The building provides valuable insights into the history of the town of Zamość and of the Zamoyski family.

History

The results of archaeological research suggest that the retrieved architectural artefacts should be associated with the suburban residence of the 2nd Entailer Tomasz Zamoyski, erected in 1628-32 according to the plan of Jan Jaroszewicz (extension - modernisation by the architect Andrea dell’Aqua?). The residence combined features of a villa, a palace and a fortified castle. It was destroyed by Chmielnicki’s army in 1648. 

Description

The remnants of the Zamoyski residence and its fortifications are located about 2 kilometres south-east of the Old Town buildings (within the confines of the fortress), on the right side of the exit road from Zamość towards Żdanów, in the north-west part of the Zamczysko housing estate. They occupy a small elevation in the terrain in the valley between the rivers: Łabuńka and Topornica, next to the town’s water reservoir, between the streets: Wałowa and Obronna. 

The remnants of the Zamoyski mansions have been preserved in the form of a vast wasteland. From the side of the Old Town, they are separated by wet meadows, which were flooded in the past by the Topornica and Łabuńka Rivers after they had burst their banks. The meadows formed the so-called large alluvial area, which made the fortress inaccessible from the south.  In the central part of the wasteland, there is an earthen mound 1.50 - 2.00 m high and 60 m in diameter. Inside, there are remnants of architectural details unearthed during archaeological excavations. There are also some remnants of earthen fortifications, especially well defined in the south-eastern part of the site.

The town of Zamość, called Nowy Zamość (as opposed to Old Zamość - a nearby settlement belonging to the second line of the Zamoyski family), was founded on the lands of the village of Skokówka after Jan Zamoyski had obtained a foundation charter, issued by King Stephen Báthory on 3 April 1580. Before archaeological works, the Burgstall was referred to in the literature as the family seat of the Zamoyski family - Skokówka Castle, where the future chancellor and Grand Hetman of the Crown Jan Zamoyski was born in 1542. The earthen fortifications were thought to be the remnants of a redoubt, which had been built before the Russian siege in 1813. The construction of a fortified manor near the city of Zamość, known as “the manor house behind the pond” or “the edifice behind the pond”, was mentioned in letters written by the 2nd Ordynat (Entailer) - Tomasz Zamoyski in 1628-33. The residence is described in 1649 as “the castle called Krasnobrzeg” or “Krasnybrzeg manor or rather the castle” by Jan Bytomski – a canon and professor of the Zamoyski Academy – in his account of the events associated with the siege of Zamość by the army of Bohdan Chmielnicki in 1648. He describes the building as impressive and surrounded by a wall and a moat. The “majestic” residential building itself, called the palace, “with a wall that supports the entire weight of the vaults resting on foundations deeply set in the ground”, consisted of numerous cloisters, bedrooms, a dining room and the “most elegant” courtyard.

The building was “two-partite”, with one part extended and enlarged westward. The roof “was of remarkable height because there were double chambers downstairs and elongated chambers upstairs”. According to Bytomski, the residence was erected by Tomasz Zamoyski, who wanted his son Jan (3rd Entailer called “Sobiepan”) to be educated like a gentleman there. Due to location of the residence, the boy could be educated “in the most pleasant place, both because of the flat land ... and because of the nearby forest” surrounded by a “wide fence” and inhabited by “various animals”. Between the palace walls and “the moat (which looked like a fortification or fortress) from the south to the west,” there was “a garden where exotic trees and grasses had been planted in an artistic manner.” The residence was burnt down by Chmielnicki in 1648.

Progress and findings of archaeological

The excavations on the site were carried out in the years 1982-1986 by Irena Kutyłowska from the Chair of Archaeology (now the Institute of Archaeology) at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.

Surface surveys of the site as part of the ‘Archaeological Picture of Poland’ project were carried out in 1991 by Ewa Prusicka. 

