The palace was designed by F. Lessel, one of the builders of the city of Warsaw, a renowned architect who had designed numerous palaces in a style combining classical and neo-Renaissance features.

History

Count Antoni Ostrowski was the owner of the Ujazd estate situated near Tomaszów. At the beginning of the 19th century, he founded a small industrial and commercial settlement in Tomaszów (the town had been named after his father). Its inhabitants earned their living as weavers. Enchanted by the natural beauty of the lands near the Wolbórka River, he set about the construction of a romantic English-style palace in 1812. The palace was designed by F. Lessel and the works were supervised by a master bricklayer - Jan Komorowski from Ujazd. The construction was completed in stages; Initially, the entire building had only one storey. Around 1817, an orangery was added, then the second storey was added and the building was extended to include pavilions. A four-storey tower became an important component of the complex. The works lasted until the 1830s. Around the palace, a park was set up, in which old trees from the forest that had previously existed there were retained. Earlier, in 1821, Antoni Ostrowski moved to the palace with his newly married wife, Antonina Michałowska (sister of the painter Piotr Michałowski). In addition to its functions as a prestigious residence, the palace was also used for official purposes, as it was the seat of the municipality. Nearby, a number of utility buildings were erected.

The Ostrowski family lost their Tomaszów property as punishment for their participation in the November Uprising - armed rebellion against the Russian Empire. The palace property was put up for auction and the building was bought by a local entrepreneur. In 1856, it was bought by Antoni’s son, Stanisław Ostrowski. The run-down palace needed a thorough renovation. The renovation works lasted from 1859 to 1869 and were carried out according to Bolesław Puczaszyński’s design. The Ostrowski family made some rooms available to various organizations and for different social activities. Just before the outbreak of the war, the town council was planning to buy the property, but the plan remained unfulfilled. In 1950, the palace reopened as the Museum of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. It has served as a museum to this day. The interiors of the palace are used as exhibition rooms for ethnographic, archaeological and natural science collections.

Description

The palace complex is situated in the north-eastern part of the oldest part of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. From the north, it is adjacent to the Wolbórka riverbed, and from the south it adjoins POW Street. In its eastern part, there are utility buildings. The whole is surrounded by an openwork metal fence set on a brick foundation.

Romantic Classicism. The building was erected on a floor plan of an elongated, irregular shape. It is partly cellared, one-storey, with a two-storey central part. From the south-west, the principal block is adjoined by a four-storey tower, erected on a square-like plan. From the north, the tower is adjoined by a two-storey annex. The eastern part of the building consists of three parts - its central part is higher than the side one-storey parts, which additionally have truncated corners.

The palace was built of brick and limestone on stone foundations. The walls are plastered on both sides. Roofs with wooden trusses are clad with sheet metal. Depending on the part of the building, these are four-hipped, three-hipped or gable roofs.

All elevations have crowning cornices and are set on plinths. The southern elevation serves as the façade. It is parallel to POW street. It consists of four parts. The westernmost part is formed by a four-storey tower. It is erected on a floor plan of a quadrangle, turning into an octagon in its highest part. Particular storeys of the tower are separated by cornices. They have window openings of various shapes, contoured by window surrounds, as well as various types of stucco decorations. The whole is topped with a little domed roof. The tower is adjoined by the four-axial, one-storey part with a usable attic lighted by dormer windows. The leftmost axis is formed by the entrance opening accentuated by a roofed terrace. The other axes are defined by the windows separated by double pilasters. The walls are crowned with a cornice with a triglyph frieze. This frieze also runs along the central, two-storey part, dividing the storeys. The middle part is triaxial. This is where the main entrance to the palace was placed. It is located in an arcaded vestibule. The arcades are separated by pilasters. On the first floor, there are two rectangular window openings and a door opening in a shallow recess leading to a small balcony secured with a forged balustrade. The eastern part is five-axial and one-storey. The openings in this part have semicircular tops. The eastern elevation consists of three parts. The side, one-storey parts have two axes and flank the middle, higher one. There is a door opening in it. All three parts are covered with three-pitched roofs. In the northern, garden-facing elevation, the central part is a little set back in relation to the other parts. It has two storeys, with three rectangular window openings on each storey. From the west, it adjoins the ground-floor part, which has four window openings. Further, it adjoins the tower annex. On the ground level, the annex is rusticated and has one window opening topped with a segmental arch. The corners on the first floor are accentuated with quoins.

From the east, it adjoins the ground-floor part decorated with pointed-arch blendes and niches, in which smaller windows and one door were inserted. The main element in the western elevation is the tower, whose design mirrors that of the façade. In this elevation, the annex is three-axial. In the central axes of both storeys, there are no window openings, whereas the windows in the side axes of both storeys are rectangular. The embellishments here correspond to the ones used in other parts of the building and include decorative cornices, pilasters, window surrounds, etc.

The interior has been transformed many times. Some of the rooms have retained the enfilade layout. The palace is known to have had a billiard room, a theatre room and a chapel. The latter was situated on the ground floor of the tower. Some of the rooms were named after the colour of the interior design, e.g. white, blue. In the south-eastern part, there was an orangery. In several rooms, there are now exhibitions which show what the palace looked like in the 19th century.

The site is accessible to visitors during the opening hours of the Museum.

Compiled by Anna Michalska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź. 20 March 2020

Bibliography

• 220 lat Tomaszowa Mazowieckiego, materiały z sesji naukowej, Tomaszów 2008
• Ród Ostrowskich w dziejach Tomaszowa i Rzeczypospolitej, materiały z sesji naukowej, Tomaszów 1991