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Warsaw Sights

05/20/2016

Potocki Palace (Polish: Pałac Potockich), is a large baroque palace in Warsaw located at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 15, directly opposite the Presidential Palace. It was originally built for Denhoff family and succeeded by Potocki family in the end of 18th century.


The original building that stood where the palace now stands was burned down by Swedish and Brandenburgian forces in the 1650s. The new one was commissioned by Ernest Denhoff and construction started in 1693 under the architect Giovanni Pioli. From 1731 it belonged to August Aleksander Czartoryski.


Under the Czartoryski family, the palace underwent several renovations. In 1760 the building façade was refashioned. Also new alcove outbuildings and two wings facing the street, finished with a storeyed pavilions with mansard roofs were established. All this according to plans by Jakub Fontana. Between them a guard-house was erected (1763) with sculptures by Sebastian Zeisl and two gates on each side. The layout is shaped like a horseshoe, with a central part and two side wings. The building was set back from the street by a courtyard, protected by a wrought-iron fence with a gate. The fence was designed in the neorococo style by Leandro Marconi.


Pałac Potockich was torn down in 1944 by the Germans after the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising. It was rebuilt after the war in 1948-1950 according to a design by Jan Zachwatowicz.

 

The Tyszkiewicz Palace (Polish: pałac Tyszkiewiczów w Warszawie), or Tyszkiewicz–Potocki Palace, is a palace at 32 Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw, Poland. It is one of the most beautiful neoclassical residences in the city.


The palace was sponsored by Field Hetman of Lithuania, Ludwik Tyszkiewicz. The construction begun in 1785 initially following plans by Stanisław Zawadzki and finished in 1792 in Neoclassical style to Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer's design.


In 1840 the palace was bought by the Potocki family. In the interwar period it was the site of National Economic Bank (Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego), and later, of Polish Academy of Literature. Burned in 1944, it was rebuilt, and is now shared by the Academy of Literature and University of Warsaw. The relatively modest façade of the palace is decorated with some fine stuccowork, and the central balcony is supported by four elegant stone Atlantes carved in 1787 by André Le Brun.

 

The Palace of the Four Winds (Polish: Pałac pod Czterema Wiatrami), also known as the Tepper Palace, is a baroque palace in Warsaw located at ulica Długa (Long Street) 38/40.


The palace was built about 1680, probably to Tylman van Gameren's design, for the high official and royal secretary Stanisław Kleinpolt. The palace was subsequently sold in 1685 to Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, in 1698 to Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski, and in the early 18th century to Bishop of Płock, Andrzej Stanisław Kostka Załuski.


From the 1730s the proprietor was Franciszek Maksymilian Ossoliński, and later Michał Kazimierz ("Rybeńko") Radziwiłł, who reconstructed the palace in the rococo style, probably to a design by Johann Sigmund Deybel. The magnificent sculptures of the Four Winds (Notus, Boreas, Zephyrus and Eurus) atop the fence posts date from that period. The artist is unknown, but probably also participated in decorating the Saxon Garden.


In 1769–71 the palace was rebuilt by Szymon Bogumił Zug for Piotr Tepper. The right wing was widened, and a new annex was erected adjacent to ulica Długa, with an early-classicist front elevation. In 1801 the palace was purchased at auction by Karol Fryderyk Dückert. Until 1891 it belonged to his heirs. In 1808–1914 it served as an elegant hotel, the Hôtel de Dresde (Dresden Hotel). After World War I the palace fell into decline, becoming a tenement house.


In 1927 it was purchased by the Polish Treasury, restored, and made the seat of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. In 1944 the palace was deliberately burned by the Germans after they had suppressed the Warsaw Uprising. In 1951 it was rebuilt and now houses the Polish offices of the World Health Organization.

 

The Branicki Palace (Polish: Pałac Branickich) is an 18th-century magnate's mansion in Warsaw, Poland. It is located at the junction of Podwale and Miodowa Streets.


The Palace is one of three with the same name in Warsaw. This particular Branicki Palace is on Miodowa Street (the others are located on Nowy Świat Street and Na Skarpie Avenue). The original building that stood where the palace now stands was a 17th century mansion of the Sapieha family sold in the beginning of the 18th century to Stefan Mikołaj Branicki.


This led to the current palace, built in 1740 by Johann Sigmund Deybel for Grand Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki. In the construction also participated Jan Henryk Klemm (1743), Jakub Fontana (1750) and sculptor Jan Chryzostom Redler. The now rococo palace was inspired by French palaces. The layout was shaped like a horseshoe, with a central part corps de logis and two side wings. The building was set back from the street by a cour d'honneur, a symmetrical courtyard set apart in this way, at which the honored visitor arrives. The façades were equalize with admirable rococo decoration and rooftop windows. Main entrance was decorated with a portico of four columns and sculptures on the top. The interiors were decorated in the rococo style by Johann Sigmund Deybel and Jakub Fontana. Later, a pavilion called "Buduar" was added to the south wing at the back.


The Branicki Palace previously had been called the Mrs Krakowska Palace, because after Branicki's death the property was succeeded to(1771) by his beautiful wife Izabella Poniatowska, sister of king Stanisław August Poniatowski (Izabella was a daughter of Stanisław Poniatowski, Castellan of Kraków). She held a salon in the palace, and became known as a patron and gatherer of artists, intellectuals, and statesmen in the era of Enlightenment in Poland.


Shortly afterwards the Branicki Palace was sold in 1804 to the general Józef Niemojewski. The new owner improved the palace - the two sides outbuildings were added to the palace complex in 1804-1808 by architect Fryderyk Albert Lessel. From 1817 the palace was inhabited by the Stanisław Sołtyk. During the Second World War, the estate was badly damaged (it was burned down in 1939 and demolished by the Germans during the Occupation of Poland), but after the war it was completely restored. It was rebuilt in 1967, based on paintings by Bernardo Bellotto, and now houses Warsaw City Hall.

 

Królikarnia (English: The Rabbit House) is a historical palace in Warsaw, Poland in classic style, as well as a neighborhood in Mokotów district of Warsaw. A museum of Polish sculptor and artist Xawery Dunikowski is located in the palace since 1965. The palace is named for its former role as a rabbit warren for King Augustus II the Strong. Królikarnia was erected at the picturesque Vistula escarpment for the King's Theatre Entrepreneur and Chamerlain - Charles Thomatis, count de Valéry by Royal architect Domenico Merlini. The palace was built between 1782 and 1786.


It was modelled after the famous renaissance Villa Rotonda outside Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio. In his estate, the count established a brewery, a brickyard, an inn, a mill, a barn and a garden with vineyard. Controversially Thomatis was also described as a pimp for the King Stanisław August Poniatowski, whose "villa at Królikarnia was little more than a high-class brothel".


In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, the insurrection's leader Tadeusz Kosciuszko resided in the palace. In 1816 the estate was purchased by Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł, and in 1849 by Ksawery Pusłowski, a passionate collector of art. Few years later in 1879 the palace was partially destroyed by fire, and shortly afterwards rebuilt by Józef Huss for Pusłowski family.

Królikarnia was completely destroyed during the extensive bombardments by the Germans in 1939 and 1944. The palace, intended to house the collection of sculptures by Xawery Dunikowski, was reconstructed in 1964.


In the historical park, as on the whole Królikarnia grounds, history blends with modernity. In a surrounding of trees and bushes, we have created a Park of Sculptures, in which we present the very rich collection of the Warsaw National Museum. It is especially important for us to show any works connected to the activities of Xawery Dunikowski and to make his works, to be found in our collection, available to the public.