WESTERN ELEVATION OF THE MIRÓW PALACE IN KSIĄŻ WIELKI

HISTORY OF THE PALACE

DESCRIPTION OF THE PALACE

CURRENT STATE

T

he palace in Książ Wiel­ki was built by the bish­op of Cra­cow and the then own­er of the town Piotr Mysz­kow­ski, coat of arms Ja­strzę­biec (d. 1591), a close friend of the fa­mous Pol­ish Re­nais­sance po­et Jan Ko­cha­now­ski. Con­struc­tion works were car­ried out in 1582-95 un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the roy­al ar­chi­tect from Flo­rence, San­ti Guc­ci (d. 1600), au­thor of the re­con­struc­tion of cas­tles in Piń­czów and Ba­ra­nów San­do­mier­ski. The in­volve­ment of the great Ital­ian builder in this pro­ject re­sult­ed prob­a­bly from his obli­ga­tions to the bish­op, who had pre­vi­ous­ly sup­port­ed him fi­nan­cial­ly dur­ing his ill­ness. The Mysz­kow­ski fam­i­ly used to live in the Goth­ic cas­tle of Mi­rów near Czę­sto­cho­wa, which in­deed had ex­cel­lent de­fen­sive fea­tures, but due to its ar­cha­ic con­struc­tion and typ­i­cal­ly mil­i­tary char­ac­ter did not pro­vide ad­e­quate com­fort for its in­hab­i­tants. There­fore it was the bish­op's in­ten­tion to build a com­fort­able and mag­nif­i­cent res­i­dence, suit­able for a great dig­ni­tary. The new res­i­dence em­pha­sized the fi­nan­cial pow­er of the heirs of Książ Wiel­ki (then called Mag­na Xiąsz) and added splen­dor to the am­bi­tious Mysz­kow­ski fam­i­ly.

RUINS OF THE MEDIEVAL MIRÓW CASTLE, AN OLDER RESIDENCE OF MYSZKOWSKI FAMILY

P

iotr Mysz­kow­ski did not live to see the end of the con­struc­tion work. It was com­plet­ed by his nephew, al­so Piotr (d. 1601), who to­geth­er with his broth­er, Zyg­munt Mysz­kow­ski (d. 1616), es­tab­lished the hered­i­tary Piń­czów fee tail, in which the Mi­rów palace played the role of the seat of one of twelve es­tates be­long­ing to this vast lat­i­fundi­um. The Mysz­kow­ski broth­ers pos­sessed a huge for­tune worth 8 mil­lion zlo­tys, but they lacked aris­to­crat­ic ti­tles. They bought such a ti­tle, with the rank of mar­grave, in 1596 from Pope Cle­mens VIII (d. 1605). A year lat­er, how­ev­er, they came in­to pos­ses­sion of the Gon­za­ga sur­name, for which they paid dear­ly to its own­er, Vin­cent Gon­za­ga, Duke of Man­tua and Mont­fer­rat (d. 1612). From then on the Mysz­kow­ski fam­i­ly were called de Gon­za­ga, and their res­i­dence in Książ Wiel­ki - Mi­rów, in mem­o­ry of the Goth­ic strong­hold of their fa­thers.

