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Pałac w Walewicach (Poland)
view of the western part (from the outer garden) of the Walewscy Palace in Walewice
Classicist building designed by Hilary Szpilowski or Stanislaw Zawadzki, built in 1773-1783 by Anastazy Walewski (chamberlain to King Stanislaw August Poniatowski); located on the Mroga River.
The palace is counted among the most interesting examples of classicist country seats in Poland, built at the end of the 18th century. The front faces east. It consists of a one-story rectangular main body and one-story side pavilions, also built on a rectangular plan, connected with the main body by communication galleries broken at right angles. The premise is based on the Palladian style, very popular in Poland in the second half of the 18th and first 19th centuries. From the front, the palace has a massive, four-column Ionic battered portico topped with a triangular pediment (tympanum) with the coat of arms of Pomian, the later owner Stanislaw Grabiński. From the garden there are two prominent extreme (side) risalits. Inside the palace, large representative halls with decorative brick fireplaces and elaborate furnishings were created, as well as spacious palace rooms. In one of the pavilions original painted wallpaper from the 19th century with mythological motifs has been preserved.
On May 4, 1810, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte and Maria Walewska, Alexander Colonna-Walewski, later French ambassador to Great Britain and foreign minister to Napoleon III, was born there. He also became heir to the estate, which he sold to Maria Walewska's brother, Teodor Łączyński, in 1831.
Much of the palace's charm is added by the perfect composition of the building with an extensive landscape park designed by Walerian Kronenberg. Original late Baroque and classicist sandstone sculptures depicting Mars, Venus, and Diana have been preserved there, as well as two hermits and an armed man in ancient costume.
In the mid-19th century, the palace and its estate passed into the hands of the Grabiński family of the Pomian coat of arms. The Grabinskis modernized and rebuilt the palace at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, established a stud farm for half-breed horses (Anglo-Arabians), developed the breeding of cockerel sheep (the only one in the country), a huge fish farm (on more than 100 hectares of ponds), a factory of potato flour and starch. The last owners of Walewice were papal chamberlain Stanislaw Bohdan Grabiński and his wife Jadwiga, née hr. Potocki, and after his death in 1930 their minor children Stanislaw Wojciech, Maria, Wladyslaw, Róża and Jan Grabiński. The palace still contains some of the furnishings and furniture from the last owners.
During World War II, on the night of September 9-10, 1939, the 17th Regiment of Wielkopolska Uhlans from Gniezno of the Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade fought battles for the Palace and the village of Walewice during the Battle of the Bzura River.
Pałac w Walewicach (Poland)
view of the western part (from the outer garden) of the Walewscy Palace in Walewice
Classicist building designed by Hilary Szpilowski or Stanislaw Zawadzki, built in 1773-1783 by Anastazy Walewski (chamberlain to King Stanislaw August Poniatowski); located on the Mroga River.
The palace is counted among the most interesting examples of classicist country seats in Poland, built at the end of the 18th century. The front faces east. It consists of a one-story rectangular main body and one-story side pavilions, also built on a rectangular plan, connected with the main body by communication galleries broken at right angles. The premise is based on the Palladian style, very popular in Poland in the second half of the 18th and first 19th centuries. From the front, the palace has a massive, four-column Ionic battered portico topped with a triangular pediment (tympanum) with the coat of arms of Pomian, the later owner Stanislaw Grabiński. From the garden there are two prominent extreme (side) risalits. Inside the palace, large representative halls with decorative brick fireplaces and elaborate furnishings were created, as well as spacious palace rooms. In one of the pavilions original painted wallpaper from the 19th century with mythological motifs has been preserved.
On May 4, 1810, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte and Maria Walewska, Alexander Colonna-Walewski, later French ambassador to Great Britain and foreign minister to Napoleon III, was born there. He also became heir to the estate, which he sold to Maria Walewska's brother, Teodor Łączyński, in 1831.
Much of the palace's charm is added by the perfect composition of the building with an extensive landscape park designed by Walerian Kronenberg. Original late Baroque and classicist sandstone sculptures depicting Mars, Venus, and Diana have been preserved there, as well as two hermits and an armed man in ancient costume.
In the mid-19th century, the palace and its estate passed into the hands of the Grabiński family of the Pomian coat of arms. The Grabinskis modernized and rebuilt the palace at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, established a stud farm for half-breed horses (Anglo-Arabians), developed the breeding of cockerel sheep (the only one in the country), a huge fish farm (on more than 100 hectares of ponds), a factory of potato flour and starch. The last owners of Walewice were papal chamberlain Stanislaw Bohdan Grabiński and his wife Jadwiga, née hr. Potocki, and after his death in 1930 their minor children Stanislaw Wojciech, Maria, Wladyslaw, Róża and Jan Grabiński. The palace still contains some of the furnishings and furniture from the last owners.
During World War II, on the night of September 9-10, 1939, the 17th Regiment of Wielkopolska Uhlans from Gniezno of the Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade fought battles for the Palace and the village of Walewice during the Battle of the Bzura River.