The Skórzewski family hosted Adam Mickiewicz, who wrote fragments of “Pan Tadeusz” here. The Chłapowski family hosted the famous actress Helena Modrzejewska. The complex remained in the hands of the Chłapowski family for nearly a century. Located in the Dezydery Chłapowski Landscape Park, it is a valuable example of a 19th century manor house. Also noteworthy is the Kopaszewska Way of the Cross, a testimony of great love. The palace is surrounded by a park with an area of 11.75 ha, arranged in the 19th century and transformed in 1894 by the garden architect Augustyn Denizot.

History of the structure

The village is mentioned in documents at least from 1386. However, the exact date of its incorporation under German law is unknown. Before 1714 it belonged to the Zakrzewski family, later it became the seat of the Skórzewski family. In 1844 it was bought by general Dezydery Chłapowski, a hero of Napoleon wars and November Uprising, for his son Kazimierz. In the period of the Grand Duchy of Poznań (1815-1848), the village belonged to the larger villages in the then Prussian Kościany District of the Poznań regency. Kopaszewo belonged to the Krzywiń county in this district and was the seat of the estate owned by General Dezydery Chłapowski. The Kopaszewo estate also included Kopaszewko and Rogaczewo Wielkie. Kopaszewo remained the property of the Chłapowski family until 1939. In 1975-1998, the town belonged administratively to the Leszczyńskie Voivodeship. The palace was built around 1800-1801 for Ludwik Skórzewski. Burned down in 1886, then in 1892 rebuilt and partly transformed for Kazimierz Chłapowski. Before World War II, the last owner of the estate was the General’s grandson, Mieczysław. He was the initiator of the second major renovation of the palace carried out in 1921-1923. During the works, the upper part of the tower and the terrace at the back of the house were removed, the façade was changed and the columns supporting the portico were slimmed down, so that their proportions would match the one-storey lower palace. The inscription above the entrance, “Each to his own taste”, placed by Skórzewski, was restored. Mieczysław Chłapowski introduced modernity to the palace by installing a sewage system, water supply system, electricity and central heating. On his initiative, bathrooms were also built in the palace at that time. After the war the palace was taken over by the State Treasury. Currently it is used by the Plant Breeding and Selection Station. The palace in Kopaszewo houses the management of the Seed and Agricultural Company “DANKO”. The Chapel of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kopaszewo was erected in 1794 from the foundation of Ludwik Skórzewski (ca. (ca. 1740-1810) and Teodora Skórzewska nee Niegolewska (1752-1803). Earlier, in 1685, a brick temple is mentioned. It was renovated in 1972-4 by Teodor and Stanisław Szukała. The park, with an area of 11.75 hectares, was laid out in the 19th century and transformed in 1894 by the garden architect Augustyn Denizot in accordance with the fashion for naturalism prevailing in the second half of the 19th century. In 1831, Adam Mickiewicz stayed here.

Description of the structure

The palace and park complex is situated in the northern part of the Kopaszewo village. The palace faces west and is situated in a large landscape park. The courtyard from the west is preceded on the axis of the palace by a unique avenue of plane trees from the beginning of the 19th century, leading to the manor farm. By the palace from the northwest there is a chapel, on its axis there is an old lime alley. The park established at the beginning of the 19th century, originally a landscape park with well-preserved viewing axes and old trees, including a lime alley, old oaks (“Mickiewicz oak”) and yews. Enlarged and shaped on the English model in the 2nd half of the 19th century by Augustyn Denizot. A brick, plastered, two-story palace with a basement, built on a rectangular floor plan. On the north side there is a polygonal annex from 1892 with stairs, on the south side - a one-storey utility room from that period. Elevations almost completely altered after 1892 and in 1921-3. From the front, a portico in the giant order, preceded by a staircase, supported by four Ionic (formerly Tuscan) columns and topped by a triangular pediment. In the garden-facing elevation there is an avant-corps with pilasters, topped with a triangular pediment; in front of the elevation there is a spacious terrace from the end of the 19th century. Rectangular windows with window surrounds with keystones. Lowered, gable roof with jerkin heads, tiled. A two-tract interior, significantly transformed after 1892. A hallway preserved on the axis, behind it, in the garden suite of rooms, a living room with truncated corners, with conch niches housing two classicist stoves, dated 1801. In the southwestern corner of the building there is a room with a sail vault supported on a pillar.

In 1685 a brick chapel of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was mentioned. The present chapel, erected in 1794 as a palace chapel, founded by Ludwik and Teodora Skórzewski, née Niegolewska. Late Baroque, brick, covered with plaster. Oriented, on the plan of an elongated octagon, with a small, lower semicircular sacristy to the east and a square tower to the west. The corners of the walls are accented with flat, doubled pilasters supporting simplified entablature. The windows topped with elliptical arches. The chapel is covered with an octagonal roof, the sacristy with a semi-conical roof. Two-storey tower, equally pilastered, topped with a hipped cupola, with a classicist vase. Inside, the ceiling is supported by a profiled crowning cornice. In the shorter, slanting walls of the octagon four conch niches with wooden statues of the four evangelists from the late 18th century on brick pedestals. The choir gallery, located in the tower, with the section below the gallery open to the chapel with an arcade with an elliptical arch. The choir balustrade and stairs in the style of Louis XVI.

On the axis of the palace there is the longest plane tree alley in Europe, leading to the former manor house. The Way of the Cross in Kopaszewo, about 16 km long, leads from the chapel where Stations I and XIV are located, through Kopaszewo, along the Turewski track through Rogaczewo Wielkie to the church in Rąbin (Stations VI and VII) and back to Kopaszewo. The stations are arranged in pairs at roadside shrines. They are formed by relief plaques, cast in iron, in the late classical style imported from France. The road was founded by the owner of Kopaszewo, Jan Koźmian, after the suicide of his wife, Zofia née Chłapowska, daughter of general Dezydery Chłapowski. The Way of the Cross was consecrated on 3 October 1855 by Franciszek Poniecki, parish priest of Krzywiń. The original plaques are now in the chapel in Kopaszewo, and copies have been placed at the stations.

Visitor access: viewing of the building is only possible by prior arrangement.

Compiled by: Beata Marzęta, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 15.09.2017

Bibliography

• Dawne Budownictwo Folwarczne - Majątki Wielkopolskie - Vol. V - Powiat Kościański, pp. 114-119
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Vol. V: Województwo poznańskie, z. 10: Powiat kościański, compiled by T. Ruszczyńska, A. Sławska, Warsaw 1980, pp. 41-42
• Libicki M., Libicki P., Dwory i pałace wiejskie w Wielkopolsce, Poznań 2003, p.
• Zgodziński B., Województwo leszczyńskie, Warszawa-Poznań 1989, pp. 219-221