Jabłonna Palace ( pl, Pałac w Jabłonnie) is a palace, hotel and publicly accessible park-complex in
Jabłonna near
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 official ...
in
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 ...
whose uses include conferences and weddings.
History
During the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, Jabłonna was the property of the
Bishops of Płock
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, who built a summer residence here in the 15th century. In 1773 the brother of the
King Stanisław August
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...
-
Michał Poniatowski, then Bishop of Płock and later the primate of Poland, bought the property in Jabłonna with the intention of turning it into an elegant palace-and-park residential complex. In 1774 he commissioned the royal architect,
Dominik Merlini
Domenico Merlini () (22 February 1730 – 20 February 1797) was an Italian- Polish architect whose work was mostly in the classical style.
Life and Style
From 1750 till his death, Merlini lived in Poland. In 1768, he became a nobleman and la ...
, to design the new residence. The construction of a three-building complex was proposed: a one-storey palace, which was intended to be the residence of the owner, was to be situated in the middle and flanked on both sides by separate three-storey pavilions.
A scenic English-style park was developed in the 1770s and 1780s, based on the design of architect
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 th ...
. The same architect also constructed a series of pavilions, of which three still remain today: the Grotto, the Orangerie and the Chinese Pavilion.
Originally, the central palace combined the austerity of the classical style with the baroque picturesqueness.
Over the next 40 years the buildings were extensively remodelled and added to, coinciding with a number of changes of ownership. In 1837 the palace was rebuilt according to the design of
Henryk Marconi
Enrico Marconi, known in Poland as Henryk Marconi (7 January 1792 in Rome – 21 February 1863 in Warsaw), was an Italian-Polish architect who spent most of his life in Congress Poland.
Initially he was taught by his father Leander, later on, bet ...
.
Jabłonna Palace was owned by the
Potocki family
The House of Potocki (; plural: Potoccy, male: Potocki, feminine: Potocka) was a prominent Polish noble family in the Kingdom of Poland and magnates of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Potocki family is one of the wealthiest and ...
until 1945. In 1944 the palace was burnt by the German army. Since 1953, Jabłonna has been owned by the
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...
. Under its auspices the palace was transformed into the conference and recreational centre. The reconstruction of the palace was executed according to the design of Mieczysław Kuźma, and the reconstruction of the park according to the design of
Gerard Ciołek
Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...
. In the course of this renovation, the central part of the palace was restored to look as it did at the end of the 18th century, while its side parts, added in the first half of the 19th century, retained their original appearance. The furnishing and decoration of the palace interior was completed after 1945. The representative halls and chambers of the palace were decorated with old furniture and paintings from the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries.
Current use
The palace is currently used as a convention center, training center and is often used for weddings and wedding receptions. It includes a ballroom, dining area and hotel rooms. Concerts, recitals, art exhibitions and scientific shows are held at the venue. The park is also open to the public.
In early November 2022 the palace has hosted Congress of People's Deputies of Russia consisting of the Russian
State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper hous ...
(parliament) ex-deputies (
Gennady Gudkov
Gennady Vladimirovich Gudkov (russian: Генна́дий Влади́мирович Гудко́в; born 15 August 1956, Kolomna) is a Russian politician and businessman. ''The Moscow Times'' described him in 2012 as "one of parliament's most voc ...
,
Ilya Ponomarev
Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (russian: Илья́ Влади́мирович Пономарёв; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian politician who was a member of the State Duma from 2007 to 2016.
He was the only member of the State Duma not to ...
, etc.) in exile, public figures (
Andrey Illarionov
Andrey Nikolayevich Illarionov (russian: Андре́й Никола́евич Илларио́нов, born 16 September 1961) is a Russian economist and former senior policy advisor to Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, from April 2000 ...
), journalists, and several Ukrainian and Latvian (
Emanuelis Zingeris
Emanuelis Zingeris (born 16 July 1957 in Kaunas, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian philologist, museum director, politician, signatory of the 1990 Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, currently serving as a Member of the Seimas (1990 ...
) politicians who met both in person and remotely to discuss declarations in relation to the ongoing
Ukraine war
The following is a list of major conflicts fought by Ukraine, by Ukrainian people or by regular armies during periods when independent states existed on the modern territory of Ukraine, from the Kyivan Rus' times to the present day. It also ...
and further a post-Putin Russia.
External links
Official site of the Jablonna Palace
References
Extensive history on the official site (in Polish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jablonna Palace
Palaces in Masovian Voivodeship
Legionowo County