EASTERN ELEVATION OF THE PALACE, IN THE FOREGROUND WE CAN SEE THE ARCADES OF THE FORMER CHAPEL

MIRÓW PALACE, VIEW FROM THE WEST

A

f­ter the death of Józef Wła­dy­sław Mysz­kow­ski (1727), his heirs, the Jor­dan and Wie­lo­pol­ski fam­i­lies, be­gan to com­pete for the prop­er­ty. Fi­nal­ly, by de­ci­sion of the Crown Tri­bunal, the fee tile was grant­ed to Fran­ciszek Wie­lo­pol­ski, coat of arms Sta­ry­koń (d. 1732), Voi­vode of Cra­cow, who adopt­ed the name Gon­za­ga Mysz­kow­ski. Af­ter him, the es­tate be­longed to his son Ka­rol (d. 1773), the own­er of Ży­wiec and Pies­ko­wa Ska­ła cas­tle, and then to his son Fran­ci­szek (d. 1809), the first ev­er pres­i­dent of Cra­cow. Dur­ing the Koś­ciusz­ko Up­ris­ing in 1794, Rus­sian troops were sta­tioned in the palace, dev­as­tat­ing its in­te­ri­ors and loot­ing its fur­nish­ings. Lo­cal peas­ants al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in this de­struc­tion, as they took ad­van­tage of the war­time chaos to loot valu­able equip­ment and dec­o­ra­tions. The con­di­tion of the res­i­dence at the end of the 18th cen­tu­ry was so bad that the Wie­lo­pol­ski fam­i­ly de­cid­ed not to move to Książ Wiel­ki even when the fam­i­ly cas­tle in Piń­czów fell in­to ru­in.

EASTERN ELEVATION OF THE PALACE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVII CENTURY

EASTERN ELEVATION AT PRESENT

A

t the be­gin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry Fran­ci­szek Wie­lo­pol­ski ren­o­vat­ed the palace, re­moved its Re­nais­sance gables and raised the cen­tral risalit by one floor. His son Jó­zef Jan (d. 1838) tried to con­tin­ue these works, but did not fin­ish them, prob­a­bly be­cause of the huge debt, which was caused by the in­com­pe­tent man­age­ment of the es­tate by the suc­ces­sive own­ers and liq­ui­da­tion of serf­dom as a free source of la­bor. The as­sets, which were in­debt­ed for half of their val­ue, were di­vid­ed, so that on­ly three out of twelve parts were left to the Wie­lo­pol­ski fam­i­ly, in­clud­ing Książ Wiel­ki. From 1813 they were ad­min­is­tered by Jó­zef Sta­ni­sław Wie­lo­pol­ski (d. 1815), and af­ter him by his son Alek­san­der (d. 1877), lat­er the Cham­ber­lain of Tsar Ni­ko­lai I Ro­ma­nov.

PROJECT OF NEO-GOTHIC PALACE RECONSTRUCTION ACCORDING TO STUHLER

W

hen on­ly 12-year-old Alek­sander took o­ver the es­tate in 1815, the palace in Książ Wiel­ki, de­spite re­cent ren­o­va­tions, re­quired fur­ther ex­pen­di­tures, since the roof was al­ready leak­ing and wa­ter de­stroyed some of the floors. There­fore, in the ear­ly 1840s, he or­dered re­con­struc­tion of the res­i­dence in neo-Goth­ic style. Ac­cord­ing to the pro­ject of an ar­chi­tect named Cha­mer­ling, the palace was to re­ceive a new fa­cade de­sign, eight small tow­ers, and ren­o­vat­ed in­te­ri­ors. Un­for­tu­na­tely, in 1846 Wie­lo­pol­ski stop­ped the works due to lack of funds, he in­vest­ed main­ly in his res­i­dence in Chro­brze, which in the mid­dle of the 19th cen­tu­ry be­came the fam­i­ly seat. By that time, two palace floors were re­built and the risalit re­ceived a neo-Goth­ic crown. Short­ly af­ter­wards, dur­ing the Jan­uary Up­ris­ing, the in­sur­gents set fire to the build­ing, caus­ing con­sid­er­able dam­age in it. As a re­sult, af­ter 1863 the palace was par­tial­ly aban­doned.

