Bieliński Palace, Otwock Wielki

Palace at Otwock Wielki Otwock Grand Palace Jeziorskich Family Palace Bielińskich Family Palace
pałac Jeziorskich w Otwocku Wielkim pałac Bielińskich w Otwocku Wielkim
Location within Poland
General information
Type	Palace
Architectural style	Classicist architecture
Location	Otwock Wielki, southeast of Warsaw, Poland
Country	Poland
Coordinates	52°02′27.51″N 21°14′41.4″E / 52.0409750°N 21.244833°E / 52.0409750; 21.244833
Construction started	1682
Completed	1689
Website
Official page of the Museum of Interiors now housed at the palace (in Polish) Pałac Bielińskich w Otwocku Wielkim on Facebook (in Polish)

Palace at Otwock Wielki or Otwock Grand Palace is otherwise known as the Jezierscy Family palace (Polish: Pałac Jezierskich) or Bielińscy Family palace (Polish: Pałac Bielińskich). It is a historic palatial residence located on an artificial island in an oxbow lake of the River Vistula in Otwock Wielki, in the gmina Karczew, powiat otwocki, masovian Voivodeship.

It is the former summer home of the

History

• People in the Palace History
• 
  Marianna Denhoff, née Bielińska, daughter of Kazmierz Bieliński
• 
  Katarzyna Bielińska, mother of Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, by Nicolas de Largillière, 1720
• 
  Augustus the Strong, by Henryk Rodakowski - Lviv

  National Art Gallery
• 
  Jan Andrzej Morsztyn
• 
  Peter the Great by Godfrey Kneller, 1698
• 
  Franciszek Bieliński

At the time of its construction, the building was one of the most magnificent residences in

After the death of Kazimierz Bieliński in 1713, ownership of the palace passed to his 30-year-old son, Franciszek Bieliński, who went on to become Grand Marshal of the Crown. He had the streets of Warsaw cleaned and paved (23 kilometres (14 mi)), and had installed the first public street lighting. Still other public improvements were made in Warsaw and Czersk on his initiative. To memorialize his contribution to Warsaw's public good, one of the main arteries of city was eventually named Ulica Marszałkowska (in English: Marshal Street). He also initiated a renovation of the palace in 1757, which moved the exterior staircases indoors and made other improvements to make it more suitable as a year-round residence rather than just a summer home. The two wings were also added at this time.^[1]

End of the 18th and 19th centuries

The palace was inherited by a nephew of the childless Franciszek Bieliński in 1766, his brother Michael's son, also named Franciszek.^[1] During the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising this nephew set an example of patriotism to his fellow countrymen by offering his Otwock possessions' entire harvest to the common folk gratis, while the capital lay starving, surrounded by the Prussian armies, running out of food.

But his younger brother, who managed the estate in waning years of the 18th century, squandered it. Otwock palace changed hands, and was pledged to Castellan Jacek Jezierski.

Paweł and Józef, Francis' sons, were the last of the Bieliński clan to reside at Otwock. Franciszek Bieliński died in 1809. The same year, the palace became a

During World War I, German soldiers were posted at the palace, leading to looting and extensive damage.^[1] In 1918 the palace passed into the possession of a descendant of Jacek Jezierski,^[2] and remained in that family's hands until the end of World War II. The end of that era coincided with the communist takeover in post-World War II Poland, and the new authorities rudely repurposed the Otwock Wielki palace as a reformatory home for girls, a kind of minimum security prison for troubled or orphaned teens. It was an extremely significant and misguided decision. This led to many interior changes for the worse; moreover, the priceless 17th-century polychrome frescoes and other interior decorative elements suffered to no end at the close sustained proximity to the "inmates".

Restoration during the communist rule did eventually take place. An effort was made in the 1970s: The palace was taken over by the

Tylman van Gameren (1632–1706), a prominent Polish architect of Dutch origin, is likely the author of the master plan, which includes both the building and ancillary additions, as well as extensive landscape architecture. Architects Carlo Ceroni and Józef Fontana have also been mentioned in historical sources.

