History

The very first written mentions of a residential building located in the castle grounds sur-rounding the so-called high castle in Brodnica, which is believed to have been the direct pre-decessor of the existing palace of Anna Vasa of Sweden, date back to 1564, when the edifice was referred to in an inspection report. The structure of the building itself incorporated frag-ments of Gothic utility buildings as well as a large portion of the eastern defensive wall. The two-storey building is known to have been crowned with an Italianate roof parapet (attic); once the office of the district governess (starościna) of Brodnica was taken over in 1605 by Anna Vasa of Sweden, sister of King Sigismund III Vasa, the building was extended slightly and separated from the rest of the castle grounds, its interiors also undergoing a redesign at the time. A garden is likewise believed to have surrounded the palace at that point. When An-na Vasa of Sweden died in 1625, the Brodnica manor was held by the female successors of the Vasa dynasty. In years 1625-31, the office of the district governess was held by Con-stance of Austria, the second wife of King Sigismund III. Later on, the Brodnica manor was designated as dowry for her daughter, Anne Catherine Constance (1631-1638). Later on, the manor became the property of Cecilia Renata of Austria, the wife of King Ladislaus IV Vasa. When the wife of King John III Sobieski, Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d’Arquien, became the owner of the manor (1678-1698), the palace was substantially remodelled. Its main body was extended southwards, with the neighbouring utility buildings which had stood alongside the castle grounds wall from the Middle Ages being merged into the newly erected structure. In the mid-18th century, the royal secret counsellor Schmidt and his wife Anna have conducted the final series of renovation works during the early modern period.

When Poland lost its independence, its territory partitioned between its neighbours, the palace was taken over by the Prussian State Domain; in the 20th century, during the interwar period, it served as a school. Unfortunately, in 1945 the building was almost completely gutted by fire. All that was left were its peripheral walls and some of the interior partitions; the palace, now in a state of ruin, stood abandoned until the 1960s, when the reconstruction efforts finally began.

Description

The building is located in the north-western part of town, in the castle grounds, standing alongside the eastern wall which divides the grounds into two parts. It is brick building, its walls covered with plaster. The palace was designed on an elongated rectangular floor plan, with a partially preserved two-bay interior layout. The edifice features a compact silhouette covered with a hip roof punctuated with dormer windows. The façades are topped with a pro-filed crowning cornice. The junction between the storeys is marked by a simple, plain string course. Some of the first-floor windows are not positioned directly above those of the ground floor, resulting in an offset arrangement. Entrance doors are positioned on the middle axis as well as the second axis counting from the southern edge. At the ground floor level there are twelve rectangular window openings in total, framed with profiled, plasterwork surrounds. The first-floor windows are almost identical in shape. The windows positioned on the south-ernmost axis are much smaller than the rest.

The eastern façade follows an eleven-axial layout, featuring rectangular window openings framed by profiled, plasterwork surrounds. Parts of the Gothic structure of the building have been left deliberately exposed.

The interiors of the palace have been remodelled in the course of its post-war reconstruction. One of the rooms, currently serving as the kitchen, features surviving original vaulted ceilings of the double barrel type.

The site is partially available to visitors. The palace currently serves, among others, as the Mu-nicipal and District Library as well as the Registry Office. The structure may be viewed from the outside.

compiled by Piotr Dąbrowski, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Toruń, 14-12-2014 r.

Bibliography

• Arszyński M., Tak zwany „Pałac Anny Wazówny” w Brodnicy, „Biuletyn Historii Sztuki” 1959, nr 2, s. 157-160.
• Polkowski F., Pałac Anny Wazówny w Brodnicy. Inwentaryzacja odkrywek elewacji i rozwarstwienie, Toruń 1969, maszynopis w archiwum WKZ w Toruniu, sygn. W/57.