History

The settlement of Brody (Pförten) was founded in the Middle Ages at a trade route from Gubin to Żary. The name of the Förten village was first mentioned in writing in documents dated 1389. Most probably, around the mid-15th century, the Biberstein family from Żary took the village over from the von Dohn family. At their initiative, Brody received a municipal charter. It was mentioned for the first time as a town in 1454, but this fact did not initially change its economic and urban-planning development. After the extinction of the von Biberstein-Forst line (1667 - death of Ferdinand II von Biberstein), the Brody dominion was unified with the dominion in Forst and later taken over by Count Ulrich von Promnitz. In the days of the von Promnitz family, a residence, a brass foundry, a steelworks plant and a wire manufacturing plant were built in the town. After the extinction of the von Promnitz line based in Brody, the estate was bought by Count von Watzdorf, who sold it in 1740 along with the land in his possession to Count Heinrich von Brühl, the first minister of king August III.

The years 1741-1749 marked considerable changes in the urban layout of Brody. The palace and park were redesigned and the layout of the town was rearranged. The court architect of August III, Johann Christoph Knöffel, straightened and widened the main street - from that time onwards intersected halfway along its length by a road leading to the castle. The spatial and economic development of the town was interrupted during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). After Saxony was seized by Prussia, the residence and the metallurgic industry fell into decline. The dominion remained in the hands of the Brühl family until World War II. Despite devastation and destruction effected during the Seven Years’ War and World War II, numerous elements characteristic for the Baroque residential complexes have survived in Brody.

Description

One of the entrances to Brody leads through the town gate. The initially existing three gates were not components parts of the defensive walls, as they had never been erected in the town. The gates, representing a symbolic fragment of the spatial composition of the entire complex, also constituted an exit to Forst, Gubin and Lubsko. The preserved gate, on the side of the Forst town, was erected in 1748 to commemorate a visit the king August III had paid to Brody. During alteration works carried out in 1928, the shape of the passage was transformed from semi-circular to rectangular. A cartouche with a coat of arms of the Brühl family was placed at the top. An inscription in Latin was carved in the gate to commemorate Heinrich Brühl as the designer of the new urban layout. Behind the gate there is a wide street with surviving 18th-century buildings. 

A large, two-storey Baroque palace is a central structure of the palace and park complex. It was built in place of an older, two-storey building from the years 1670-1674, erected on a horseshoe floor plan in the period when the town belonged to the Promnitz family. The walls of the former palace were incorporated in the body of the new structure, the interiors were modernised and a representational staircase was built in the main hall, to name a few examples. Additionally, a completely new architectural décor was introduced both inside the buildings and on their façades. At that time, the building was covered with a mansard roof. Wide stairs, adorned with sculptures of four Atlases supporting the balcony, led to the interior. The palace fixtures and fittings consisted of costly furniture, tapestries, a service made of porcelain of Meissen as well as valuable paintings including works of Titian, Rubens and Cranach. During the Seven Years’ War (1758) the palace was burned down by a troop of Hussars. It was reconstructed only around the mid-19th century. It was then that the building was covered with a flat roof. In the years 1919-1920 a mansard roof was restored. In 1945 the palace was consumed by flames again. Currently, the reconstructed body is covered with a new mansard roof. 

Two outbuildings, each with two storeys, stand next to the palace. They were built in the years 1741-1753 on a rectangular floor plan and covered with gable roofs featuring dormer windows flowing into mansard roofs. The buildings are decorated with pilasters. In the central section, they additionally support pediments with Rococo stuccowork. One of the outbuildings that was subject to renovation houses a hotel and restaurant.

There is a vast park at the back of the palace, established in the second half of the 17th century by the Promnitz family in the spirit of a French garden. It surrounded the palace on three sides and was connected to a lake. In the 1740s the park was widened by Brühl on the north side and adorned with fountains and stone statues. After the destruction of the palace in 1758, the reconstruction was undertaken. At that time, a landscape park was established through incorporating a fragment of the forest and a lake. Islands were heaped on the lake. The landscape complex has survived until this day. The park includes, among others, small-leaved lime alleys intersecting at a right angle, a white chestnut alley, two massive London planes, black pines, weeping beech, American tulip trees and white oak.

The buildings can be viewed from the outside. Only the outbuilding interior is available (a hotel and a restaurant). The park is accessible all year round.

compiled by Dr Krzysztof Garbacz, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Zielona Góra, 28-12-2017

Bibliography

• Drozdek M.E., Brody, park pałacowy, [in:] Bielinis-Kopeć B. (ed.), Zabytkowe parki województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2013, pp. 33-37.
• Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, vol. 2: Powiaty: żarski – żagański – nowosolski – wschowski, Zielona Góra 2012, pp. 65-67
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, pp. 34-37.