The Owińska Palace is a

palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

in the village of

Owińska Owińska is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czerwonak, within Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Czerwonak and north of the regional capital Poznań. Owińska ...

Poznań County Poznań County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. ...

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. The province is named after the region called Greater Poland (''Wielkopolska'' ). The modern province includes most of this historic re ...

, Poland. The palace complex, including its two gates and the surrounding park, is included into the register of immovable

cultural property Cultural property, also known as cultural patrimony, comprises the physical items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society, as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions. They include such items as cultural landscapes, histo ...

of the Greater Poland Voivodship. The palace, built in

classical style Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...

was an early work of

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, urban planning, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed b ...

.Eva Börsch-Supan, Die Provinzen Ost- und Westpreußen und Großherzogtum Posen. München / Berlin 2003, pp. 148–167

History

As a result of the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of partitions of Poland, three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition (politics), partition occurred i ...

of 1793, the area fell into the

Prussian Partition The Prussian Partition (), or Prussian Poland, is the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired during the Partitions of Poland, in the late 18th century by the Kingdom of Prussia. The Prussian acquisition amounted to ...

. The Owińska estate, which was owned by the local

Cistercian convent Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order of the Catholic Church. History The Cistercian Order was initially a male order. Cistercian female monasteries began to appear by 1125. The first Cistercian monastery ...

and included several nearby villages, was confiscated and some 12,000 hectares was transferred to , who invested considerable funds into the development of the whole property, including the renovation of the palace. The new palace was built according to the plans of and Karl Friedrich Schinkel.Orte > Owinsk (1797-1945)
based on the booklet Rüdiger Von Treskow, ''Gilly - Schinkel - Catel: Das Landschloss Owinsk bei Posen / Pałac w Owinskach koło Poznania / 1803–1806'', In

Communist Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

the palace was used as a school building. On the occasion of the anniversary of Schinkel in 1985, Polish cultural heritage protection authorities arranged some renovation of the building. After the fall of Communism the building was privatized, left unused, and fell into disrepair, in particular, due to theft and vandalism. Polish television, ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

'', the Polish embassy in Berlin, and the Ministry of Culture in Warsaw drew an attention to the sorry state of the affairs, and eventually a private German businessman Claus Queck from

Düren Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...

arranged a consortium to save the complex.

References

{{coord, 52.51466, 16.97626, format=dms, type:landmark_region:PL, display=title Poznań County Palaces in Poland