The Palace in Zarzecze in the history of Polish Romantic Architecture

Abstract

Magdalena Morska built the palace in Zarzecze in accordance with Christian Piotr Aigner’s design. She entrusted Fryderyk Bauman with the decorations of the interiors, and she was the author of the drawings of the peasant buildings, barns, and palace interiors. The construction of the palace was conducted in two stages: 1807–1810 and 1817–1819, and the plan included a rectangle connected by the pergola with the orangery, with the round tower in the south west corner surrounded by the ambulatory. The interiors were richly painted, and some rooms included decorations based on motives from La Fontaine’s tales. Each room had a unique name such as “the room where the sun shines”, “the room where it rains”, “the yellow room”, and “the Venetian room”. The origins and analogy of the palace included the Roman Temple of Vesta (Hercules), the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, and the tradition of the Dzieduszycki Family derives the structure from the Temple of Sibyl in Puławy, and the palace in Góra Puławska. The palace in Zarzecze belongs to a group of palaces with a rotunda, like Ponikwa, Rudniki, Morysinek and Hrehorów, but similar structures are also known in England, including the Cronkhill house.