Street, which passes here . To the east is the Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Polish: Kościół św. Antoniego Padewskiego ). Diagonally across from the Senatorska , a street designed as a square leads to the Mniszech Palace ( Senatorska 34 , now the seat of the Belgian embassy). The former park of the property now merges with the Saxon Garden in the south .

history

The beginnings of the building go back to the 17th century. The date of construction of the original building is unknown, the site demonstrably belonged to Teodor Potocki , a primate of Poland, at the end of the 17th century . Presumably the palace was built under him. In 1721 Potocki gave the building to his brother Stefan Potocki.

Countess Orzelska's residence

Just five years later, King Augustus the Strong took over the complex, as it was located near his palace ( Saxon Palace ) and he wanted to set up residence for his illegitimate daughter Anna Karolina Orzelska here. In 1726 the countess received the palace and in the same year renovations in the Baroque style (with echoes of the Rococo ) began. Three Saxon architects were appointed: Carl Friedrich Pöppelmann , Joachim Daniel von Jauch and Johann Sigmund Deybel . The former Potocki Palace has now become the core of a larger complex. A court of honor was created by adding wing buildings that extend as far as the Senatorska . Additional buildings were also built on the west side of the palace. The mansard roof of the redesigned core building was covered with a rare sheet of metal with a blue patina - which was to give the property its name. A small park with a fountain, waterfall and orangery was created behind the palace . The interior of the palace was beautifully decorated with paintings, paneling and stucco in the Rococo style.

According to a report by the chronicler about the Saxon court, Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz , August the Strong was an evening guest at his daughter's estate. Her reputation at court was correspondingly high. According to the Warsaw historian Kazimierz Władysław Wójcicki , there were rumors of an underground tunnel between the father and daughter's residences.

A barter

After the Orzelska had married the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck , Karl Ludwig , she left Warsaw and handed the palace back to her father. He ceded it in 1730 to the wealthy Maria Zofia Denhoff, who also owned the country residence in Wilanów . The two agreed that the king could use the residence in Wilanów until his death, for which the Denhoff received the Blue Palace as a gift. She lived here with her second husband, Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski . After her death, the son Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski inherited the property.

Between 1766 and 1768 the rooms on the ground floor of the palace were rebuilt for Adam Kazimierz's wife Izabela Czartoryska according to a design by Giacomo Fontana . From 1770 to 1781 Ephraim Schröger directed the next renovation, which led to the expansion of the core structure. The Venetian painter Bernardo Bellotto, who was working in Warsaw at the time, painted the palace after this expansion (see picture).

Among the Zamoyskis

In 1782 the palace fell to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, from whom he passed in 1811 to his daughter Zofia (1780-1837) and her husband, Count Stanisław Kostka Zamoyski . Friedrich Albert Lessel completely rebuilt the palace for them in the style of a very strict classicism. Construction began in 1812 and was largely completed in 1815. Sculpture work was carried out under Paweł Maliński. Between 1833 and 1838, an additional two-story outbuilding was built on Senatorska based on a design by Joseph Schmidtner , which is no longer available today. The Zamoyski family remained owners of the complex until 1945. By the beginning of the Second World War , the family had assembled a large art collection in the palace. This also included the important library of the Zamoyskis Majorate, which had been here since 1804. This library, which was to consist of around 250,000 volumes in 1939, was housed in a pavilion adjacent to the palace. The pavilion was redesigned in the neo-Renaissance style by Julian Ankiewicz between 1866 and 1868 . The later important Polish writer Stefan Żeromski was employed here as a librarian's assistant at the beginning of the 20th century. As early as 1816, the only six-year-old Fryderyk Chopin gave a concert in the palace.

World War II and post-war period

As part of the German attack on Warsaw , the palace and its art treasures were bombed in September 1939. It was almost completely destroyed, remains burned down in 1944 during the fighting of the Warsaw Uprising . Between 1949 and 1950, it was rebuilt according to plans by Bruno Zborowski and Zasław Malicki, roughly according to Lessel's plans. From 1958 to 1997 the seat of the Society of Polish-Chinese Friendship (Polish: Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Chińskiej ) was located here . After that, the offices of the Municipal Transport Authority (Polish: Zarząd Transportu Miejskiego ) were housed in the former palace until February 2011 . In the rear wing extension to the east is currently the restaurant “St. Antonio ".

References and comments

  1. ^ Stefan Potocki (1665-1730) was a Polish Crown Field Marshal
  2. ^ Maria Zofia Czartoryska, b. Sieniawska, widowed Denhoff (1698–1771) was one of the richest women in Poland through inheritance and marriage
  3. ^ Stanisław Kostka Zamoyski (1775–1856) was a Polish magnate, large landowner, politician and patron of the arts
  4. ^ Friedrich Albert Lessel (1767–1822) was a Saxon architect who worked in Warsaw
  5. Paweł Maliński (1790-1853) was a Polish sculptor and freemason
  6. ^ Joseph Benedikt Schmidtner (1792-1843) was a German architect who worked in Poland
  7. ^ Julian Ankiewicz (1820–1903) was a Polish architect

Web links

Commons : Blue Palace  - collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

literature

  • Julius A. Chroscicki and Andrzej Rottermund: Architectural Atlas of Warsaw . 1st edition, Arkady, Warsaw 1978, p. 203
  • Janusz Durko: Album Warszawski / Warsaw Album. The image of the city according to the collections in the Warsaw Historical Museum. German-Polish edition, Agencja Reklamowo-Wydawnicza A. Grzegorczyk, ISBN 83-86902-73-6 , Warsaw 2000, p. 170
  • Tadeusz S. Jaroszewski: Palaces and Residences in Warsaw . Interpress publishing house, ISBN 83-223-2049-3 , Warsaw 1985, pp. 18ff
  • Janina Rukowska: Travel guide to Warsaw and surroundings . 3rd edition, ISBN 83-217-2380-2 , Sport i Turystyka, Warsaw 1982, p. 58