History

The palace was erected in 1853 at the initiative of the erstwhile owner of the manor, Jan Nepomucen Jezierski, a conservative deputy to the Polish Sejm (parliament) and the marshal of the nobles from the Lublin governorate, whose primary place of residence was located in the nearby town of Ryki. The new country home in Garbów was designed by a Warsaw architect Józef Dietrich and might have incorporated elements of an earlier, 18th-century manor house which stood on the same site. The representational form of the palace, surrounded by an extensive park, has earned it the reputation of being one of the most beautiful of its kind in the entire region at the time. A number of new utility buildings have also been erected in the vicinity of the palace; one of these buildings - the impressive granary - has survived to the present times. In the early 20th century, the manor was purchased by the industrialist Bohdan Broniewski, the owner of the nearby village of Przybysławice and the founder of the “Garbów” sugar plant. The palace has survived to the present day almost completely intact, with the exception of some alterations that were made to its interiors. At the present stage, it serves as a healthcare facility and a pharmacy. However, the post-war planning regulations have allowed urban planners to construct a new road leading from Warsaw to Lublin, intersecting the former manor into two separate parts.

Description

The palace and park complex is located in the eastern part of the village, alongside the road from Warsaw to Lublin. The palace and some of the neighbouring ponds are located on the southern side of the road, while a small fragment of the park, the remaining ponds and the old granary are situated on the northern side thereof.

The Palace. The palace is designed in the Late Classicist style. It was built on a complex, symmetrical floor plan. The corps de logis of the palace is a single-storey structure designed on an elongated rectangular floor plan, featuring a two-bay interior layout with a multitude of rooms, including a vestibule and drawing room on the middle axial line. A pair of two-storey side wings adjoin the main body of the palace, positioned perpendicularly towards it and extending beyond both the front and garden façades in the form of avant-corps. The palace is a brick building, its walls covered with plaster. The building features wooden ceilings above the ground floor level, with barrel vaults and groin vaults being used for the basements. The individual sections of the building feature separate gable or hip roofs clad with sheet metal. The front (western) façade follows a 15-axis design; its middle section is a single-storey structure with a Ionic portico featuring two pairs of columns supporting an entablature and a triangular pediment; the pronounced side wings with balconies on the first floor level follow a single-axial design. The façade overlooking the garden follows a similar design, with the three-axial avant-corps containing the drawing room visually partitioned by Ionic engaged columns and topped with a triangular pediment. Between the avant-corps and the side wings there are colonnaded arcades - a design solution seldom seen in manor houses and palaces of the Lublin region. The façades of the side wings overlooking the garden are pierced with broad, square windows on the ground floor level, with the first-floor windows being topped with semicircular arches and adorned with elaborate architectural decorations of the so-called Palladian window type. The remaining windows are all rectangular in shape, framed with plasterwork surrounds, with the first-floor windows benefiting from an additional design flourish in the form of cornices supported by small corbels. The corners of the wings are accentuated by Ionic pilasters in giant order. All façades are topped with a simplified entablature terminating with a dentilled cornice and strips of ornaments inspired by the classical antiquity - the Ionic cymatium and the astragal. Inside, some of the more representational rooms (including, in particular, the drawing room) still feature the original plasterwork decorations in the form of rosettes, medallions, crown mouldings and supraportes above the doors. Inside the hall, visitors can admire a three-coloured tiled floor which follows a checkerboard pattern.

The granary was built on a tripartite floor plan, its structure consisting of a three-storey main body with a wall dormer on the transverse axis as well as single-storey side wings which were added somewhere around the year 1910. The main body is covered with a hip roof, while the wall dormer and the side wings all feature gable roofs clad with sheet metal. The building is made of brick and limestone, its walls covered with plaster. Inside, the building features wooden ceilings supported by timber posts. The front and the rear façades of the main body of the granary follow a nearly identical design, with a five-axial layout and a string course dividing them at mid-height. At the top, there is a dentilled cornice. The wall dormer follows a three-axial design. The windows are relatively small, rectangular on the ground floor level and semi-circular with keystones on all other levels. The wall dormer features a trio of round windows (oculi). Inside, the granary features surviving fixtures and fittings dating back to the 1920s.

The landscape park features four decorative ponds as well as a multitude of rare specimens of trees and shrubs. In front of the main façade of the palace stretches an enclosed, semi-circular area of the garden separated from the rest of the area by a line of larches; the windows of the front façade overlook an expansive, representational lawn. The southern part of the park is a landscaped area with view corridors towards the ponds and the alley that leads down a causeway running between the ponds. Towards the south, east and north lie the former alleys of the park which have now been transformed into footpaths and/or driveways.

The site is open to visitors. The palace serves as a medical centre and pharmacy.

compiled by Bożena Stanek-Lebioda, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Lublin, 26-08-2014.

Bibliography

• Jaroszewski T. S., Dwory i dworki w Polsce. Przewodnik, issue II, Warsaw 1998, pp. 107-108.
• Architectural monument record sheet. Palace and park complex [Garbów], compiled by W. Boruch, 1997, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Lublin; Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Architectural monument record sheet. Palace [Garbów], compiled by W. Boruch, 1997, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Lublin; Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Architectural monument record sheet. Granary, currently serving as an electrical-powered mill [Garbów], compiled by W. Boruch, 1997, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Lublin; Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Mińska E., Zespół pałacowo-parkowy w Garbowie. Dokumentacja naukowo-historyczna, PP PKZ O/Lublin, 1982, mps Archiwum WUOZ w Lublinie.
• Stanek-Lebioda B., Dwory i pałace Garbowa oraz okolic - Garbów, “Głos Garbowa”, no. 11-12, 2003, pp. 4-6.