Gorzanów Castle

Gorzanów Castle
Post-war period (serious damage, including partial but not total demolition of parts of palace complex)
Rebuilt	1653–1657 1737
Architectural style(s)	High Renaissance
Governing body	Privately owned
Location of Gorzanów Castle in Poland Show map of Poland Gorzanów Castle (Lower Silesian Voivodeship) Show map of Lower Silesian Voivodeship

Gorzanów Castle (German: Schloß Grafenort, Polish: Pałac Gorzanów) is a former stately residence in the Kłodzko Land of the Lower Silesia. A 16th-century German foundation, it has been in the hands of the von Herberstein family of Grafs or Counts (the Grafen von Herberstein) since the second half of the seventeenth century until 1930 — hence its name, and one of the former names of the village in which it is situated.

Overview

The village of the Castle's location was called Arnoldsdorf between at least 1341 (the earliest extant record) and 1670.^[1] For the next 275 years between 1670 and 1945 the village's name was Grafenort ("the Seat of the Counts", with reference to the von Herberstein family). In 1945, after the accession of Lower Silesia to Poland, the locality was renamed Gorzanów by the Polish authorities.

The Castle, situated at an elevation of c. 329 m (1,079 ft) above sea level and comprising over 100 interior chambers within its structure, is surrounded by 6.6 ha (16 acres) of parkland (palace gardens) that once were one its greatest glories (see historical lithographs below), the views extending from some vantage points being described as having a mesmeric effect on the viewer.^[2]

The Castle has historical associations with Cardinal Ernst Adalbert of Harrach (1598–1667), the bishop of Trent, who in his Italian diaries for 1663–1664 refers to Grafenort alternately as Arnsdorff, Arnßdorff, or Arnßdorf,^[3] and the composer Ignaz Reimann (1820–1885; buried at the nearby Krosnowice).^[4] The poet and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880) who began his career as an actor at Grafenort Castle mentions it repeatedly in his pleasantly amusing, light-hearted biography, Vierzig Jahre ("Forty Years").^[5] He says he spent thirty years of his life in the Castle; on a return visit he muses about the rooms

in which I dwelt, made love, watched people die, cohabited with the survivors, poetized, quarrelled with the Count, written plays, learned roles, managed the theatre, made plans for the future, and God knows what else?^[6]

The foreword in his 1840 play Shakspear in der Heimath is dated July 1839 at "Schloß Grafenort".^[7] In another of his works Holtei speaks of Schloß Grafenort as the ancient edifice that is the oasis of hospitality whose "brightly coloured gabled halls look up towards the Silesian Králický Sněžník" (the mountain is about 22 km away).^[8] His 333-page edition of twelve letters written "from and to Grafenort" between July 1839 and May 1840 (Briefe aus und nach Grafenort, published in 1841) are a treasure trove of information on the Castle.^[9]

The Polish scholar

The numerous pictorial representations of Gorzanów Palace include works of Friedrich Bernhard Werner (1690–1776) and Josef Schall (1785–1867).^[14]

Nazi period

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From 1930 the palace complex was the property of the town of

Post-war period

In 1945 the region of Lower Silesia became part of Poland. The years that followed marked the period of continuing degradation of Grafenort Castle began already during the Nazi rule. Polish press reports and notices in tourist guidebooks spoke of a shocking state of disrepair of a property that was considered unfit to be visited by sightseers, its decline from lack of maintenance hastened by depredations of masonry robbers and other types of active vandalism.^[15] Anything that could be carried was stolen.^[16]

After 57 years of neglect and such continuous pillage and plunder as the property was subjected to since the beginning of the

• Ed. Ludw. Wedekind (
  passim
  .
• et al., vol. 2, Warsaw, Nakładem F. Sulimierskiego i W. Walewskiego, 1881, page 791, col. 1. (See online.)
• Richard Konwiarz, comp. & ed., Alt-Schlesien: Architektur, Raumkunst, Kunstgewerbe, Stuttgart, Verlag von Julius Hoffmann, 1913, pp. 68–78.
• Maximilian Tschitschke, "Der Bauernaufstand in der Herrschaft Grafenort 1679/90", Glatzer Heimatblätter, No. 17, 1931, pp. 57–69.
• Gerard Ciołek, Ogrody polskie: przemiany treści i formy, Warsaw, Budownictwo i Architektura, 1954.
• Helmut Sieber, Burgen und Schlösser in Schlesien: Nach alten Stichen (vol. 2 of Schlösser und Herrensitze in Schlesien), Frankfurt, Verlag Wolfgang Weidlich, 1962.
• Albert A. Scholz, Silesia Yesterday and Today, The Hague, M. Nijhoff, 1964, pages 11–12, 18.
• Helmut Sieber, Schlösser in Schlesien: Ein Handbuch,
  ISBN 3803503329
  .
• Konstanty Kalinowski, Architektura barokowa na Śląsku w drugiej połowie XVII wieku,
  Polska Akademia Nauk
  , Instytut Sztuki), 1974.
• ISBN 380351309X
  .
• Dieter Pohl, Die Grafschaft Glatz (Schlesien) in Darstellungen und Quellen: eine erweiterte Bibliographie,
  ISBN 3927830100
  .
• Hanna Faryna-Paszkiewicz,
  ISBN 830113478X
  .
• Marzanna Jagiełło-Kołaczyk, Sgraffita na Śląsku, 1540–1650,
  ISBN 8370857000
  .
• Józef Pilch, Leksykon zabytków architektury Dolnego Śląska,
  ISBN 832134366X
  .
• ISBN 0905978609
  .
• Romuald M. Łuczyński, Losy rezydencji dolnośląskich w latach 1945–1991,
  ISBN 8374326859
  .
• "Nowy Pałac / Schloss Grafenort" — a historical outline with an extensive gallery of historical photographs (See online.)