The Palace on the Isle ( pl, Pałac Na Wyspie), also known as Baths Palace ( pl, Pałac Łazienkowski), is a

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

palace in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Royal Baths Park Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...

, the city's largest park, occupying over 76 hectares of the city center. From 1674 the property and the nearby

Ujazdów Castle Ujazdów Castle ( pl, Zamek Ujazdowski) is a castle in the historic Ujazdów district, between Ujazdów Park (''Park Ujazdowski'') and the Royal Baths Park (''Łazienki Królewskie''), in Warsaw, Poland. Its beginnings date to the 13th century ...

belonged to Count

Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski Prince Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski a.k.a. "Mirobulius Tassalinus" (4 March 1642 – 17 January 1702) was a Polish noble, politician, patron of the arts and writer. Biography Lubomirski was the son of Marshal and Hetman Jerzy Sebastian L ...

, who commissioned a Baroque bath house called "Łazienka", similarly to a number of other European historic sites, including England's city of Bath. The building, erected on a square plan, was richly decorated with stuccos, statues, and paintings; some of the original decorations and architectural details survive. In 1766 King

Stanislaus Augustus Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine * Stanislaus County, Cali ...

purchased the estate and converted the bathing pavilion into a classicist summer residence, with an

English garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

. During the final stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the retreating Germans devastated the interior of the Palace and drilled holes in the structure in preparation for destruction. However, the plan was never carried out.

History

The building began as a bathhouse for

, owner of adjacent

. After 1678 the Lubomirski palace complex in Ujazdów, was enriched with four park

pavilions In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

: '' Arcadia'', '' Hermitage'', ''

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...

'' and the largest of them the ''Bathhouse''. The marble building was constructed before 1683 according to design by Tylman Gamerski. Finished in 1689, it was intended to serve as a bathhouse, habitable pavilion and a garden grotto. Interiors of the newly built structure were embellished with profuse stucco decorations, also designed by Gamerski. Among the decorations were

water deities A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Anoth ...

(like

Nereus In Greek mythology, Nereus ( ; ) was the eldest son of Pontus (the Sea) and Gaia ( the Earth), with Pontus himself being a son of Gaia. Nereus and Doris became the parents of 50 daughters (the Nereids) and a son ( Nerites), with whom Nereus ...

), surrounding the main decorational feature of the pavilion - the

fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were ori ...

. Other chambers had richly decorated ''

plafond A plafond (French for "ceiling"), in a broad sense, is a (flat, vaulted or dome) ceiling. A plafond can be a product of monumental painting or sculpture. Picturesque plafonds can be painted directly on plaster (as a fresco, oil, glutinous, s ...

s'' and '' supraportes'', while the walls were covered with Delft tiles. The façades and interiors were decorated with sculptures, reliefs, Latin inscriptions (''Musa Dryas, Nymphaeque boves et Pastor Apollo / Hic maneant, fugiat diva Minerva domus'' - ''

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

dryad A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies " oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved t ...

and

nymphs A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ...

, bullocks and

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

the shepherd let stay here, the divine

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...

let disdain this house'' on the portal of the southern façade) and Lubomirski coat of arms - ''Szreniawa''. King

decided to convert it into private quarters, and it was remodeled by Domenico Merlini between 1764 and 1795. During World War II, the Germans drilled holes into the walls for explosives but never got around to blowing up the palace. Afterwards the palace served as a barracks.

Architecture

Galeria obrazów Pałac na Wyspie w Łazienkach

The palace is built on an artificial island that divides the lake into two parts, a smaller northern lake and a larger southern one. The palace is connected to the surrounding park by two Ionic colonnaded bridges. The façades are unified by an entablature carried by giant

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

pilasters that link its two floors and are crowned by a balustrade that bears statues of mythologic figures. The north façade is relieved by a central pedimented portico. On the south front, a deep central recess lies behind a screen of Corinthian columns.

Interiors

On the palace's ground floor is the Bacchus Room, decorated with 17th-century Dutch blue tiles and a painting by Jacob Jordaens depicting ''Silenus and

Bacchantes In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...

''. The 1778 ceiling painting, ''Bacchus, Ceres, Venus and Cupid'' by Jan Bogumił Plersch, was burned by German forces in 1944. The Rotunda, designed by Domenico Merlini, occupies the central portion of the palace. Decorated in yellow and white marble, with figures of the Polish kings, it is one of the most important examples of neoclassical decoration within the palace. It leads to the Bath Room and the Ballroom. On the other side of the Rotunda is the lower Picture Gallery, which contains works by Rubens and Rembrandt, and the chapel. Also on the ground floor is the Dining Room in which the famous

Thursday Dinners Thursday Dinners ( pl, obiady czwartkowe, less commonly translated as Thursday Lunches) were gatherings of artists, intellectuals, architects, politicians and statesmen held by the last King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, Stanislaus II ...

took place, to which King Stanislaus Augustus invited leading Freemasons and other notables of the

Polish Enlightenment The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in Western Europe, as the Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Gol ...

