History

The history of the construction of the palace in Podzamcze Piekoszowskie is still unclear. According to significantly different sources and hypotheses, it was built between 1645 and 1650 or 1650 and 1655 or ca. 1665 by Piotr Aleksander Tarło, Lublin governor, (d. 1649), or his son Jan Aleksander (d. 1680), Sandomierz governor. The apparent formal relationships between the Tarłos’ estate and the Bishops' Palace in Kielce suggest that both had the same designer, namely Tomaso Poncino. This idea is a bit far-fetched, though. The Tarłos owned the residence until 1842 when it was purchased by Kazimierz Sosnowski. Between 1850 and 1860, fire destroyed the roof and the first floor. Ever since, only the ground floor was occupied. In 1874 Józef Paszkowski became the owner of the palace. In 1880 the residents moved out, and the building began to fall into disrepair. This process accelerated when the local population began to disintegrate it to obtain building materials. In 1917 the building was taken over by Romuald Kozłowski who attempted to rebuild it; first, he covered part of the complex with a makeshift shingle roof. In 1921, the palace was purchased by the Dobrzański family. They stayed in the palace until 1952. In the years 1956-1964, the ruins were secured and several rooms were renovated in order to exhibit folk art. In the 1970s, the authorities intended to convert it into a training and recreation facility.

Description

The ruins of a palace are to be found in the centre of the village, in the heart of a broad square, by the Szczukowice-Micigózd road, with its front façade towards the west. Originally, this building was situated between a yard and a garden (now fields); in its east part, there was a pond with an arbor (non-existing). The Baroque structure has a rectangular body, has a partial basement and two floors; its corners are topped by four hexagonal, three-storey towers. It was built of stone and brick with architectural details of sandstone and the "marble” of Chęciny. The interior and façades are covered by sections of preserved plaster. There is no roof (originally, the so-called “Kraków” multi-pitched roof) or cupolas on the towers. The relatively modest façades of the palace features numerous windows with stone frames (damaged) and is crowned by a prominent cornice; the tower corners are rusticated. The most impressive is the 9-axial main façade whose central part is enriched with: on the ground level - a tri-arcade loggia with profiled archivolts and on the first flor - three large windows. The interiors are tripartite, axial and almost symmetrical, and the ground floor and first floor plans are only slightly different. In the center of the ground floor there is a loggia with stairs leading up to the first floor and a large hall, behind which there are three rooms - one of them leading out to the garden. To the right of the hall, there is a corridor with exit to the outside, both sides of which adjoin rectangular rooms; the corner rooms have towers projecting outside, with stairs within the outer wall. To the left of the hall, there are two large, rectangular rooms, behind them two square rooms, the corner one being open towards the interior of the tower. The room along the east façade are connected in an en suite arrangement. The damaged first floor has a large hall in the middle, flanked by a dining room with the tower extension on the left and the staircase, narrow corridor and a room with the tower extension on the right. The space in the east part, along the façade, was occupied by the host and the hostess. The vaulting system is only preserved in the ground floor (lunette vault and cross-rib vault).

The structure can be viewed from the outside.

Compiled by Łukasz Piotr Młynarski, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Kielce, 11.09.2014.

Bibliography

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