The palace is also the largest and the most impressive residence in the Kłodzko Region, unparallelled in terms of opulence back in its heyday (second half of the 17th century) and still having very few rivals in Silesia insofar as its sheer size is concerned.

History

The so-called castle manor in Gorzanów was originally formed before 1348 and initially remained in the hands of the local magnates, followed by the baronial family of von und zu Anneberg (in the 1620s) and the comital family of von Herberstein (after 1650), the latter being responsible for the most extensive alteration works performed both in the palace itself and in the entire palace complex. The palace in Gorzanów, consisting of four distinct wings, came into being in a few stages. The oldest part of the palace - the eastern wing - is a Renaissance design with heavy Italian influences, erected after 1554 or after 1570, superseding a brick and stone manor house from the 2nd half of the 15th century. Later on, in the 1620s, the palace was redesigned and extended, with a narrow western section being added, resulting in the tower being incorporated into the main body of the edifice. In addition, the façades of the palace were also modified to ensure a greater design consistency, with new gables being added during the same period. The redesigned complex consisted of four distinct wings surrounding an inner courtyard. The two 16th-century buildings originally located on the northern and southern side of the palace were incorporated into its new wings, featuring a pair of gateways leading into the courtyard within. The third, western wing was erected from scratch in the 1620s. The wings of the palace were designed as three-storey structures with façades adorned with sgraffito decorations and profiled (fasciated) window surrounds. To the south of the complex a utility yard was formed, ending with a curtain wall towards the west. Two further curtain walls were added to the western wing of the palace as well as to the outbuilding erected in 1596 (7/8 Podzamcze street). In the years 1653-1657, the Late Renaissance palace complex was redesigned in the Early Baroque style. The works were carried out by North Italian builders and plasterers employed by the company owned by Carlo Lurago, based in Prague. The individuals in charge of the works themselves were Lorenzo Nicelli and Andrea Carove. The interior décor and façade ornamentation were completed in the years 1668-1672. The palace interiors have been redesigned in a more lavish style, as were its façades. During that period, the palace received its entrance portal, double external stairs, second-floor loggias and a new tower cupola. The former vestibule was converted into a sala terrena - a large, formal room with direct access to the garden; the chapel of St George and the ballroom were created during the same period. All these interiors - as well as the vaulted ceiling above the staircase - were adorned with sumptuous, lavishly designed plasterwork decorations. Other rooms featured painted decorations on the ceilings. In the 3rd quarter of the 17th century, a theatre was established on the first floor of the northern wing. Furthermore, galleries based on a framed structure were added on the uppermost stories of three of the palace wings, while the flat roofs of the eastern, southern and western wings were converted to serve as terraces. The interiors of all three wings of the palace were redesigned in the Baroque style, the principal design flourishes added at that point including some of the vaulted ceilings, painted beamed ceilings (including some with stenciled decorations), friezes running beneath the ceilings as well as further plasterwork décor. The interiors and walls of the galleries were adorned with trompe l’œil wall paintings incorporating various architectural motifs, ornamentation and landscape scenes. In 1735, the façades of the palace were redesigned. The original sgraffito decorations were concealed beneath a new layer of plaster. In the years 1900-1903 or 1906, the first series of conservation works was performed, with the sgraffito decorations adorning the façades of the palace itself and the walls of its wings facing the courtyard being subjected to a thorough restoration. The original nature of the decorations was preserved, although some of the compositional detailing and decorative motifs were changed. A number of new decorative motifs designed in the early 20th-century style was introduced. The new gables, with their architectural articulation and sgraffito ornaments, were likewise a rather loose interpretation of the original. Parts of the stonework and interior plasterwork were also reconstructed.

Descritpion

The Gorzanów palace currently consists of four wings surrounding an irregular, quadrangular inner courtyard. The oldest part of the palace is the main, eastern wing made of stone, its walls covered with plaster; this part of the palace was designed on a quadrilateral floor plan, with parts of the building following a single-bay layout, while other sections feature a two-bay layout instead. It is in this part of the palace that the central staircase is located, leading upwards through the tower shaft and linked to the grand sala terrena. This part of the palace is a three-storey structure with a loggia, covered with a gable roof enlivened by a number of decorative gables. The façades feature a regular arrangement of windows in fasciated surrounds, covered with sgraffito decorations and crowned with a lunette cornice with ornamental and figural sgraffito motifs. The tower façade incorporates a Baroque portal preceded by double stairs which follow a mirrored design. The interiors of the main wing of the palace feature both flat and vaulted ceilings, some of which are adorned with lavish painted or plasterwork decorations. The remaining wings of the palace are either single- or two-bay structures with flat roofs, their façades adorned with sgraffito decorations and fasciated surrounds framing the windows. The northern and the southern wings feature gateways leading into the courtyard within, positioned on the outermost axis of each palace wing. Remnants of the Renaissance and Baroque interior décor can still be admired in the wings of the palace. Three curtain walls erected in the immediate vicinity of the palace have also survived intact. The palace is surrounded by a multifunctional, Early Baroque garden established in the mid-17th century or thereabouts, wherein a surviving garden pavilion (otherwise known as the grotto - → pawilon-grota) can still be admired.

Private property, restoration and conservation works underway, may only be visited upon prior appointment.

compiled by Iwona Rybka-Ceglecka, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wrocław, 25-06-2014.

Bibliography

• Album der Graffschaft Glatz oder Abbildungen der Städte, Kirchen, Klöster, Schlösser und Burgen derselben von mehr als 150 Jahren, herausgegeben von Fr. Aug. Pompejus, Glatz (1862), collection of the National Museum in Wrocław.
• Brzezicki S., Nielsen Ch., Grajewski G., Popp D. (ed.), Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Wrocław 2006.
• Grundmann G., Burgen, Schlösser und Gutshäuser in Schlesien, Frankfurt am Main 1982 (Bd.I), Marburg an der Lahn 1987 (Bd. II).
• Kalinowski K., Architektura barokowa na Śląsku w drugiej połowie XVII wieku, Wrocław - Warsaw - Cracow - Gdańsk 1974.
• Kögler J., Historische Beschreibung der Pfarrei Grafenort, 1807, Vierteljahrschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde der Grafschaft Glatz, Bd. VII, 1887/8.
• Kurze geschichtliche Nachrichten zum Album der Grafschaft Glatz, Glatz (1862).
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• Brzezicki S., Nielsen Ch., Grajewski G., Popp D. (ed.), Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Wrocław 2006, p.