Guzów, Żyrardów County

Coordinates: 52°6′58″N 20°20′13″E / 52.11611°N 20.33694°E / 52.11611; 20.33694
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other places with the same name, see Guzów.
Guzów
Village
Country
 Poland
VoivodeshipMasovian
CountyŻyrardów
GminaWiskitki

Guzów

Michal Kleofas Oginski (1765-1833).[2][3][4]

History

Paula Szembek Ogińska, for forty years starościna of Guzów
Andrzej Ogiński, builder of Guzów Manor c.1765

In the late Middle Ages the lands of Guzów were a ducal estate owned by

starosta of Guzów was briefly the second husband of Paula Szembek [pl], for he died early. She became 'starościna' and brought the immense estate with her in her dowry when she married thirdly the highly influential politician and courtier, Andrzej Ogiński [pl]. He is credited with introducing stability to the place by erecting an extensive late baroque manorial complex, of which only one 1855 print survives. It comprised an Orangery, an Italian garden and a theatre. Here were born his daughter, Józefa and son, Michał Kleofas Ogiński, insurrectionist, statesman and composer.[5]
His life was too much caught up in the political turmoil of the country to be focused on the estate. He emigrated.

Sugar and cloth give birth to a 'New Town'

After

Tekla Teresa, entertained Frederick William III of Prussia and his wife to breakfast. The visit was deemed such a success that it led to the king bestowing upon him the Prussian title of count.[6]
The estate became a favourite retreat from Warsaw for the Lubieńskis and their family of ten children, which they used for theatrical productions and country pursuits.

Henryk Łubieński, industrialist, banker and head of the Łubieński Brothers Co.

In 1827 the widowed Lubieński (his wife had died in 1810), now retired from public office, put his energies into the estate. Among other developments, he established 15 new villages. However, his arguably most productive, if doomed, move was to pass the estate onto one of his seven sons, Henryk, an entrepreneur and industrialist, who had greatly contributed to the economic development of

Żyrardów
.

In 1829 Henryk had also established in the vicinity of the manor one of the first sugar factories in the country, with the help of imported machinery from France.[8] However, in 1842 Henryk, by then also a bank director, was accused and convicted of 'misapplying' public funds for his private benefit. He was sent into exile and the estate was confiscated to recover his debts. There is a view that the charges were politically motivated and not based in fact. He returned from detention a broken man and took no further part in public life.

Still in the family

1880 architectural proposal for Sobański Palace

In 1856 the whole Guzów estate was put up for auction. In the event, it was acquired for the enormous sum of 600,000 silver roubles by

Renaissance style palace with a park in the manner of Capability Brown
.

The gradually reduced Guzów estate remained in the possession of the

Second World War
the estate, as all other country estates, was nationalised. Antoni Sobański never returned to his homeland and died in London.

The palace and the landscape garden complex

Count Feliks Hilary Sobański in the early 1900s

Andrzej Ogiński's 18th-century substantial brick

landscape architects Walerian Kronenberg and Franciszek Szanio became the designers of a park and gardens in the 'English style
'.

After its use as a

Second World War
the palace interior and furnishings were again plundered. After the war the palace was used as quarters for the employees of the local sugar factory. In 1996 the Sobański family succeeded in having the palace complex restituted to it, albeit as a virtual ruin. After many years of neglect the property was in need of complete restoration, as were the grounds.

The first building to be refurbished was the old palace chapel, dedicated to St. Felix of Valois and used as a parish church. With help from public heritage funds and hiring out the venue as a film set, work on the restoration is finally under way guided by a firm of specialist architects.

Trivia

In its pre-1880 French-style reconstruction, the Łubieński 18th-century manor at Guzów is said to have been the inspiration for Stanisław Moniuszko's famous opera, The Haunted Manor - Straszny Dwór - 1865. Vying for the opera's original setting, is another former Łubieński manor, given up by the family in 1797, at Kalinowa, but circumstantially it seems less likely. Subsequently, Feliks Hilary Sobański was a member of the 'Moniuszko' music society in Warsaw.[9]

Gallery

Figures associated with Guzów

  • Łukasz Opaliński - print
    Łukasz Opaliński - print
  • Feliks Łubieński - lithography by Józef Sonntag
    Feliks Łubieński - lithography by Józef Sonntag
  • Prot Potocki - oil by Giuseppe Grassi
    Prot Potocki - oil by Giuseppe Grassi
  • Michał Kleofas Ogiński - oil by François-Xavier Fabre
    Michał Kleofas Ogiński - oil by François-Xavier Fabre
  • Frederick William III of Prussia - helped the estate return to the family
    Frederick William III of Prussia - helped the estate return to the family
  • Tekla Teresa Łubieńska - print
    Tekla Teresa Łubieńska - print
  • Baron von Hoym - print
    Baron von Hoym - print
  • Rozalia Sobańska née Łubieńska photographed in 1860
    Rozalia Sobańska née Łubieńska photographed in 1860

See also

References

  1. ^ "Central Statistical Office (GUS) - TERYT (National Register of Territorial Land Apportionment Journal)" (in Polish). 2008-06-01.
  2. The Cambridge Companion to Chopin
    , Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 148.
  3. ^ Kielian-Gilbert, Marianne, "Chopiniana and Music’s Contextual Allusions", in The Age of Chopin: Interdisciplinary Inquiries, edited by Halina Goldberg, Indiana University Press, 2004, p. 182.
  4. ^ Justin Wintle, Makers of Nineteenth-Century Culture: 1800-1914, Routledge, 2002, p. 116.
  5. ^ Bolesław Klimaszewski, An outline of Polish Culture, Warsaw, Interpress, 1984, p. 159.
  6. ^ Żuchlewska Teresa, Feliks Łubieński. Działalność polityczna i jej związek z nauką i Kulturą. Rocznik Żyrardowski 6, 417-439. 2008. Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine This evaluation by an historian provides detail about Łubieński's political and organisational skill and the manner of his acquisition of the estate. There is a summary in English on p. 439.
  7. ^ Marian Brandys, Koniec świata szwoleżerów, Tom 1, Czcigodni weterani, MG, Warsaw 2010, p. 158. Brandys, a writer of popular history, pays tribute to the energy and industry of the Łubieński clan.
  8. ^ Zygmunt Przyrembel Historja Cukrownictwa w Polsce, Warsaw 1927, p.118-129 (in Polish): A comprehensive history of sugar production in Poland. Guzów features throughout the text.
  9. ^ http://www.ipsb.nina.gov.pl/index.php/a/feliks-hilary-michal-ludwik-sobanski/ This is the Polish National Dictionary of Biography on-line, accessed 22 January 2017

External links

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