Van Gameren was related to Bieliński's kin by connections created on his assumptions performed for the group of people like

• Decorative Detail on the Palace Exterior
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Location, layout, construction and design

The residence is located in

Władysław Łoziński described the works thus in his definitive account of Polish life across centuries issued in 1907: "a grim horror of fortified walls passes the visitor off into the lightness and charm of soft architectural lines, the oppressive solemnity of it all yielding to the coquetry of the decorative. In the time when the seventeenth century yielded to the eighteenth, some great pastoral residences sprung up on the Polish land, under our gray skies, upon our miserable landscape, scattered amongst the great mansions of nobles and the sorry thatched huts of peasants, as if a magic wand had been waved in the air, plopping them straight into our lap from the motherland of the Italian doge and the French marquess."

Status today

Today the shape of the buildings does not differ much from the original, but many of the contents: the historic details, the furnishings, the landscape architecture – require reconstruction.

In early 2004, the palace passed under the permanent administration of the Ministry of Culture. In the same year under the lease agreement, the current curator of the facility became the

June 8, 2005 featured another public unveiling, this time of additional interiors.

On the ground floor, visitors pass through a representative entryway and dining hall, then can admire the enfilade of rooms in the right wing furnished in the Baroque, Biedermeier and Classicist styles. The two Belweder rooms in the left wing have been restored in the setting contemporary to Marshal Józef Piłsudski.

A palatial staircase leads to the second floor. To the left a vestibule and a ballroom preserved in original condition currently serve as a music performance space. In the right wing, three rooms now feature furniture from the Classicist style period characteristic of the city of Vilnius. The bedrooms in the apartments on the third floor have elevated floors, allowing visitors to look out on the pastoral landscape of the river's oxbow. Three additional fresco-laden halls undergoing maintenance are currently off limits to the public.

An attached cafe has been erected as a convenience for visitors.

On the basis of a court judgment^[

, issued a decision, by which the Grand Palace in Otwock was handed over to the heirs of the family Jezierski. It remains unclear what this means for the museum function the building and its palatial gardens and grounds fulfill today.

Gallery

• 
  Otwock Wielki Palace
• 
  The palace and park in Otwock Wielki
• 
  The palace façade
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  A fountain in the palace gardens
• 
  Lake Rokola near the palace

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Palace at Otwock Wielki.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "MUZEUM WNĘTRZ w OTWOCKU WIELKIM - historia powstania pałacu". Retrieved 7 April 2015.
2. ISBN 978-83-89188-49-6
   . Retrieved 2015-04-07.
3. ^ Royal Łazienki Museum. "Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw - Royal Summer Residence of king Stanisław August". Retrieved 7 April 2015.

Further reading

• Władysław Łoziński "Życie polskie w dawnych wiekach" (wydanym w 1907 roku)
• "Przewodnik dla poszukujących i niewtajemniczonych" ;Wydawnictwo Stanisław Kryciński; Warszawa 1999
• "Dwory i pałace wiejskie na mazowszu"; Piotr Libicki, Marcin Libicki; Wydawnictwo REBIS, 2009.
  ISBN 978-83-7301-826-6
• "Pałac w Otwocku Wielkim." Warszawa: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1981.
• "Znane i nieznane Rezydencje ,ludzie, wydarzenia" Kwiatkowska M.I., Kwiatkowski M., Wesołowski K. PWN Rok wydania: 2001
• "Katalogu Zabytków w Polsce, Tom X woj. warszawskie, zeszyt 13, powiat Otwocki"; 1963; wyd: Instytut Sztuki Pan
• "Sztuka oświeconego sarmatyzmu";Mariusz Karpowicz; Warszawa 1986 strony 120-133

External links

• [www.360cities.net/image/palace-in-otwock-wielki-poland Panorama: a full 360-degree view]
• A Gallery of Photos of the Palace (in Polish)
• Slideshow of the Palace

52°02′30″N 21°14′42″E / 52.0417°N 21.2449°E / 52.0417; 21.2449