. Its furniture and paintings are in the Classicist style. Gryglewski Bathing Room

The Solomon Room, one of the largest of the palace's ground-floor interiors, was embellished with a series of paintings depicting the ''History of Solomon''. It comprised six paintings: ''The Dream of Solomon'' (

), ''The Queen of Sheba before Solomon'', ''The Judgment of Solomon'', ''Consultation with King Hiram'' (friezes), ''Dedication of the Temple'' and ''Solomon's Sacrifice'' (walls). They were executed for Stanislaus Augustus in 1791–93 by

Marcello Bacciarelli Marcello Bacciarelli (; 16 February 1731 – 5 January 1818) was a Polish- Italian painter of the late-baroque and Neoclassic periods. Biography He was born in Rome, and studied there under Marco Benefial. In 1750, with the recommendation of t ...

and depicted the monarch himself as the biblical king. All these paintings were deliberately and completely destroyed by the Germans in 1944 (burned in a fire before the palace) during the preparations to blow up the building. On the first floor are the royal apartments, the upper picture gallery, the balcony room, the king's cabinet, the royal bed chambers, the cloakroom, and the officer's room. In the years 2012–2015, the palace underwent further renovations, which covered the roof as well as all the rooms of the palace including the Ball Room in which 17th-century wall paintings by Jan Bogumił Plersch were unveiled. In 2016, the palace and park received an estimated 2.1 million visitors.

Gallery

File:Pałac na wyspie, Łazienki Królewskie.jpg, The northern

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

of the palace File:2018-07-07 Ogród Królewski w warszawskich Łazienkach 03.jpg, A bridge leading to the palace File:Łazienki - Pałac na wodzie - 20.jpg, A statue depicting the Allegory of the

Bug River uk, Західний Буг be, Захо́дні Буг , name_etymology = , image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg , image_size = 250 , image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland , map = Vi ...

File:Pałac Na Wodzie - Łazienki Królewskie (16130897659).jpg, A lake surrounding the palace File:Pałac na Wodzie w zespole pałacowo-parkowym Łazienki, KK.jpg, The palace and park File:Pałac na wodzie nocą - panoramio.jpg, Palace on the Isle at night File:Rubens Jacqueline de Caestre.jpg, ''Portrait of Jacqueline de Caestre'',

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...

, ca. 1618 File:Rubens Jean Charles de Cordes.jpg, ''Portrait of Jean Charles de Cordes'', Peter Paul Rubens, ca. 1618 File:Brueghel the Younger Temptation of St. Anthony.jpg, '' Temptation of St. Anthony'',

Jan Brueghel the Younger Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Younger (, ; ; 13 September 1601 – 1 September 1678) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, both prominent painters who ...

, 17th century File:Dyck Philip Herbert.jpg, ''Portrait of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke'', Anthony van Dyck, ca, 1634 File:Somer Francis Bacon.jpg, ''Portrait of

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

'', Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1617 File:Jordaens Silenus and Bacchantes.jpg, ''Silenus and Bacchantes'', Jacob Jordaens, first half of 17th century File:Bacciarelli Allegory of Graciousness.jpg, ''Allegory of Graciousness'',

, ca. 1792 File:Zaleski Royal Baths Palace in summer.jpg, ''View of the Royal Baths Palace in Summer'', Marcin Zaleski, ca. 1837 File:Italy Allegory of Africa.jpg, ''Allegory of Africa'', turn of 17/18th century File:China Earthenware pot with a lid.jpg, China earthenware, 18th century File:Japan Imari vase with Foo Dog.jpg, Japanese Imari vase with Foo Dog, late 18th century File:Le Brun Rococo putto.jpg, A Rococo

putto A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

by André Le Brun, ca. 1783 File:Savini Peter Table top with a bull.jpg, Table top with a bull by Pompeo Savini, ca. 1788

Notes

External links

*
Official site
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lazienki Palace Palaces in Warsaw Residences of Polish monarchs Royal residences in Poland Neoclassical architecture in Warsaw Neoclassical palaces Houses completed in 1689 Registered museums in Poland Museums in Warsaw Historic house museums in Poland 1680s in Poland 1689 establishments in Europe 17th-century establishments in Poland