MIRÓW PALACE ON NAPOLEON ORDA'S LITHOGRAPH, 1881

W

hen Alek­sander Wielopol­ski died, Książ Wiel­ki passed in­to the hands of Zyg­munt Kon­stan­ty (d. 1902), a Rus­sian of­fi­cial loy­al to the tsar who made a ca­reer as the pres­i­dent of War­saw and an of­fi­cer of the Rus­sian army. The last own­ers of the Mysz­kow­ski fee tile were Alek­san­der Er­win Wie­lo­pol­ski (d. 1937) and his son Zyg­munt Kon­stan­ty (d. 1971). The lat­ter was forced to live for some time dur­ing World War II in a di­lap­i­dat­ed Mi­rów palace when his fam­i­ly res­i­dence in Chro­brze was seized and oc­cu­pied by the Ger­mans. How­ev­er, the Nazis al­so ap­peared in Książ Wiel­ki, where in 1941-43 a small SS gar­ri­son sta­tioned. Af­ter the war the es­tate was na­tion­al­ized and the build­ing, dev­as­tat­ed by the Ger­mans, un­der­went ren­o­va­tion and in 1949 the lo­cal au­thor­i­ties opened a high school in it.

PALACE ON A POSTCARD FROM 1908, BRICKED UP WINDOW OPENINGS SUGGEST
THAT THE BUILDING WAS ABANDONED AT THAT TIME

VIEW OF THE PALACE FROM THE EAST, 1936

HISTORY OF THE PALACE

DESCRIPTION OF THE PALACE

CURRENT STATE

T

he char­ac­ter­is­tic look of the palace is giv­en by two large risal­its in the front and gar­den part, and two small­er ones on the side el­e­va­tions. Its ar­chi­tect, who fol­lowed the Flo­ren­tine style, fin­ished the el­e­va­tions of the two low­er storeys with rus­ti­ca­tion, above which there is a plain wall, en­riched with dec­o­ra­tive el­e­ments like Re­nais­sance win­dow frames and a frieze with the fam­i­ly crests. The palace was cov­ered with a steep roof and pos­si­bly an at­tic. Its rooms on the ground floor were vault­ed, while the up­per floors had wood­en ceil­ings (af­ter the last war they were re­placed with ceil­ings made of con­crete). Com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween floors was pro­vid­ed by stairs placed sym­met­ri­cal­ly in both side risal­its.

EASTERN FACADE OF THE CASTLE AT THE END OF THE XVIII CENTURY

M

irów is of­ten called the cas­tle, but prob­a­bly from the very be­gin­ning it was de­signed not for de­fense, but as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive and com­fort­able res­i­dence. The de­fen­sive el­e­ments of the palace were rather sym­bol­ic. They were rep­re­sent­ed by a low wall with shoot­ing gal­leries and two semi­cir­cu­lar tow­ers lo­cat­ed fac­ing the town. Thus, the build­ing be­longs to a group of palaz­zo in fortez­za type res­i­dences, quite rare in Poland.

PLAN OF THE RESIDENCE: 1. PALACE, 2. LIBRARY (AND LATER KITCHEN), 3. CHAPEL, 4. WALL, 5. UPPER COURTYARD

VIEW OF THE PALACE FROM SOUTHWEST

A

t the end of the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry the palace in­te­ri­ors were trans­formed in clas­si­cal style. The north­ern stair­case and the ad­join­ing room were re­con­struct­ed then, and the rooms and halls sit­u­at­ed above the ground floor re­ceived new dec­o­ra­tions, e.g. their walls were cov­ered with paint­ings and wo­ven gold­en wall­pa­pers. In 1809 the re­con­struc­tion of Mi­rów in­to neo-Goth­ic style be­gan, which last­ed for al­most half a cen­tu­ry. As a re­sult, its Re­nais­sance gables were re­placed with crenel­la­tion and the cen­tral risal­its were raised by one storey (You can read more about the 19th cen­tu­ry re­con­struc­tion in the sec­tion cov­er­ing the his­to­ry of the palace).

