Lelewel Palace () was a

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

palace on the Miodowa Street in the

Warsaw Old Town Warsaw Old Town, also known as Old Town, and historically known as Old Warsaw,''Encyklopedia Warszawy''. Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, 1994, p. 806. ISBN 83-01-08836-2. is a neighbourhood, and an area of the City Information System, ...

, which was also unofficially named "Palace Street" (''ulica Pałacowa''). Lelewel Palace was built in 1755 by Efraim Szreger on an estate documented to have been property of King

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( (); (); () 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobieski was educated at the Jagiellonian University and toured Eur ...

and maintaining the original

Corps de logis In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal or main block, or central building of a mansion, country or manor house, castle, or palace. It contains the rooms of principal business, the state apartments and the ceremonial or formal ...

. The client and owner until 1787 was Constance Lelewel née Jauch.

History

The original timber manor house of Krzysztof Gembicki, Grand Pantler of the Crown, that occupied the allotment was burned by Swedish and

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

ian forces during the

Deluge A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood. The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the biblical book of Genesis. Deluge or Le Déluge may also refer to: History *Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-L ...

. In 1662 it was replaced by another timber mansion of Stanisław Razicki, the king's secretary. The more permanent brick palace was erected between 1739 and 1740 for Aleksander Szembek, voivode of Sieradz. It was constructed as a French-style city palace with two outbuildings and a geometric garden. Around 1755 the palace was enlarged for the subsequent proprietor Swedish-

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

Heinrich Lölhöffel von Löwensprung (1705-1763), but of the planned two new wings only the northern wing was built. The new wing, connected with existing outbuildings and a neighbouring tenement house, become the main building of the palace. Bellotto Miodowa Street in Warsaw

The real initiator of the reconstruction was Constance Jauch (1722–1802), the daughter of major general Joachim Daniel von Jauch (1668–1745). In 1741 she married Heinrich Lölhöffel, the privy councillor (''

Hofrat was the title of the highest advising officials at the imperial, royal, or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire, who jointly formed the ''Geheimer Rat'' reporting to the ruler. The term remained in use during subsequent monarchic reigns in Ge ...

'') and physician to King

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...

. After the death of her father, who had been German architect in attendance to King

Augustus II the Strong Augustus II the Strong (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine branch of the H ...

and his son Augustus III, and who had supervised the baroque development of the city of Warsaw, she inherited a considerable fortune. Efraim Szreger had been an assistant to him, presumably the reason why he was chosen as architect. Constance Lelewel bought the former property of the

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

Franciszek Szembek at the corner of Miodowa and Długa Street in 1752, and in 1755 commissioned Szreger to build the Lelewel Palace in the Miodowa. It is documented in contemporary maps that the estate had belonged to King

, but this is questioned by some authors for stylistic reasons regarding the original construction. After the early death of her husband, in 1763, Constance lived in the palace until 1787, when she sold it to a rich merchant Henryk Jarzewicz. Jarzewicz enlarged and rebuilt the complex in

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

according to a design by

Szymon Bogumił Zug Szymon Bogumił Zug (20 February 1733 – 11 August 1807), born Simon Gottlieb Zug, and also known as Zugk, was a renowned Polish- German classicist architect and designer of gardens. Born in Merseburg in Saxony, he spent most of his life in t ...

. Between 1850 and 1851 the separate buildings of the complex were merged and rebuilt for Lesser family. In the 19th century the original ''corps de logis'', so-called ''Szembek Mansion'', was pulled down and during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the whole complex was completely destroyed by the Germans.

Architecture

Szreger kept the original ''corps de logis'' (Szembek Mansion), and adjoined the front building and the side wings modelling the ensemble on the French

Hôtel particulier () is the French term for a grand urban mansion, comparable to a Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...

which was known to him from the books of

Pierre-Jean Mariette Pierre-Jean Mariette (; 7 May 1694 – 10 September 1774) was a collector of and dealer in old master prints, a renowned connoisseur, especially of prints and drawings, and a chronicler of the careers of French Italian and Flemish artists. He ...

(1727 and 1738) and

Jacques-François Blondel Jacques-François Blondel (8 January 1705 – 9 January 1774) was an 18th-century French architect and teacher. After running his own highly successful school of architecture for many years, he was appointed Professor of Architecture at the Acad� ...

(1752). The drawings of the exterior and the interior are well-preserved. For the staircase he designed wall paintings which differ only in marginal details from the wall paintings in the staircase of the ''Appartement des Princes'' in the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

which will have been well known in Poland through engravings in the third volume of 1738 of Mariette's ''L'Architecture française''. The left wing of the ensemble was added by the architect Szymon Bogumił Zug after Constance Jauch had sold the estate. The construction is relevant for the history of architecture in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

because it shows the influence of the baroque style of the Saxon building authority for which Szreger was working until he emerged as the most important exponent of

neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of t ...

in Poland.

Images

File:Lelewel Palace Overall plan.jpg, Overall plan File:Lelewel Palace Gate.jpg, The main gate File:Lelewel Palace Outbuildings.jpg, Outbuildings File:Lelewel Palace Escalier.jpg, Stairway File:Lelewel Palace Stairway.jpg, Stairway File:Lelewel Palace Ballroom.jpg, Ballroom

References

Literature

* Walter Hentschel: ''Die sächsische Baukunst des 18. Jahrhunderts in Polen'', textbook, Berlin 1967, p. 425ff; illustrated book, Berlin 1967, pictures 578ff * Stanislaw Lorentz: ''Der Architekt der Visitinerinnen in den Jahren 1754-1762'' (Polish: ''Architekt P.P. Wizytek z lat 1754-1762''), in: ''Biuletyn Historii Sztuki'' 21, 1959, p. 376-383 {{coord, 52, 14, 54.6, N, 21, 0, 22.32, E, type:landmark, display=title Palaces in Warsaw Rococo architecture in Warsaw Houses completed in 1755 Buildings and structures demolished in 1939 Cultural history of Warsaw Buildings and structures in Poland destroyed during World War II Former buildings and structures in Warsaw

History

Architecture

Images

See also

References

Literature