History

The Baroque palace was erected in 1744 for Hiob Heinrich von Rothkirch, replacing an earlier, moated manor house from the late 16th century, which was lost to the blaze in 1739. All that remains of the now-vanished manor house, originally built for Simon von Haniwaldt, are its basements and a vaulted vestibule and a number of ground floor rooms incorporated into the current structure. Following the Baroque redesign, the building became a two-storey palace with a compact outline, covered with a mansard roof with dormer windows, its façade enlivened by decorative framing. The front façade was adorned with a portal surmounted by a triangular tympanum above the second store. During the 1790s, the palace was remodelled at the request of Rudolf Hildebrandt von Rothkirch; it was at that point that the so-called “Blue Room” was created, designed in the Classicist style and adorned with paintings of idyllic landscapes; another notable interior design of the same period was the “Hall of the Gods”, adorned with frescos depicting Apollo, Venus and Mercury; unfortunately, none of these rooms have survived to the present day. In the years 1894-1895, the roof was redesigned and a number of Baroque Revival dormers and wall-dormers were added; in 1935, the interior of the palace was modernised.

After 1945, the palace served as the administrative centre of the local State Agricultural Holding (PGR); from 1998 onwards, it has served as the seat of an agricultural sector company known as Hedro-Farms Polska sp. z o.o. The palace underwent renovation works in the years 1985-1988 as well as in 1998.

Description

The palace is situated in the south-western part of the village, forming part of a manor farm complex with a small park established back in the late 19th century and extended in 1930. The palace is a two-storey masonry building with a basement underneath parts of its structure, its walls covered with plaster. It was designed on a rectangular floor plan and features a mansard roof with Baroque Revival dormer windows adorned with volute-shaped decorations (years 1894-1895). The ground floor level and the corners of the building are adorned with rusticated quoins, with a cornice strip running between the individual storeys of the façade; the profiled crowning cornice provides the finishing touch. Entrances framed with giant order Tuscan pilasters with fluted shafts serving as support for the impost blocks above are situated on the middle axis of the front façade as well as of the rear façade of the palace. Above the entrances rise the wall-dormers projecting from the mansard roof, their shape reminiscent of two-storey, triangular gables; the wall-dormers are adorned with stone pinnacles and topped with segmental pediments. The entrances are framed with decorative portals; heraldic cartouches of the von Rothkirch and von Heugel noble families as well as the date “1744” can be seen above the front façade portal. The window openings are rectangular in shape, with the first-floor windows featuring eared surrounds. The interior of the palace follows a two-bay layout, with a vestibule on the middle axis of the building. The vestibule features a groin vault supported by four pillars standing next to the walls. Barrel vaults with lunettes can still be admired on the basement level; a few of the ground floor rooms also feature vaulted ceilings of the barrel type.

The building is not accessible to visitors as it serves as the registered office of an agricultural sector company.

compiled by Beata Sebzda, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wrocław, 01-07-2015

Bibliography

• Degen K., Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Landkreis Breslau, Frankfurt am Main 1965, s. 88.
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce. Seria Nowa, vol. IV, issue 2, Województwo wrocławskie, Sobótka, Kąty Wrocławskie i okolice, J. Pokora and M. Zlat (eds.), Warsaw 1991, pp. 88-89.
• Pilch J., Leksykon zabytków architektury Dolnego Śląska. Warsaw 2005, p. 299.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Warsaw 2006, p. 763.