FRONT ELEVATION OF THE PALACE

T

he ge­o­met­ri­cal ax­is of the palace is crowned on both sides by two late Re­nais­sance pavil­ions with ar­cades, built by San­ti Guc­ci in the late 16th cen­tu­ry. They are made of the same ma­te­ri­al as the main res­i­dence, i.e. Pińczów stone, and were orig­i­nal­ly cov­ered with red tiles. The pavil­ions ad­joined the cur­tain walls and func­tioned as the chapel of Pe­ter the Apos­tle and St. Sophia (the north­ern one) and the li­brary and lat­er the kitchen (the south­ern one). These are one-sto­ry build­ings, erect­ed on a pen­tag­o­nal plan, with fa­cades fac­ing each oth­er. Their front fa­cades are com­ple­ment­ed by an ar­cad­ed por­ti­co topped with stone balls (now on­ly in the chapel), above which ris­es a slight­ly wavy gable with a tiny spirelet (chapel) and cone (li­brary). The pavil­ions and the palace en­close an area called the up­per court­yard. Fur­ther to the east, there was a larg­er low­er court­yard (now a foot­ball field) with a gate lo­cat­ed op­po­site the main en­trance to the palace. Years ago, to the west of the res­i­dence there was a gar­den.

PALACE PAVILIONS: CHAPEL (ABOVE) AND LIBRARY, CONDITION IN 2021

HISTORY OF THE PALACE

DESCRIPTION OF THE PALACE

CURRENT STATE

O

rig­i­nal Re­nais­sance de­tails have been pre­served in the palace, among them por­tals and win­dow frames, as well as sec­tions of the walls with loop­holes and re­mains of the bas­tion. The build­ing cur­rent­ly hous­es a non­pub­lic high school with a mil­i­tary pro­file, an agri­cul­tur­al tech­ni­cal school, and a com­put­er sci­ence tech­ni­cal school (2021). At first glance, the for­mer res­i­dence of the Mysz­kow­ski fam­i­ly seems to be in good con­di­tion, but if you look close­ly, you will no­tice cracked lin­tels, di­lap­i­dat­ed cor­nices, and wild veg­e­ta­tion tear­ing up the gut­ters. There is no doubt that an ex­pen­sive ren­o­va­tion is need­ed here. Of the two pavil­ions, the for­mer chapel re­mains in good con­di­tion, while the li­brary is in­evitably go­ing to ru­in. The cas­tle park, now wild and over­grown, is al­so not in the best state of preser­va­tion.

RENAISSANCE WINDOW FRAMES ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE WESTERN ELEVATION

SIDE ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE (WITH PROTECTION AGAINST FALLING OFF FRAGMENTS OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS)

The palace is not open to the public. How­ever, you can take a closer look at it from the out­side. The sur­round­ing of the palace is very quiet and relax­ing.

A walk around the palace and through the park should not take more than half an hour.

The area is available for people who have come with their dogs.

Drone flights allowed.

CHAPEL OF PETER THE APOSTLE AND ST. SOPHIA

VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE WEST

GETTING THERE

T

he castle is located in the eastern part of the town, on a hill be­hind the ponds. From the town cen­ter head tow­ards Zam­ko­wa Street, and fur­ther (be­hind the ponds, to the left) along Do Zam­ku Street. The near­est rail­way sta­tion is loc­ated in Ko­złów, 11 km away.

You can leave your car on the out­skirts of the park, on Do Zam­ku Street (see pho­to be­low).

You can ride a bicycle di­rect­ly to the front door of the palace.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. I. T. Kaczyńscy: Zamki w Polsce południowej, Muza SA 1999
2. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
3. E. Madejski: Pałac Myszkowskich w Książu Wielkim, Ochrona Zabytków 3/1 1950
4. A. Wagner: Murowane budowle obronne w Polsce X-XVIIw., Bellona 2019

PARKING IN FRONT OF THE CASTLE (DO ZAMKU STREET)

Castles nearby:
Miechów - the fortified monastery from the 14th-17th centuries, 15 km
Udórz - the relics of a knight's castle from the 14th century, 30 km
Wysocice - the fortified church from the 12th-13th century, 32 km

text: 2022
photographs: 2021
© Jacek Bednarek