Łańcut Castle

Łańcut Castle
General information
Architectural style	Baroque
Town or city	Łańcut
Country	Poland
Construction started	1629
Completed	1642
Client	Stanisław Lubomirski
Design and construction
Architect	Maciej Trapola, Krzysztof Mieroszewski, Tylman Gamerski

Łańcut Castle is a complex of buildings located in Łańcut, Poland. Historically, the residence of the Lubomirski and Potocki families, the complex includes a number of buildings and is surrounded by a park.

The castle is one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (Pomnik historii), as designated September 1, 2005, and tracked by the National Heritage Board of Poland.

Owners

In the second half of 14th century, the land was the property of the Toporczyk family, probably a wooden castle on the hill. In the 16th century the castle belonged to Stadnicki family. Since the 17th century the property was in the hands of the Lubomirski family, and then the Potocki family until 1944.

History

Łańcut castle, whose original structure was erected in the second half of the 16th century, bears traces of consecutive alterations and modernisations performed in the course of 300 years. Over this period it was a home to two great Polish families – first, until 1816, the Lubomirski family, and later – until 1944 – the Potocki family.

The history of Łańcut is much older than the castle erected in 1642. It goes back to the times of King Casimir the Great (1333-1370), who founded here a town in accordance with the Magdeburg Rights. At the time Łańcut was owned by the Pilecki family, who had connections with the Jagiellon Dynasty. That happened with when Otton Pilecki’s wife, Jadwiga, became the Godmother to the future king, Władysław Jagiełło (1352-1434). Later the connections were strengthened with their daughter Elżbieta's marriage to the king. Władysław Jagiełło is believed to have visited Łańcut twice. Much later, in the period between first and second world Wars, people still pointed to a lime tree growing to the “rectory hill”, a former site of the Pilecki’s wooden fortified mansion, where the king was believed to have relaxed with the third wife Elżbieta. After the Pilecki family, Łańcut became the property of the Stadnicki family. The most famous of them was Stanisław, the Starost of Segewold. Stadnicki extended the castle in 1610 and it took the horseshoe shape.

In 1629, Łańcut became the property of Count of Wiśnicz Stanisław Lubomirski, Ruthenian Voivode, who in 1647 was granted the title the prince of the Holy Roman Empire. It was he who erected, presumably following Maciej Trapola’s design, the fortified, quadrilateral castle with corner donjons surrounded by bastion fortifications, as can be seen today. Maciej Trapola designed modern building in “palazzo in fortezzo” style. Other traces of those times include parts of the castle fortification, presumably the work of Krzysztof Mieroszewski (1600-1679).

During the Swedish invasion of Poland, in 1656, the castle was visited by King Jan Kazimierz (1609-1672). In 1657, it was unsuccessfully besieged by the Swedish ally, George Rakóczi. In the late 17th century, after the 1688 fire, the castle was restored. It was then that Tylman van Gameren, a Dutch-born Polish architect and engineer who, at the age of 28, settled in Poland and worked for magnates. Tylman left behind a lifelong legacy of buildings that are regarded as gems of Polish Baroque architecture. In Łańcut he decorated two towers in the frontage, with the bulbous cupolas so characteristic for the castle’s architecture.

The Baroque palazzo in fortezza in Łańcut underwent its first radical alterations in the late 18th, early 19th centuries. Its owners at the time were yet another Duke Stanisław Lubomirski and his wife Izabela née Czartoryska. Initially transformations were conducted by the Lubomirskis together, later, after her husband’s death in 1783, the Duchess continued the work by herself. The major change involved transforming the fortified castle into the palatial residence.

After the Duchess died (1816), Łańcut was inherited by her grandchildren, the Potocki family, and for the next hundred years the castle became the centre of their hereditary family estate, legally established in 1830. The consecutive generations of the Potockis introduced various levels of modernization both in the castle itself and its immediate and more distant surrounding. After Potocki and Duchess’ grandson and heir, conducted some repairs in the castle, but most importantly erected, outside the moat, a complex of horse-riding facilities consisting of stables, three carriage houses and a manege.

