History

The first mentions of Bratoszewice come from the mid-14th century. The locality was a family seat of the Bratoszewski family, Prawdzic coat of arms, and in the 15th century, it was taken over by the family of Oporowski, Sulima coat of arms, and in the 16th century - by the Goślubski family, named, from that time on, Bratoszewscy, Sulima coat of arms. As regards the location of the seat of the first owners of the locality which in that time was still a town (Bartoszewice retained municipal rights until 1661), it is assumed that it could be a manor house on a mound, situated on an island on the pond on the northern side of the path leading to the contemporary palace. These assumptions, however, are not confirmed by research. In the 18th century, the owners of Bratoszewice were the Czarnecki family. In the second half of the 18th century, Wawrzyniec Czarnecki, Łodzia coat of arms, acted as a municipal regent of Łęczyca, deputy staroste, and chief butler of Inowłódz, and stolnik. Feliks, son of Wawrzyniec and Ewa nee Nowowiejska Czarnecka, was the chamberlain of Stanisław August Poniatowski, then a senator and a voivode. Following death of Feliks Czarnecki, the property was owned by Wincenty Matuszewski, Topór coat of arms, then August Lemański, and from 1885 on, Stefania (daughter of August Lemański) and Wacław Rzewuski, coat of arms Krzywda. After Wacław Rzewuski, the property was taken over, in 1911, by his son Kazimierz who ordered, in 1921, the construction of the existing palace to his friend, an architect from Warsaw, Juliusz Nagórski. Finishing works were carried out until 1927. Kazimierz Rzewulski used the palace as his summer residence, and the property was managed by Michał Korybut-Szymanowski. After the World War II, following an agricultural reform, a part of the property was subdivided into parcels, and a part was taken over by the State Treasury and transformed into a State Agricultural Farm. In 1958, the Annual School of Agriculture and Economy for girls was opened in the palace, and in 1962 - a secondary technical school of water engineering and economy. In 1969, next to the main access road, an additional school building was constructed in the park, which completely broken down the consistency of composition of the park and the palace. In 1984, there was a fire in the palace, as a result of which the roof was damaged. The renovation of the building was started in 1988, but in 1990 the works were discontinued and since that time the building has not been in use.

Description

The complex is located in the centre of the village, and is limited separated from the south-west by a busy road from Łódź to Łowicz and Warsaw. The palace and manor farm buildings are located in the south-western part of the complex, closer to the village, the park stretches to the north-east. The main access road to the palace goes through a spectacular gate located on the side where the road Łódź-Głowno-Łowicz runs. An alley of chestnut trees leads to the palace. The style of the palace in Bratoszewice is sometimes referred to as “manor house style” characteristic of the Polish architecture of the 2nd and 3rd decade of the 20th century - a time when efforts were made to define the national style and to find an ideal form of a Polish manor house. The body combines features of a French palace (mansard roofs, layout with a front cour d’honneur flanked with side wings), and a traditional 18th-century Polish manor house with four corner extensions. That latter form is also associated with: a four-column portico, lack of upper storeys, lack of horizontal partitions of the façades, with strong horizontal partitions present. The palace is a single-storey building with a loft. It is made of brick and cement and lime mortar. The roofs are wooden, covered with overlapping roof felt and sheet metal. The building is erected on a square floor plan. Although the body is abundantly partitioned, the regular combination of the polyhedrons comprising it, as well as architectural detail and a single form of roofs make it consistent. The common elements of the façades, underlining their horizontality, are: low plinth, frieze with a profiled crowning cornice, and the line of change of pitch of the mansard roof. Also the window openings on various levels are uniform. The northern (front) façade is symmetrical, with a four-column, classic portico on the axis, which is two storeys high. The two-storey side wings are slightly higher than the main body. Their façades, both from the courtyard, as well as from the front of the building, have three axes. The eastern façade is also tripartite. In front of the wall of the building, there is a terrace from which the garden can be accessed by double stairs. On the axis, there is a portico resting on two engaged columns, and two pairs of columns with Ionic capitals support a semi-circular balcony decorated with a cast balustrade. In the wall, at the height of the balcony, there are three axes. The middle one is constituted by a door opening topped with a round arch, with a closed cornice with a keystone in the form of a volute. Over the cornice, on both sides of the volute, there is plant decoration. Along the cornice on both sides, there are rectangular window openings topped with segmental arches. Over the windows, there is a segmented cornice, under which there is a conch on the background of a foliate scrollwork. The wall is topped with a pediment with the Rzewulski family’s coat of arms in the tympanum. On both sides, there are five-axis side avant-corps covered by a mansard roof with dormers. A similar, tripartite layout also characterises the western façade. The seven-axis main body with a central avant-corps (two storey, terminating in a semi-hexagon), is flanked by tripartite avant-corps. The avant-corps on the axis features a multi-faceted roof with a pediment, and other parts - mansard roofs with dormers. The roofs over avant-corps are slightly higher than the roofs of the main body. Windows of the central avant-corps are topped with cornice segments with festoons underneath. The remaining part of the façade is without architectural detail. The southern façade consists of many section and is asymmetrical. From the west, there is a four-axis, glazed cloister with arcades supported by columns with Ionic capitals. This part is covered by a mansard roof. The arcades are flanked by two-storey avant-corps with a semi-hexagonal termination. Over each of the avant-corps, there is a multi-faced roof with a small pitch angle. On the level of the first storey, the avant-corps feature window openings in the form of ellipses in a vertical arrangement. The eastern part of the façade includes six axes, three of which, from the east, also form a glazed arcade resting on Ionic columns. The other axes are defined by rectangular window openings. The mansard roof over this part of the building, similarly as over other façades, is enriched with oval dormers decorated with cornices framed with volute-shaped keystones with a cone and and an orb on it. Inside, there are groups of rooms corresponding to specific functions. From the north - there is a vestibule and corridors leading to the study rooms of the owner, from the side of the garden - representative rooms (ball room and column hall), and an orangery, and in the south-western part - a patio with cloisters and a boudoir. The dining room with kitchen and utility rooms is located in the western part of the palace. The staircase can be found in the south-eastern part, it is connected with the ball room. The staircase provided access to the upper floor, to guest rooms, and rooms of servants. The park by the residence was designed concurrently with the palace. The palace is located in the western part of the park, at the intersection of the north-south and east-west axes. In the western part, the complex is regular in shape, with geometric layout of the ground storey, and in the eastern park, the park is intended for scenic purposes. From the former layout, the fragments of the access path and hedges separating the French part of the garden remain discernible.

Limited access to the historic building. The park belonging to the Agricultural School Complex is available, the palace cannot be visited.

compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Łódź, 12-08-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, t. 2: Województwo łódzkie, Warszawa 1954.
• Lorenc-Karczewska A., Karpiński T., Stępień W., Szelągowska E., Witkowski W., Dwory i pałace okolic Łodzi, Łódź 1997.
• Mikesz G., Pałac w Bratoszewicach. Dokumentacja historyczno-architektoniczna, Łódź 1979 [mps w zbiorach OT NID w Łodzi].