History

The very first mentions of the town in written sources date back to the year 1255; in 1400, Hrubieszów received municipal rights. From the first half of the 15th century, the town served as a seat of crown land tenants; during the 18th century, it remained the property of the Potocki family of the Pilawa coat of arms. Franciszek Staley Potocki, the voivode of Kiev and the last person to actually perform the role of the local starosta (alderman), had a wooden manor house here, located near the castle ruins. The house was recorded in the 1772 inventory, prepared at the time when the title of the starosta was being passed to his son, Stanisław Szczęsny. In the context of the above inventory and the subsequent ownership history of the site, the date of construction of the existing manor house remains unclear, especially since its Baroque overall shape would seem to suggest it might have been built earlier than the date “1791” placed on the portico would seem to indicate. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Austrian government allocated the Hrubieszów district to count Ignacy Cetner, the voivode of Bełż; as a result, Hrubieszów became a private town. Soon afterwards, the land was sold to Aleksander and Anna Sapieha, who purchased it on behalf of Stanisław Staszic, who had no right to hold land in the Austrian territory due to the fact that he was not a member of the nobility. In 1816, Staszic established the famous foundation known as the “Hrubieszów Agricultural Association”. The manor house was excluded from the foundation property and donated to Józef Wężyk-Widawski as a sign of recognition of his achievements in the field of the law. Surrounded by a small garden leading up to the river, with a total surface of just a few morgen (with one morgen being the equivalent of about 0.5 hectares), the manor house retained its character of a suburban residence. In 1812, it was purchased by Jan Terlecki, a pharmacist by profession, who established his pharmacy on the premises. Following the acquisition of the manor by Piotr Aleksander Du Château - a descendant of an officer of the Napoleonic army and also a pharmacist - in 1848, the house would remain in the hands of a single family for more than a century. The very last private owner of the manor house was Maria Du Château née Mazaraki, from whom the house was purchased in 1971 to serve the needs of the local community, becoming a museum and the seat of the Regional Society.

Description

The manor house complex is located in the southern part of town, by Huczwa river, in the vicinity of the now-defunct castle on 3 Maja street. The complex consists of the manor house and of two outbuildings linked to the house by means of connecting sections, flanking a small courtyard with a representational lawn. The manor house was designed in the Baroque style. Built on a rectangular floor plan, it is a single-storey structure with a habitable attic, covered by a mansard roof with dormers. The interior follows a two-bay, tripartite layout with a hall and a drawing room on the middle axial line; the interior layout has seen a number of alterations both in 1941 and after that date. The manor house is a brick building, its walls covered with plaster. The ground-floor rooms in the eastern part of the house feature barrel vaults and groin vaults, with barrel vaulting also used for the basements. The front (northern) façade follows a nine-axial design with a recessed, two-storey portico with two pairs of Tuscan columns supporting a simplified entablature and a triangular pediment with gently sloping end sections. The tympanum of the pediment features a small quatrefoil window with a decorative surround and the date “1791”. The corners of the manor house are accentuated by pilasters, while its façades are topped with a profiled cornice. The window openings are rectangular in shape, with the exception of the windows of the connecting section which are topped with semicircular arches. Some of the windows feature profiled surrounds. The outbuildings: the western outbuilding most likely dates back to the mid-19th century, while the eastern one was added in 1941. The overall design theme of the manor house is carried over to both of the outbuildings. The outbuildings are single-storey brick structures designed on a rectangular floor plan and covered with half-hip roofs. Buried cellars have been found beneath the eastern outbuilding; these are most likely the traces of an earlier structure which had stood on this spot. The courtyard is separated from the street by an openwork fence from around the mid-19th century, modified during the 20th century.

Accessible historic site (museum).

compiled by Bożena Stanek-Lebioda, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Lublin, 30-06-2015.

Bibliography

• Aftanazy R., Dzieje rezydencji na dawnych kresach Rzeczypospolitej, vol. 6: Województwo bełskie, ziemia chełmska województwa ruskiego, Wrocław 1995, pp. 40-45.
• Fabijańska-Żurawska T., Hrubieszów. Dzieje i zabytki, Hrubieszów 1993, pp. 9, 10-15.
• Fabijanska-Żurawska T., Wspomnienie dworu, “Spotkania z Zabytkami”, 1996, no. 5, pp. 12-14.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Vol. VIII: Województwo lubelskie, issue 6: Powiat hrubieszowski, Warsaw 1964, pp. 24-25.
• Omilanowska M., Polska. Pałace i dwory, Warsaw 2005, pp. 68-69.
• Wróbel-Lipowa K., Na przełomie epok. Hrubieszów w Galicji Wschodniej (1772-1809), (in:) Dzieje Hrubieszowa, Vol. I Od pradziejów do 1918 roku, R. Szczygło (ed.), Hrubieszów 2006, pp. 155-157.