The most radical changes in the estate and the whole surrounding, were introduced in the times of the Duchess’ great-great-grandson – Roman Potocki, married Elżbieta née Radziwiłł, that is the late 19th and early 20th century. They carried out a major overhaul and rearrangement of the large Łańcut estate, at the same time providing the 17th-century structure with electricity, water pipes, sewers, and central airflow heating. The castle also received a telephone connection with the hunters’ palace in Julin, erected in 1880 several kilometres away, by Roman, to the design of Panenko.

Roman and Elżbieta Potocki hired a French architect, Amand Louis Bauqué, and a graphic designer cooperating with him, Albert Pio, who worked on new stylistic transformations and arrangement of the residence. The old Neo-Gothic decorations on the castle frontage were replaced by the Neo-Baroque ornamentation. The most radical changes were introduced in the horse-riding complex, dating from first half of the 19th century. Only the Manege was left unchanged. However the classicist stable two carriage houses were demolished and replaced with new, Neo-Baroque stables designed by Bauqué. Ten years later, in 1902, the new carriage house with a large harnessing hall was built.

Town

Outside the museum park, although in the castle’s proximity, there are the Officials’ Casino, the Estate Management, Power Station and imposing villas, former tenements for the estate employees. The Town Parish Church in Łańcut is also connected with the castle, as it was founded by the estate owners, and the splendid Potocki family crypt was used as their burial ground. Additionally, in the town and its vicinity, in the former farms belonging to the estate before 1944, visitors can see numerous well-preserved objects marked with the Pilawa coat of arms of the Potocki family, or with the owners’ initials. Those include estate guard posts, granaries, cow barns, stables, and sheepfolds as well as the whole complex of the estate forest management in the village of Dąbrówki several kilometres away from Łańcut.

Fortifications, plan and appearance

The castle in Łańcut was built in a pentagonal, star-shaped plan by a provincial governor of Kraków, Stanisław Lubomirski in 1629-1641. Also there are towers at the corners. The castle in Łańcut is an example of defensive residence type palazzo in fortezza. The castle has a main architectural shape and the layout of the interiors with the corridors situated along, and overlooking, the internal courtyard, and with sequence of chambers in three wings with windows in the castle’s outer walls. Other traces of those times include parts of the castle fortification, presumably the work of Krzysztof Mieroszewski. Today we can also see the entrance portal with the foundation plaque, entrance hall supported by an quadrilateral pillar, one storey vaulted corridors and chambers, the elegant staircase, the mannerist-style ornaments of the ceiling in the western wing of the first floor, formerly the Grand Hall, as well as the dome in the north-western tower with stucco ornaments by Giovanni Battista Falconi. In the 18th century, the fortified castle was transformed into the palace-residence.

Park and gardens

The castle is surrounded with a spacious and enchanting park of the early English Landscape style. Shape of the park was created in the second half of 18th century and at the beginning of 19th century, when it belonged to Stanisław Lubomirski. Izabela, wife of Stanisław Lubomirski, was taking care of gardens, orangery and the park. Park has 36ha and is divided into an internal park surrounded by moat and external park.

The greatest attraction in the Park is the Orchid House, visitors can admire a wonderful collection of orchids which used to be the highlight of the place.

Styles and interior

Artists who worked in Łańcut they created in a variety of styles. The lush classicist stucco works, which can still be seen today were made by Fryderyk Bauman. Apart from classicist, also rococo and Neo-Gothic decorative elements were created. Some made clear reference to the Orient and pre-romantic trends. The castle also received an impressive collection of paintings and sculptures purchased mainly during numerous trips made by the couple and later by the Duchess, who was very creative and constantly looking for artistic inspirations. In fact, even today, in spite of all the later alterations and modernisations, the castle largely retains the character which it received in the course of the few decades, until Duchess Izabela Lubomirska’s death in 1816.