Archaeological excavations revealed a well-preserved perimeter wall of the fortifications, made of limestone and strengthened with bricks laid in the so-called fortification orientation, i.e. layers of heading bricks alternated with layers of stretching bricks. The entire wall was positioned in a way typical for early modern fortifications, with five angular bulwarks and two half-bulwarks in the southern part. Two lines of the foundation walls were exposed, erected on the inner berm of the southern curtain, where it bends into half-bulwarks, extending 60 m into the courtyard. These foundations, 0.90 m wide, at a distance of 16 m from the curtain, have the form of continuous walls. Further away, there are point-type walls (with a post (1.20 m long and 0.90 m wide) placed every 1.80 m). It is thought that they provided a base for pillars or columns of two arcaded lines that used to form the eastern and western boundaries of the courtyard. In the central part of the courtyard, a pile of a rubble was discovered. Its length along the north-south axis is approximately 35 m and along the east-west axis - 60 m. The pile of rubble contains: fine limestone, fragments of bricks, numerous fragments of plaster and carp tiles, often rebaked, lumps of mortars and pugging material, charcoal pieces and numerous nails, hooks, sections of lead tapes used for glazing windows, fragments of stove tiles with matching floral and geometric ornaments (often with baked glazing). It is presumed that these are the remnants of a burnt and destroyed residential building. However, the researchers did not find any foundations of that building or any negatives of its structural elements. This suggests that it was a wooden house or a timber frame house in which bricks and stones may only have been incorporated in chimneys and kitchen shafts. It was established that the palace had been built in two phases (expansion?) and that the residential building and the fortifications had been designed separately.   The researchers retrieved numerous movable artefacts, mostly fragments of pottery, glass vessels, lead balls and forged nails.

The results of archaeological research, supplemented by source documents, indicate that the unearthed fragments of the foundation walls come from the suburban residence of the 2nd Ordynat (Entailer) Tomasz Zamoyski. The existence of that residence is confirmed by written records. A suburban wooden or timber frame villa was erected in 1628-32 according to Jan Jaroszewicz’s plan (extension - modernisation by the architect Andrea dell’Aqua?). The villa combined the features of a manor, palace and fortified castle. It was destroyed by Chmielnicki's army in 1648 and was never rebuilt, probably due to strategic reasons. Research results have made it possible to rule out the existence of any older castle in Skokówka - residence of the Zamoyski family.

The heritage site is accessible to the general public.

compiled by Ewa Prusicka, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Branch Office in Lublin, 14 April 2016

Bibliography 

• Kutyłowska I., Zamość – Zamczysko, woj. zamojskie, “Informator Archeologiczny. Badania rok 1982”, 1983, pp. 304-305.
• Kutyłowska I., Zamość – Zamczysko, woj. zamojskie, “Informator Archeologiczny. Badania rok 1983”, 1984, p. 241.
• Kutyłowska I., Zamość – Zamczysko, woj. zamojskie, “Informator Archeologiczny. Badania rok 1984”, 1985, p. 191.
• Kutyłowska I., Zamość – Zamczysko, woj. zamojskie, “Informator Archeologiczny. Badania rok 1985”, 1986, p. 191.
• Kutyłowska I., Wyniki badań archeologicznych prowadzonych w latach 1982-85 na Zamczysku w Zamościu, [in:] Materiały z posiedzenia Sekcji Konserwacji Zabytków pt.: Wyniki badań Pałacu Zamoyskich w Zamościu w latach 1984-85, Krakow 1986, pp. 3-23.
• Kutyłowska I., Zamość – Zamczysko, woj. zamojskie, “Informator Archeologiczny. Badania rok 1986”, 1987, pp. 236-237.
• Kutyłowska I., Nowe spojrzenie na dzieje zamku lubelskiego w średniowieczu, “Region Lubelski”, R. 2/4, 1987, pp. 153-162.
• Kutyłowska I., Podmiejska rezydencja Zamoyskich na Zamczysku w Zamościu, “Prace i Materiały Zamojskie”, vol. III, 1989, pp. 178-191.
• Bondyra W., Lorentz E., Prusicka-Kołcon E., Korzeniowski M., Dzieje miejscowości gminy Zamość, Zamość 2010, pp. 106-112.