History

Starościn was mentioned in sources already in 1353. Originally, it was a summer residence of the staroste of Namysłów, and from 1533 on - the staroste of the Duchy of Wrocław. In the years 1470-1479, Henryk Jankewitz known as Kolla ordered the construction of a hunting castle in the place of an older manor house. The relics of the castle are present in the current palace. In the second half of the 16th century, Starościn was owned by Jan Stwoliński. From 1604, the estate in Starościn belonged to Conrad von Saurma and it remained in the hands of his family until World War II.

In 1604, the first re-designing of a small building incorporated in the present palace took place. In the 18th century, it was extended by the front suite of rooms from the south-west. Approx. in 1800, manor farm buildings were erected and two wings were added to the back façade of the palace. A full-scale re-designing of the palace, which made the Baroque and Classicist body more uniform, was carried out in the years 1917-1919 by order of duke Friedrich von Saurma-Sterzendorf. After 1945, the palace complex was nationalised. It housed, among other things, a school, a boarding house, and an orphanage. In 1996, the building was taken over by the commune. A culture centre was arranged in it at that time. Today, the palace remains in private hands.

Description

The palace complex with the manor farm complex is located at the intersection of the roads running through Starościn.

The three-wing building is made of brick and stone, and plastered. It was built on a floor plan shaped as a “U” letter. Its older (front) part has one storey; it is covered with a mansard roof with dormers. The newer wings are two-storeyed and they are covered with hip roofs. The front (south-western) façade has seven axes, with an entrance in the centre over which there is a small mansard roof. From the garden, the wings embrace an open courtyard. In the central part of the garden façade, there is an entrance preceded by a colonnaded portico which supports a small balcony. By the north-western wing, an annex was built. Surviving decorations of the façades include pilaster partitions and rectangular window surrounds, as well as window surrounds with accentuated corners. Part of the window openings feature basket-handle arches in their top sections. The layout of rooms in the older part of the building is of multi-bay type, with a hall and a staircase on the axis. Side wings are of single-bay type. Most rooms are covered with ceilings. Only in one of them, probably originating from the oldest part of the building, there are surviving double barrel vaults.

The remaining elements of the complex include a devastated tomb chapel of the former owners and a Classicist outbuilding erected in approx. 1800 from brick and covered with plasterwork. Both can be found in the park. The single-storey outbuilding was erected on a rectangular floor plan and topped with a half-hip roof. The front façade is five-axial, with a recessed portico in the centre and a pair of Tuscan columns and pilasters. Over the portico, there is a small triangular pediment with a segmented window opening. The façades of the building are rusticated. The interior layout is two-bay, with a hall in the centre.

To the north-west from the palace and park complex, there was once a grange. The utility buildings were erected around a rectangular courtyard. Originally, they formed a densely built-up area. To this day, only part of them have survived, e.g. a granary.

Limited access to the monument.

compiled by Aleksandra Ziółkowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 10-12-2015.

Bibliography

• Gaworski M., Opolskie zamki i pałace, Strzelce Opolskie 2011, s. 141.
• Goliński M., Kościk E., Kęsik J., Namysłów. Z dziejów okolic, Namysłów 2006.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytku architektury, Założenie pałacowe z zespołem folwarcznym w Starościnie, oprac. Gajda Ł., 1996, Archiwum Narodowego Instytutu Dziedzictwa w Opolu.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, t. 7: Województwo opolskie, z. 7: Powiat namysłowski, oprac. T. Chrzanowski, M. Kornecki, Warszawa 1963, s. 59-60.
• Thullie C., Zabytki architektoniczne województw katowickiego i opolskiego. Przewodnik, Katowice 1969, s. 216.
• Zabytki Sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, red. zbiorowa, Warszawa 2006, s. 801.