Lelewel Palace ( pl, Pałac Lelewelów) was a

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

palace on the

Miodowa Street Miodowa (lit. ''Honey Street'') is a street in Warsaw's Old Town. More precisely, it links the Krakowskie (Cracow Suburb) Street in with Krasiński Square. It is also the name of a street in the Kazimierz district in Kraków. History In the 16th ...

in the

Warsaw Old Town Warsaw Old Town ( pl, Stare Miasto, italic=yes and colloquially as ''Starówka'') is the oldest part of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. It is bounded by the ''Wybrzeże Gdańskie'' (Gdańsk Boulevards), along with the bank of the Vistula river, ...

, which was also unofficially named "Palace Street" (''ulica Pałacowa''). Lelewel Palace was built in 1755 by

Efraim Szreger Ephraim (; he, ''ʾEp̄rayīm'', in pausa: ''ʾEp̄rāyīm'') was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph ben Jacob and Asenath. Asenath was an Ancient Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph as wife, and the daughte ...

on an estate documented to have been property of King

John 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 ...

and maintaining the original Corps de logis. 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 (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

ian forces during the Deluge. 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 Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship. A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodeshi ...

. 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: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

aristocrat The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Ro ...

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 Joachim Daniel von Jauch (22 March 1688 – 3 May 1754) was a German-born architect who supervised the baroque development of Warsaw in Poland. Early life and work Joachim Daniel von Jauch was born into the Jauch family in Güstrow, Germany on 22 ...

(1668–1745). In 1741 she married Heinrich Lölhöffel, the privy councillor (''

Hofrat ''Geheimrat'' 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 r ...

'') and physician to King

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III ( pl, August III Sas, lt, Augustas III; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Aug ...

. After the death of her father, who had been German architect in attendance to King Augustus II the Strong 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 ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

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 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 the ...

. 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, 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 opposin ...

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 which was known to him from the books of Pierre-Jean Mariette (1727 and 1738) and Jacques-François Blondel (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 ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

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 is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

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 is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

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 Walter August Wilhelm Hentschel (25 March 1899 – 22 December 1970) was a German art historian. Life Born in Zwickau, Hentschel began studying art history and history at the University of Würzburg, the University of Rostock, the University ...

: ''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 Demolished buildings and structures in Poland Former buildings and structures in Poland Buildings and structures in Poland destroyed during World War II

History

Architecture

Images

See also

References

Literature