The castle’s interior features several rooms designed for her. For instance, on the ground floor the oriental style of the Turkish Apartment was arranged in the old 17th-century vaulted chambers; the refined elegance of the View Room decorated with arabesques; and the intimacy of the Brenna Apartment which looks like a white-green vanity box. The reception rooms created on the first floor constitute several sequences. Private suites in the northern wing consist of bedrooms, dressing rooms and two salons. One of them, called the Mirror Salon, is ornamented with a valuable rococo boiserie featuring magnificent polychrome wood-carvings depicting symbols of the four seasons.

The bedroom and another salon, which later received the name Boucher Salon, are classicist rooms which were specially designed for the Duchess, and both feature magnificent wood-carved overdoors. The bedroom walls are decorated with colorful fabric featuring the pattern described in an old inventory as “flames and flowers”. It also forms a baldachin over the bed. The material which can be seen today is the third version of the design. The first one, made of silk and dating from the times of the Duchess, was taken off the walls in the late 19th century by her great grandson, and replaced with a replica made in Lyon. That was taken off the walls in 1944 by the last estate owner who evacuated the movables. After the castle was turned into museum, the decoration was replaced by a classicist style fabric featuring the pattern of vertical pink and cream stripes. The one on display today was reconstructed in the 1990s, its colours and pattern being a copy of the fabric made in Lyon, based on the preserved parts of the original. The only difference is that the pattern is not woven but printed on the pink background.

Another first floor apartment, consisting of a salon, bedroom and bathroom, is the most exotic at all, Chinese Apartment, featuring a lowered ceiling, and combining classicist elements and far eastern patterns, with classicist and English furniture in a Chinese style. On the first floor we can also see a complex of classicist reception rooms created for the Duchess, among those the most noteworthy two-storey Ballroom, ornamented with honey-coloured, polished wood carvings, and white engravings in the overdoor and frieze parts, all by Bauman; the Great Dining Room and chapel with a coffered dome-like the Ballroom, designed by Chrystian Piotr Aigner and Bauman.

The southern corridor, which is accessed from the Ballroom, features the most sophisticated painted ornaments. The Duchess had the walls and ceiling decorated with illusionist design, which transformed the interior into a gazebo located amongst ruins, overgrown with grape vine and hollyhocks. The scenery of the corridor was used by the Duchess as a background for a gallery displaying her collections of sculptures, both antique and 18th century replicas. A similar function of a gallery has a Columned Salon, located to the east of the Sculpture Gallery and closing on it like an apse. Inside, among two rows of iconic columns, imitating a placement of a pagan god, only one sculpture is displayed. It is a portrait sculpture depicting Henryk, the beloved pupil of Duchess Lubomirska, presented as the ancient god Eros by Antonio Canova.

Following the Duchess’ wish, in the castle’s closest proximity Aigner build the library pavilion, and in cooperation with Bauman who supplied rich stucco ornaments- the classicist orangery, and the gloriette on the north-western bastion. A little further, outside the moat, the Small Romantic Castle, featuring classicist structure, with elements of Neo-Gothic, was erected.

Today

Today Łańcut Castle is the most famous aristocratic residence in Poland. It continues to fascinate with its impressive architecture, the magnificent interiors and the rich art collections. Surrounded with a spacious and enchanting park, it is a place transformed into a museum, which most fully shows the royal splendour of aristocratic households, the charm of the world which in Poland was ended by the Second World War and its political outcome.

Bibliography

• Edward Opaliński, Tomasz Wiślicz "Rezydencje w średniowieczu i czasach nowożytnych", Neriton, Warsaw 2001
• Adam Soćko, Tomasz Ratajczak, Piotr Korduba, "100 cudów architektury w Polsce", Publicat, Poznań 2007
• Adam Miłobędzki, "Architektura polska XVII wieku" , Warsaw, 1990
• Bożenna Majewska-Maszkowska, "Mecenat artystyczny Izabelli z Czartoryskich Lubomirskiej (1736-1816)" , Ossolineum, Wroclaw, 1976

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Łańcut Palace or Łańcut Palace garden

• official Łańcut Castle website