Radziejowice Castle is a complex of Classical residences surrounded by a park, located in the village of

Radziejowice Radziejowice () is a village in Żyrardów County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Radziejowice. It lies approximately south-east of Żyrardów and south-west of W ...

, Żyrardów Powiat,

Masovian Voivodeship The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. The ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. Since 1965 the complex has performed the function of a cultural centre, including

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwo ...

. The palace houses a museum and an exhibition space.

History

The location of the palace was already the site of a residence for the Radziejowski family in the 15th century. During the 17th century, the palace, after various expansions and modernisations, took on the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

architectural style, as did the other buildings in the complex. During the complex's greatest time of magnificence, the palace was a residence to various

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh' ...

of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ...

: Zygmund III Waza,

Władysław IV Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to: Famous people Mononym *W ...

and

Jan III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 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, Sobie ...

. The current look of the complex comes from the turning point of the 18th and 19th centuries, after Kazimierz Krasiński's reconstruction of the complex, designed and by

Jakub Kubicki Jakub Kubicki (1758–1833) was a renowned Polish classicist architect and designer. Biography Born in Warsaw in 1758, into a bourgeois family, Jakub Kubicki graduated from the Jesuit College, at the same time that he was taking lessons fro ...

. The expansion of the complex was later continued by Józef Wawrzyniec Krasiński, who had built the surrounding landscape park and the small

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

castle. During the next decades, the Radziejowski family was visited by people of culture such as

Juliusz Kossak Juliusz Fortunat Kossak (Nowy Wiśnicz, 15 December 1824 – 3 February 1899, Kraków) was an Austrian Polish History painting, historical painter and master illustrator who specialized in battle scenes, military portraits and horses. He was the ...

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, espe ...

Lucjan Rydel Lucjan Rydel, also known as Lucjan Antoni Feliks Rydel (17 May 1870 in Kraków – 8 April 1918 in Bronowice Małe), was a Polish playwright and poet from the Young Poland movement. Life Rydel was the son of Lucjan Rydel, a surgeon, ophthalmolog ...

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Jarosław Leon Iwaszkiewicz, also known under his literary pseudonym Eleuter (20 February 1894 – 2 March 1980), was a Polish writer, poet, essayist, dramatist and translator.Bartłomiej Szleszyński, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. 2003 Culture.plJaros ...

Józef Chełmoński Józef Marian Chełmoński (November 7, 1849 – April 6, 1914) was a Polish painter of the Realism (art movement), realist school with roots in the historical and social context of the late Romanticism in Poland, Romantic period in partition ...

and Stanisław Masłowski. The castle and complex were devastated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries—including all the great powers—particip ...

, but the

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego) is a governmental administration office concerned with various aspects of Polish culture. It was formed on 31 October 20 ...

has thoroughly restored the site to its former beauty. Currently, the castle and the complex are visited by writers,

columnists A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...

, actors, film-makers, musicians and

visual artists The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

. Among notable visitors was

Jerzy Waldorff Jerzy Waldorff-Preyss of the Nabram coat of arms (4 May 1910 – 29 December 1999) was a Polish media personality, public intellectual, socialite, music critic and a music aficionado. He wrote over twenty books, mostly on the subject of classical ...

References

{{Commonscat, Radziejowice Palace Houses completed in the 15th century Castles in Masovian Voivodeship Żyrardów County