History of the site

The palace was erected in place of an earlier castle, first mentioned in 1468, due to the sale of the town to Melchior von Rechenberg from Borowo Polskie. In the second half of the 16th century the castle was redesigned according to the principles of the Renaissance style by Hans Rechenberg. In 1655 or 1667 the estate was taken over by the Barwitz family, barons de Fernemont. After a massive fire that destroyed the town in 1721 the residence was rebuilt in the years 1732-1735 to the Baroque style. The surviving part of the castle was incorporated in the new building as a side wing. After 1854 the Baroque garden was transformed into a Romantic complex and expanded to the south-west. Carl Eduard Petzold was an author of the new composition. From 1886 the estate belonged to counts von Haugwitz. During World War II, the palace was confiscated by the Reich Main Security Office. In the years 1957-1969 full-scale renovation works were carried out and the palace was adapted to serve as an orphanage. There is an outbuilding at the south-eastern edge of the courtyard, the origins of which date back to the 16th-18th century. Currently, the feature and the surrounding park are private property and remain unused.

Description of the structure

The palace and park complex, located in the western part of the town at the Sławskie Lake, consists of a palace, an outbuilding, a courtyard, an entrance gate and a park. The main entrance to the complex leads through a gate situated on the side of the town, north-east of the palace. In the central part of the courtyard there is an 18th-century statue of St John of Nepomuk. The Late Baroque palace was built on an elongated rectangular plan and includes side projections. A wing, constituting a relic of the earlier residence, adjoins the south end of the palace at an obtuse angle. The palace is a masonry, two-storey building with a tall basement, covered with a mansard roof with wall dormers. The central part of the front and garden façade was accentuated by three-storey faux projections housing representational entrances. The façades are accentuated by architectural details in the form of pilasters, cornices, tympanums over the entrances in the projections and adorned with regence and concha ornaments. The façades of the side wing are devoid of detailing. The interior has a two-bay layout on the ground floor and a single-bay on the first floor. The preserved original rooms include a two-storey ballroom, a pass-through hallway covered with a barrel vault with a representational staircase as well as a room in the corner section of the ground floor, set on an oval floor plan with niches in the corners. The outbuilding is located at the south-east end of the courtyard. It is a structure made of stone and brick, designed on a rectangular floor plan, with two storeys, featuring a fortified tower on the south side and covered with a gable roof. Buttresses are situated at the rear façade. The basements and ground floor rooms are covered with domed vaults with lunettes. The Baroque, masonry gate with a passage terminating in an elliptic arch is flanked by double pilasters and adorned with a cartouche presenting the coat of arms in the keystone. The park represents the oldest part of the complex, enveloped by the 19th-century Romantic complex extended by the northern part in the interwar period. The composition, based on a free layout of routes and water network, has remained clear.

Visitor access. Limited access to the historic building. Private property – the building can only be viewed from the outside.

Author of the note: compiled by Marta Kłaczkowska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Zielona Góra, 17-11-2017

Bibliography

• Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, vol. 2, Zielona Góra 2012, pp. 338-339;
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, p. 337;
• Sława. Zarys dziejów, Strzyżewski W. (ed.), Sława 2004, pp. 254-256;
• Zabytkowe parki województwa lubuskiego, Bielinis-Kopeć B. (ed.), Zielona Góra 2013, pp. 374-376;
• Zamki, dwory i pałace województwa lubuskiego, Bielinis-Kopeć B. (ed.), Zielona Góra 2007, pp. 273-276.